This sorta rare lamp came with one of my Revere Urban-Lites. The arctube has a bit of whitening but is on overall great shape. The /W to me sorta looks like a more bluish /DX lamp. Not sure how old it is but the base was marked J 6 so I guess it was probably installed in January 1966. Date code 17.
Nice! Yeah it's gotta be from after 1965 (or close to that time, dunno exactly when) since GE switched to ED lamps around the time the Powr/Door lights came out.
Thanks, yeah I guess 1965 sounds about right. I wonder if this might be the the Revere's original lamp. Mid 60s sounds a bit late for a remote ballasted merc light though.
Edit: thanks to Dave for dating this lamp to May 1965.
that's a nice lamp....the /W lamps have a distinctly different color than /DX Lamps. I think ive seen a few but they seem much less common than DX tho.
Ah so this is one of the first ED GE lamps. yeah they made remote ballasted mercs up until around 1970 or so. The smaller fixtures were generally internally balalsted from around the late 50s onward if they were 240V though since even back then, the 240V reactors were small enough to fit inside the incandescent NEMAs of the time.
Very cool find! What's the startup sequence like? Is it still pinkish-reddish at first like a /DX? And what about a /C? (I've never seen anything except clear and /DX in person)
It sorta looks like a aged /DX starting up. There's minimal reddish glow but that might be because the /W phosphors don't really add much red to the spectrum. Reds under a fully warmed up /W are still a bit off. Not sure if a NOS /W would be the same though.
I've seen a /DX, /W and a /N in person. I have a couple of /C mercs but I've never been able to get them to start.
A /C merc is similar to /DX when new. Colored fluoresce more under /C though (like how yellows and neon colors pop under clear mercs; they do the same under /C, but the bulb itself glows more of a cool white color). When /Cs age they get very yellowish green unlike /DX which pretty much looks the same used as new other than the pinkish tint being less pronounced.
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Edit: thanks to Dave for dating this lamp to May 1965.
I've seen a /DX, /W and a /N in person. I have a couple of /C mercs but I've never been able to get them to start.