Let's Introduce Ourselves

[Bousquet]

Now that this forum has been underway for a while, maybe we should take the opportunity to introduce ourselves and learn about others who read or post.  Several collectors' newgroups do this from time to time, and it lets users know who's out there and how we might help each other.

At a minimum, maybe those interested could post the following:

Name

Location (specific town/city or general region)

Collecting Interests  (current collection, and/or what you're looking for)

Other comments

* * * * *

OK, I'll start ...

Woody Bousquet

Shenandoah Valley, Virginia

I collect boxed sets (esp. pre-1930) of Christmas lights and "interesting" Christmas lights (e.g., rainbow blinkers).  Also like other lights such as old flashlights and vintage exhaust-tip bulbs.  I'd be eternally grateful to anyone who can help me find a set of the Rainbow Star Blinker Lights made by Hy-Glow in the early 1960s.  (I had one from Santa long, long ago.)

Comment:  This forum and the websites have been a great boon to my collecting.  Thanks to those responsible for setting them up and those who post and reply.

[Bob Masters]

Howdy from Kornzville USA !

Bob Masters

Seymour, Indiana

I collect.......dust. Ha Ha Ha............
as well as early lightbulbs, and basically
any kind of item that I see and like.
I've been collecting antiques since 1970
and I'll be 40yrs old this year.
I am single again after 10 married years and
have a wonderful 13 year old daughter.

[Chris W. Millinship]

Great idea Woody, I like it! Come on then everyone who checks in to this board frequently- or not-so frequently- post here so we have an idea how many there are of us. Even if it`s just "hello", go on, you know you want to!

Right, my go...

Name
Chris W. Millinship.

Location
Newport, South Wales, United Kingdom.

Collecting Interests
Absolutely anything electrical that glows or otherwise makes light as its primary function. Filament bulbs, flashlights, christmas lights, LEDs, flourescent tubes, neon lamps..... Old or new. Domestic or foreign. Large or small (OK well not too large cos there won`t be as much room for the others   ).

Other comments (read: my usual waffle!)
I discovered this site and its discussion board last year, just over a whole year ago- was it really that long ago? Guess so. Before then I never realised there were others that shared my passion for light bulbs and things. The internet has changed my collection forever- Ebay has been responsible for broadening my collection to include antique, vintage and foreign bulbs and christmas lights, plus other interesting related things. And reducing my bank balance to minus figures on countless occasions   . Beware- those collectors who don`t know about Ebay yet- it is desperately addictive!

A year on, it`s probably tripled or more and diversified greatly too. I`ve met many other collectors, made friends- even started my own web site. And it was this board that set that ball rolling- or at least pushed it into the right direction.
Many thanks to Tim, Bob, James and everyone else who`s helped along the way   .

I only hope that a great many other collectors will join us here and make this board an all-the-more fascinating and useful resource. There are many names I reguarly see on Ebay but don`t see them here- and some names form the past who have seemed to move on too (remember Jerry Weslick?!)- wonder why? Come on- bulb collectors unite!


OK, waffle over.

   

[Max]

Hello!
Well, I'm kinda new here.. I discovered this forum thanks to James.

Name
Max. For short, so nobody mispronounce my surname ;o)

Location
Well, it depends on the period of the year... sometimes it's Paris, other times it's Orleans (both in France)... and, in an other moment it may be in a place outside my home country. Currently, this is Oxford, England.

Collecting interests
All kind of lamps, lasers and radio tubes. I concentrate myself on recent (or not) discharge/arc lamps and I collect them for the beauty of the glasswork, for the physics involved in their conception and working principles and for making experiments on them (don't worry, I don't break them.... for that matter I keep a spare stock).
I started collecting light sources about 13 years ago when I was 11 or 10.. a big 2kW MBF lamp is at the origin of my collection, which , to my estimation, is composed of roughly 500 pieces.

Other things ?
Well, I guess that's all. In the future I hope to spare much more time for my collection, because now my study sucks me a lot of time and energy... I'm not complaining since I'm learning loads of interesting things, but I'd like to spend more time at my experiments on discharge tubes and lamps.
I'm really glad to have discovered this site, because by my native place, lamp collectors are not really common!

Bye!

Max.



[This message has been edited by Max (edited July 13, 2001).]

[Dylan]

Name: Dylan Windom

Location: Redmond, OR USA

Interests: My main interest is early vacuum tubes from the 20's. I haven't been collecting for very long, so I don't have anything really impressive yet, but I am hoping to find some nice tubes from the World War I era to help my collection. Many of the old light bulbs that I see on this site are interesting, too, but I am only 15 so I can't afford too many hobbies like these!

