Those are one of those early PL 7 watt CFLs from approx mid 80s! Think they are missing cases? Well nope, they came out like that! I remember seeing some models that ac tally had 2 ballasts and 2 sockets in service back in the early 90s and they were one of the first ones for me to actually to see many of!
I have a few that is metal cased! GOOD STUFF! I think glass cased is the best safest bet.....Plastic is too unfriendly to environment, metal gives more risk to a shock since you can't really exactly bond a screw in adapter casing to grounding. Glass is the best bet plus it wont block the light as it could do better going through
Ian, those were one of the earliest CFL available, and very simple and lamps and ballast actually lasted really long!
Dave, The coils isn't exactly exposed, but there was some kind of covering around the coils but overtime as it was used they have been heated and they started to chip off....The PL lamps aren't original to the adapters but those lamps were used in those adapters though....
PArdon my ignorance, but if something touched the coils while they were energized would it temporarily (or permanently, killing it) short the ballast, killing the bulbs? Where's the starters?
External starters are not required since PL type lamps have a starter built into the base of the lamp. So when you plug one of these lamps into a socket you are actually plugging a lamp and a starter into the socket.
I believe these were designed for exit sign retrofits...so enclosing the ballast was not an issue. I remember seeing these in the late 80's and wanted one! Some of the early PL CFLs I think had halophosphate lamps...I remember seeing a display of them in 1989 and the colour quality was really awful.
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Dave, The coils isn't exactly exposed, but there was some kind of covering around the coils but overtime as it was used they have been heated and they started to chip off....The PL lamps aren't original to the adapters but those lamps were used in those adapters though....