Re: Does anyone know who is making these light bulbs?

["Robert Green" <ROBERT_GREEN1963@xxxxxxxxx>]

"TKM" <noname@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:WjFOh.207222$5j1.167575@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
> "Robert Green" <ROBERT_GREEN1963@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message

> > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_fluorescent_lamp#How_they_work
> >
> > says:
> >
> > "The Cold Cathode Fluorescent Light (CCFL) is one of the newest forms of
> > CFL. CCFLs use electrodes without a filament. The voltage of CCFL lamps
is
> > about 5 times higher than CFL lamps and the current is about 10 times
> > lower.

<stuff snipped>

> Cold cathode general lighting CFLs are made by TCP and others.  See:
> http://www.tcpi.com/Default.aspx
> Download the full catalog and look at the cold cathode section.  It's an
old
> technology.  So-called "neon" lamps are cold cathode lamps, for example.
>
> They have some advantages vs. the usual or "hot cathode" lamps; but I
> haven't checked out the compatibility claim.  It doesn't make sense
because
> an electronic ballast is required for cold cathode lamps and that's not a
> resistance load which is what the usual electronic timers, photocells and
> dimmers expect.
>
> TKM

Thanks for the update.  Another Wikipedia cite in question.  I did not know
that neon tubes were cold cathode devices.  In their defense, they do say
"newest form of CFL" and not that it's a new form of lighting all together,
which I believe was mentioned elsewhere.

I looked around some more and I didn't see any 110VAC screw-based household
type CCFL's around so I'm going to have to conclude that the Wikipedia
article was not accurate in its claim that this technology was available for
household lighting, at least not as a unit by unit replacement for tungsten
screw-based bulbs.  But the investigation wasn't a total loss.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neon

Has some fascinating stuff about neon.  I'm really impressed by the
simplicity and depth of Wiki even if they flub it every now and then on the
details.  I suppose it's my job now to join the discussion and ask "where
can I buy CCFL lightbulbs for my desk lamp?"  Ding!  (that little light bulb
over my head just clicked on! - is that idea light CFL or tunsten, I
wonder?)

I think I know the answer to the CCFL as household lighting question,
finally, because I remember now one day I had to help a friend find a bulb
for an incredibly small table lamp that I believe was a CCFL.  He's had it
for a long, long time - long before I recall CFL's being popular and I
believe the bulb was made by Osram - but I recall the tubes being very thin
and the light operating almost instaneously.

In looking for that lamp again and Googling

http://www.google.com/search?q=CCFL+desk+lamps

reveals 24K hits so Wikipedia is vindicated!  Now I can go into my booster
mode.  Almost every term in the neon article that was unfamiliar to me had a
link to an explanation.  I grew up with the paper-based World Book
encyclopedia but I would have much preferred Wikipedia.  I also got the
answer to a question that always bothered me?

Where does neon come from?  Where are the neon mines?  (-:  It turns out
we're all standing in it.

<<Neon is rare on Earth, found in the Earth's atmosphere at 1 part in 65,000
(by volume) or 1 part in 83,000 by mass. It is industrially produced by
cryogenic fractional distillation of liquefied air.[7]>>

Thanks for the update, TKM.

--
Bobby G.