When I'm not collecting tubes, I'm altering the cheaper ones just for fun! Example: Turning a type 56 triode into a diode detector by wiring the plate, cathode, and one side of the filament together (the plate is now held at negative voltage to form a shield) and having the grid be the anode. Then I make my own 3-pin base for it just because no tube has ever used one like it before.

Comments: This site is partly responsible for my interest. I had already started collecting tubes before I knew it existed, but this site showed me what else was out there. I changed from just pulling old tubes from tv's and radios (I had several hundred common tubes that I really thought were great) to actually looking for the nice old ones! (What was I thinking before that?!!)

[Ross]

Hello all:

Name:  Ross Thompson

Location:  West Sussex, England

Interests:  A lifelong interest in anything that works on electricity !  But electric lighting in all forms remains my primary fascination.  I have also recently been reading some of the excellent web sites about street lighting; I was highly intrigued by the descriptions of series street lighting systems in the USA. I do not collect (yet) but the members of this forum have certainly got me very interested in the history of electric light.  Sincere thanks all - I have thouroughly enjoyed browsing these pages and some of the sites that are included in the links list.

[Tim]

Name: Tim Tromp

Location: Western Michigan

Collecting Interests: Antique light bulbs and related paper material, radio tubes, and vintage Mountain Dew advertising and bottles.

Other comments: Sorry if I have repeated my story elsewhere but here it is again    I'm 29 and have been gathering bulbs since I was around 5 years old.  It began with Christmas lighting and I was fascinated by all those twinkling lights on the tree.  My family and relatives picked up on this and soon I had a small collection of old Christmas lights and misc. light bulbs.  My parents collected antique furniture at the time and this gave me a chance to look for light bulbs and other Christmas lights at the antique sales and auctions that they forced me into going to.  Having a general interest and curiosity in electricity, I soon brought home an old wooden radio with a short-wave band on it.  This later sprouted into an antique radio collection, and a huge interest in short-wave radio listening (DXing) that lasted for several years.  I had a collection of around 100 antique radios at one point but most were sold off when I bought my second house (I didn't want to move them again!)  I still collect pre1930 radio tubes since they take up less space and have many similarities with light bulbs.  During all my phases, old light bulbs were always gathered and collected.  Today my interest is still strong in bulbs and tubes and I've taken a bigger interest in collecting paper material (books, catalogs, etc.) that relate to early bulbs and tubes.  Bulbs that interest me the most (this week) include vintage neon lamps (both novelty filament and indicator types) and exhaust tipped bulbs.  Computers are also a big interest of mine (web and graphics design) and I thought it would be fun to put a bulb site "on the air" which I did back in 1997 (anyone remember that?)  At the time it was the only bulb site around and now I'm excited to see so many other great lighting sites out there including the nice Christmas sites listed on the links page.  The internet has been a huge asset in getting my collection kick started!  Before getting online about 8 years ago I thought for sure I was the only bulb nut out there - wrong!  I've met some nice people along the way and I'm happy to see everyone coming together here!  Thanks for the compliments on this site - it's encouraging.

Jumping off track a little bit, I'm also an avid collector of vintage Mountain Dew advertising memorabilia and bottles and have a large collection of these items.  For those who have no idea what Mountain Dew is, it is an addictive citrus flavored carbonated soda/pop that's full of caffeine and sugar (in the US anyway!).  The drink dates back to the late 1940s and has quite an interesting history that many people aren't away of.  I'm currently finishing up a book that I've written with another collector that will be the first book devoted to Mountain Dew collecting and will include a price guide.  I'm a member of the Pepsi Cola Collector's Club and frequently travel around to soda pop and antique advertising shows around the Midwest.

Well, that's my story in a nutshell. Who's next?!

------------------
-Tim
BulbCollector.com
DewCollector.com

[Carl Wright]

Name:  Carl Wright

Location: Saint Clair Shores, Michigan

Interests: I first started collecting phonographs and then I became interested in Thomas Edison. Living near Greenfield Village gave me many opportunities to visit the Menlo Park complex. I was at the Village on the 50th. anniversary of the opening of the museum October 21,1979. It was also the 100th anniversary of the light bulb and I also  went back on New Years Eve December 31,1979. They had the lights on that evening just like the first time that Thomas Edison first demonstrated the light bulb to the public. This started me to collecting books on Thomas Edison and also collecting light bulbs and other electrical items.

