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Uh-Oh. NOT GOOD! This is my 1950s long-john F40 preheater that was in my laundry room and moved out to the garage. Well, my little brother came down to dump the recycling into the bin in the garage and must have left the lights on. My dad saw that the switch was in the ON position when he left for work at 6AM and shut it off. My mom had complained about an awful smell when she left to go shopping. I thought nothing of it. Anyways, after lunch I went downstairs to take out the trash and naturally I turned on the light. When i opened the door, the NOS Cooper Turret was lit up but the preheater's normally fast starters hadn't started the fixture. I waited. Nothing. "Hmm. What the heck?" So I shut the switch off and turned it back on. Still nothing from this light. I thought I saw a little black spot from the other side (the other side of the fixture where i was was spotless). When I came to this side of the garage and I looked up my heart jumped! TAR! What's really weired is that it LOOKS like someone wiped tar off the side of the fixture with a nearby towel but NOBODY in my house knew about the tar so no one cleaned it up. Freaky as hell! Unless... maybe grandpa is looking out for me? There was such a huge tar stain running down the fixture so there's no way that tar couldn't have gotten on the car. But the car was SPOTLESS! And no one wiped anything up! What the heck?! Keywords: Indoor_Fixtures

Uh-Oh. NOT GOOD!

This is my 1950s long-john F40 preheater that was in my laundry room and moved out to the garage. Well, my little brother came down to dump the recycling into the bin in the garage and must have left the lights on. My dad saw that the switch was in the ON position when he left for work at 6AM and shut it off. My mom had complained about an awful smell when she left to go shopping. I thought nothing of it.

Anyways, after lunch I went downstairs to take out the trash and naturally I turned on the light. When i opened the door, the NOS Cooper Turret was lit up but the preheater's normally fast starters hadn't started the fixture. I waited. Nothing. "Hmm. What the heck?" So I shut the switch off and turned it back on. Still nothing from this light. I thought I saw a little black spot from the other side (the other side of the fixture where i was was spotless). When I came to this side of the garage and I looked up my heart jumped! TAR!

What's really weired is that it LOOKS like someone wiped tar off the side of the fixture with a nearby towel but NOBODY in my house knew about the tar so no one cleaned it up. Freaky as hell! Unless... maybe grandpa is looking out for me? There was such a huge tar stain running down the fixture so there's no way that tar couldn't have gotten on the car. But the car was SPOTLESS! And no one wiped anything up! What the heck?!

lg070914_003.JPG lg070914_002.JPG lg070914_001.JPG DSC06686_Four_Lamper_Lit.JPG DSC06687_Four_Lamper_Complete.JPG
File information
Filename:lg070914_001.JPG
Album name:Mike / Indoor Fixtures
Keywords:Indoor_Fixtures
Filesize:166 KiB
Date added:Jul 09, 2014
Dimensions:2000 x 1500 pixels
Displayed:206 times
Color Space:sRGB
DateTime Original:2009:03:27 01:19:46
Exposure Bias:0 EV
Exposure Mode:0
Exposure Time:1/6 sec
FNumber:f/2.8
Flash:Unknown: 5798
Focal length:28.8125 mm
Light Source:Unknown: 0
Make:Vivicam
Model:V5024
URL:http://www.galleryoflights.org/mb/gallery/displayimage.php?pid=17800
Favorites:Add to Favorites

Comment 1 to 8 of 8
Page: 1

GEsoftwhite100watts   [Jul 12, 2014 at 06:59 PM]
Did the lamps survive?
streetlight98   [Jul 12, 2014 at 10:03 PM]
Yep lamps and starters survived though the lamps' ends are darker now.
GEsoftwhite100watts   [Jul 13, 2014 at 03:06 AM]
Perhaps got overdriven for awhile as it started to short out? It would have been interesting to watch it fail!
streetlight98   [Jul 13, 2014 at 02:21 PM]
Yeah when the capacitor had shorted out and overheated the coils it could have been puched as much as 2X the rated current which wouldn't have nearly been enough to trip the breaker.
joe_347V   [Jul 14, 2014 at 03:29 AM]
Yeah, I suppose this was what killed the ballast. Basically the shorted cap meant that the current in the coils increased which led to overheating and failure.

More scare stories about old ballasts here. Shocked
streetlight98   [Jul 15, 2014 at 10:32 PM]
Yeah fortunately the ballast went open circuit at some point in the game, preventing further damage, which would have probably been a fire!
GEsoftwhite100watts   [Jul 16, 2014 at 01:31 AM]
Yeah at least it was in a metal fixture below a drywall ceiling, not wood! Shocked I knowingly use a couple faulty ballasts; one trips thermal protection and the other has leaked tar...but they're suspended fixtures at least.
streetlight98   [Jul 16, 2014 at 01:59 AM]
Yeah if it's possible I like to suspend my fixtures. Easy to install, ballast runs cooler, and if there's a malfunction hopefully the suspension is enough to keep the ceiling safe. There are a few cases where I wouldn't suspend fixtures and that's in "living space" like kitchens, etc. Fixtures i have that I wouldn't ideally suspend include the Western Electric Spec'd fixtures, my 1X2 wood trim finish surface mount fixture, my 4X F20T12 cloud/puff wrap fixture, my strip lights, undercabinet lights, and I think that's it.

Comment 1 to 8 of 8
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