I saw one in person at Lightfair 2002, GE had it on display in their booth. Huge bulb, 2 1/2 feet long, 2 feet diameter, and the actual filament diameter (not the coils) is 1/4 inch of solid tungsten. Impressive!

That is one huge lamp

This Lamp says it was used for Airport Lighting, way back before the modern Approach/Runway Lighting systems,as found today, also it was used for Theatre Lighting and Studio Lighting wbere back then very powerful Incandescent lamps were used, you need a 420 amp Powersupply to run this lamp on 120 volts, 210 amps for 240 volt supply, the biggest lamp I have is 10000 watts CP54 TV/Film Studio Lamp and I believee there is a 20000 watt lamp on the Market, so 50000 watts can be possibly made if needed


All the Best

Colin

5800 Degrees F? the lamp surely Radiates Heat from quite some distance away.....just imagine the brightness of that thing!

Assuming the 100 watt lamps are 1200 lumens each then this would put out 600,000 lumens

@Form 109 yes it is 5800F but it is the filament itself, not the outer glass.

@gailgrove a 100w 750-1000 hour bulb emits about 1600-1750 lumens. Remember the efficency increases with wattage. I seem to remember this bulb getting 20-25 lumens per watt so that could be up to 1,250,000 lumens!

@silverliner14B so that means the Outer Glass should be at least 500 F Right?

this has to have a Special Fixture i bet....its such a Fire Hazzard if it were to be used improperly....and since it requires such high amperage no way you could run this thing at a typical house with 200 Amp Service.

Very likely more than 500F on the glass. 1500w general service incandescent lamps reach 500 degrees at the hot spot above the filament.

Whoa, I wonder how does the fixture that uses this lamp look like as well as the size of the feed wires for this thing.

the Wiring is probably around 0 AWG or bigger.....

They would have been used in mobile Airport Floodlights see HERE it gave 1/2 Billion Candlepower from a 50kw lamp, also if the lamp gets 500 deg C it would need to be Forced Cooled to reduce the Glass softening and exploding as can happen with old Filament Projector Lamps, Re the Cabling it would need to be about 40 to 60 mm2 as found in Heavy Industry.

All the Best

Colin

Form109, there is NO such a thing as a 0 AWG, a bigger AWG than 1 is "Aught" which starts with 1/0, 2/0, 3/0, 4,0 and after that its 250, 350, 400 and go up to 1000....

If this needed 420 amps then the wire size would be 350 if using a 75 degrees wire rated type THHN copper.

Note they use the term "kcmils" for sizes larger than 4/0 AWG. Like 250 kcmils, etc.

Yes Dave that's right! I see you have learned stuff in school! Good job...do you have the NEC 2008?

But when say the wire numbers...if you said "I want # 4 wire" that means you refer to 4 AWG....but if you say "I want 4 "aught" wire" that means you are refering to 4/0!

MINE! I want it! That's one awesome pic you got there Jace. I heard of a 75000w lamp somewhere. Can't find pics of that one anywhere.

Hi FGS, Jace

I have read that, In 1954, the largest light bulb, rated at 75000 watts, was lit at the Rockefeller Center in New York, to commemorate the 75th anniversary of Edison’s first light bulb. The huge bulb was 3-1/2 ft high and about 2 ft in diameter. From high above, it illuminated the entire skating rink. It was allowed to cool for five minutes after burning for three minutes. In Jan 1879, at his laboratory in Menlo Park, NJ, Edison had built his first high resistance, incandescent electric light, though its thin platinum filament in a glass vacuum bulb burned for only a few short hours. He then tested thousands of substances before coming up with a more useful carbon filament which he presented in a public demonstration of his light bulb on 31 Dec 1879.

For Photos see HERE

All the Best

Colin

Biggest one yet. It's from Westinghouse and it's 100000w at 120v. I knew I had seen this somewhere but didn't remember where.

Question is: Why they made it for 115v instead of higher voltage?

If it was higher voltage, the filament would have been a lot longer. I think for shorter filament is for lower voltage like the series bulb.

i meant 1/0 Gauge.

Also higher voltage lamps are less efficient than than lower voltage lamps for the same lifetime (thicker filament -> more tungsten to evaporate before it breaks -> can operate at higher temperature for the same lifespan, so more efficient).