Beautiful! Looks like maybe a late 40-50's ballast but it's just a guess. I like that black reveal strip on the reflector. You must've been jumping for joy when you realized what this was.

I didn't know GE was into fluorescent fixtures (or maybe only CGE was?). I thought they only made ballasts and lamps. Well I didn't know Sylvania made their own fixtures either but they did...

Nice find Joe!! Good thing you noticed it sitting up on the shelf.

Thanks! Yeah, I should carefully pull the ballast to check for any date codes underneath. It's not early 40s since they had ballasts with external compensators back then. Anyway it's in my 1949 CGE catalogue (skip to page 84). It cost $24.50 back in the day which adjusted for inflation is around $250. :O

Yeah, I was pretty shocked to see a preheat turret just lying around on the shelf. The reflector is pretty sturdy porcelain enamel and it held up pretty well over the years.

Ahh, I know CGE had a pretty wide selection of fluorescent fixtures back in the day. I know that Westy and Sylvania made their own fixtures too. Since almost every component on the light is made by GE. I suppose I should replace the Sylvanias with a pair of GEs lol. Maybe even a pair of vintage GE watch dog starters.

Update: Date code on the ballast appears to be "NH".

Ahh made in January. The year looks like 1951. wow, 250 bucks?! i think a Form 400 or the like was closer to 75-100 bucks so that's a lot of money! and that's just a shell too! no ballast!

Ahh thanks xD. I wonder if I should get some more vintage lamps for it lol. Currently I have brand new pair of Sylvania CWP lamps in it but it seems they look too modern for the light. The only matching pair of vintage lamps I have are some Lifeline /WWXs though.

No problem. Glad i can help with one date code system lol. vintage lamps would look cool. I have all modern lamps in my fixtures except for some GTE Sylvania F20/WW lamps since i have a zillion of them and the two '97 Econ-o-watts that do very well in the metalux turret in this warmer weather we've been having. They look greener than my other /CW lamps, almost like a /C merc... My only 50s fluorscent is the '56 GE F14/D which wouldn't fit this lol. My next oldest fluorescents are from the late 60s. For HIDs, my oldest lamp is a late 60s NOS Sylvania 400W /C merc.

Ahh I guess modern full wattage lamps are ok then (no way am I letting 34w lamps near this thing) and plus I think finding some 50s F40s would probably be impossible. Still I think this light would look pretty good with a pair of blackenders or some main lighters.

You could always make your own blackenders. I did that on all my Altos. Grabbed a can of gloss enamel black paint and a small brush and no more green ends. It doesn't solve the nont-enough-mercury issue though lol.

Yeah, I suppose I could paint the endcaps. If I do I think I'm gonna paint the Sylvanias since they're full wattage and full mercury. I think next time I'm at Restore I'll grab a pair of Westys if I see them.

Yeah make sure you don't use Sharpie. I did that with a pair of Sylvania CWP lamps and the sharpie wore off on the white sockets. And this was months after i sharpied them too so they were dry. For some reason there haven't been any longer lamps at the ReStore, just small lamps less than 2ft long. Its all dendent on what's donated though so I guess nothing is consistant there. I didn't find my first HID items until the last time I went (the 100W HPS lamp and the open cap). Still waiting for an HIs fixture though lol.

Ahh, yeah I have a can of model paint that I can use to paint the ends. As for Westy black enders they show up from time to time at Restore. The ones here sell everything under the sun, HID, vintage lamps, loose ballasts, and preheaters lol.

wow nice! the one here has a crapload of old switches and outets. Several milk crates full (remember those old plastic milk crates?). I should dig through them sometime and pick out the "snap!" switches... they're 50 cents a piece.

Nice find! Goes to show the CGE was good quality

Is there still a CGE or do they just got by GE everywhere now?

Yeah the Restores here sometimes get a lot of good stuff. At mine, I once saw some push button switches that probably dated back to the 20s.

Thanks, and yeah CGE made some solid stuff back in the day. I believe the stopped using the CGE name back in the early 90s. I believe they're now known as GE Canada instead.

Ah interesting sounding switches! Ah they still have a separate Canadian division? I wonder if CGE cobraheads beared the CGE logo instead of the meatball logo?

Yeah here's how they looked like. The one I saw was mounted on a 4 gang wall plate though. They still make them too. The ones I found had patent dates from 1912 on them so they must have been old.

I'm not sure about the cobreheads but I know the CGE signals initally used the standard meatball but the 1980s signals had this CGE logo on the back.


I've yet to see anything with this CGE logo though.



Basically the meatball but with CGE inside instead of GE.

Very nice fixture! You could get some cut out starters for it on ebay, I see them for a decent price usually

Thanks, I might get some cutout starters for it too.