Comment: I enjoy this forum very much and I like to read what other people have in their collection. I would like to give a big THANK YOU to all who reply to this forum for helping us to learn more about are light bulb history.

[Frank32]

Hi All---I'm glad to see some new posts on this great site!  I enjoy learning about what other people collect.
As for me, I collect Christmas lights, mainly boxed light sets, and replacement bulb packs.  I'm 36.  I have been colecting for years.  
In the past, I got lights from only garage and yard sales.  Now with eBay, My collection is growing pretty rapidly.
I finally got a six foot aluminum Christmas tree.  I am in the process of getting hard plastic metallic ornaments. I recently got a tree turner for it.  The thing I still need to get is a color
wheel.  Does anyone know of a good brand? I like the hard plastic lenses as opposed to the film type.  They really seem to go up there in price!!!
I have a site with some of my collection, if anyone is interested in seeing it.  
Well, I guess that is all for now.  I got to get back to eBay )
Frank

[Bob Masters]

I'll admit, my posting here was mighty short.....however, I just noticed that there are 117 registered users.
Hmmmm......If I use both feet, I still have toes to spare when I count the number of people who are willing just to drop a quick intro !
It would be so nice !
(note: I don't REALLY need to use my toes to count that high...most of the time ! Ha Ha Ha)

-Bob-

[Bob Masters]

<>
Ha Ha Ha........How long has it been now ?
I remember your remarks when you were busting your tail creating this site.

It sure did pay-off nicely ! WOW !
-Bob-

[Bill Nelson]

Hi, All! It's been a while since I've visited the boards, so I have a bit of catching up to do. Anyway, I'm Bill Nelson, and my main collecting hobby is pre-1950 Christmas lighting, with an emphasis on sets from the 1900-1920 time period. I have a website devoted to vintage Christmas lighting at: www.oldchristmaslights.com  I live in Knoxville, Tennessee, and along with old Christmas lights, my wife and I also collect antique American clocks and vintage coffee pots. It's nice to meet evereybody!

[This message has been edited by Bill Nelson (edited August 04, 2001).]

[The LED Museum]

Name:
Craig Johnson

Location:
Above the world-famous Pike Place Market in downtown Seattle Washington, USA.
 
Collecting Interests:
Anything that glows.  LEDs of all conceivable types, unusual light bulbs (especially favoring gas discharge & glow lamps), Christmas lights, lasers, and flashlights.
 
Other comments:
Owner and operator of The LED Museum, a website dedicated to the testing and preservation of solid-state lighting technology; as an aside (well actually, as my main duty now!), I also perform testing and rated evaluations of LED flashlights, other LED lighting products, and the occasional incandescent, fluorescent, or HID lighting product. My collection of flashlights is approaching 300 pieces.

My ersatz "laboratory" is an approximately 24 square foot section of my tiny apartment, and is equipped with several computers, an oscilloscope, a beam profile analyzer, a spectrometer, and numerous other small test instruments, power supplies, photometers, and other devices.

I also collect antique telephone and telegraph insulators, and have a website about those things too. This collection also numbers approximately 300 pieces.

I use a powered wheelchair to get around, and of course, I have a website about that too.

My sense of humor is a bit on the wild side, whether I'm breaking vacuum cleaners or smashing toilet bowls open. (Note: that last one has the "F" word in it, so don't say you weren't warned).    

[This message has been edited by The LED Museum (edited July 04, 2002).]

[Ralph Provencal]

Hello - I'm Ralph in Olympia WA USA.
I'm new to BBs but want to find possible repair facilities for C-6 minature christmas figure bulbs.  Not an active collector, sort of inherited the stuff. Have several strings of these C-6 series-wired lights.  The one I want to get repaired is a bluebird figure painted on milk glass. Base marking is 16VJAPAN. This comes from before WWII, as I have owned it since the early 40's and can't remember when it was not on the family xmas tree. (it has always had its' own special box)  The bulb was screwed in too hard and the base glass around the contact broken, the contact pushed up into the bulb.  Any info would be a help.

Thanx Ralph

[Tom]

Hi, I'm Tom from the Northern part of Michigan's lower peninsula, and my favorite Christmas lights are c7 twinkle lights, but also like multicolored mini lights second best, and c7 steady glow and c9 steady glow + twinkle lights 4 good measure.  I also like fiber optic Christmas trees.