My first contacts with lighting probably took place with Philips fluorescents. By the 1990s rapid start ballasts were used in pretty much all commercial applications. What I noticed back then were flickering, burnt out tubes. For some reason, I (rightly!) associated the Philips shiled logo with flickering tubes. That's why I enjoy seeing the shiled logo on a flickering tube. ^_^
shake the fixture to see if you can make it contact.
once i had a GE F40T12...one end had minimal blackening and the other end was very heavily blackened...and it came like that too...one day the electrode on the heavily blackened side broke so of course with the rapid start ballast the one rotten lamp made the good lamp light dimly as well....but after letting it sit for a while something odd happened....the bad lamp would flicker violently and then light at full brightness...even with the broken electrode...odd.
I run a 70s Westinghouse F40D that way since last September! It has an open electrode but still starts when combined with the good Philips tube in the above picture.
My mom has philips rapid start flouros in her house.. the spent ones would flicker and become dim, which has happened a few times during my 13 years... hers are ALTO but not the green caps, some are probably original to the house which I believe was built in '88 or so. BTW, In my kitchen are Lithiona t8 instant start floros, much nicer ( I think) than the single t12 rapis start with Philips lamps they replaced. But hey, while the old, flickering rapid start was there, it meant every house I have ever lived in with flourescent lights in the kitchen had old philips rapid starts!
I would watch out for those instant start ballasts. IS ballasts tend to overwork the lamps, causing them to die earlier. Instant start also can be dangerous if them lamp is put in wrong by mistake. I have a lithonia two lamp F17T8 wrap light and one lamp wasn't in correctly and the socket melted! The melt was caused by the heat of the arc from the socket to the lamp pin. The lamp still works, but the socket is bad now.
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once i had a GE F40T12...one end had minimal blackening and the other end was very heavily blackened...and it came like that too...one day the electrode on the heavily blackened side broke so of course with the rapid start ballast the one rotten lamp made the good lamp light dimly as well....but after letting it sit for a while something odd happened....the bad lamp would flicker violently and then light at full brightness...even with the broken electrode...odd.
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Oh BTW that bad Philips lamp will definitely stay open since there's a part of the filament missing...