Raylite star lights

[Marylander 6]

I have some Raylite star lights, which have a star shape inscribed in the bulb and a plastic rim in a starburst shape.

The resources I have read say that these should be C6, but the ones I have are not. Dates are listed in one reference as 1941 and another as 1949.

The base is smaller than C6 and larger than midget: What would this size be called, and is it possible to find a light string for them at that size?

At the bottom of this Web page is a photo of the lights:

http://www.telmore.com/christmaslights/1940-1950.htm

[Nick D.]

I'm not sure what you mean by "midget" but the base on your bulbs should be E10, the standard size for small, single-series sets.

[Marylander 6]

Thanks for the reply.

Being a non-electronics person, I am not sure what E10 means. Is that British or Australian? Are there strings of lights (or NOMA products for example) that take this light bulb size in the U.S.? When I search for E10, you get sites from elsewhere and only bulbs, no strings.

If British, do those lights work on U.S. electricity, if there were strings? Or should I just toss the bulbs. Would strings on Ebay advertised C6 be C6 or E10, or E12, maybe?

By Midget, I mean the current size we use now; plus back in the 60s or so, they had metal-based screw-in bulbs that size. Just as cheaply made, mind you.

[jonathan cassiday]

e10 is the technical term for the base size of a standard c-6 light bulb, as c-6 refers to the measurement of the envelope of the bulb. a string advertised as c-6 would accommodate e-10 based bulbs. a standard c-7 envelope bulb will have a e-12 base otherwise known as candelabra, the c-9 envelope bulbs will have a e-17 base and will be known as an intermediate base, and standard bulbs have an e-27 base (traditional Edison base) for the most part even European lighting strings of series bulbs use the e-10 base, but to accommodate differing voltages use different numbers of bulbs which were usually between 14 and 16 volts.

[Marylander 6]

That is great but the bulb is not a C6. It is smaller and too small for a C6 socket, hence the point of my post.

Thanks,

[jonathan cassiday]

does it look like it has been taken apart before? its possible that someone changed out the lamp with a smaller bulb latter in life. Check the collar around the bulb for any markings and the voltage. as far as I know raylight only produced the stars in e-10 and possibly some in the e-12 base size due to the size of the housing and the time they were manufactured. The miniature lights (Italian style or the mini screw base) were not yet common in the states, they were not really introduced until the mid 50's and the stars were out of production by that point. It may be possible for you to change out the bulb to a e-10 for use in a c-6 string, I would use a globe type lamp. I have replaced bulbs in raylight stars with this type before and it works out really well. for a traditional c-6 string of eight sockets (assuming 120V current) you would use a 15 volt bulb, you can often find them on E-bay for re-lamping bubble lights. the only problem is that it is in series so if one goes out the string goes dark, but I have 5 strings of these lights one one of my many trees and I don't mind the minor inconvenience.