Compact Florescent lamp trick

[aemeijers]

Speaking of the 1950s (and up into the 60s)- remember those living room pole lamps with multiple heads growing off them? Some of them were even spring-loaded to go between floor and ceiling without having to have a huge base. Common use was in the 'Dagwood and Blondie' corner of the living room, with the 2 big chairs, so each person could have light on what they were reading. 3rd head was usually bounced off ceiling, or just ignored. I think my grandparents wore out about three of them. He was a retired EE, so he would switch parts around to keep the important parts working.

-- aem sends...

[Tony]

Funny, I was just thinking about them last week and pictured the spring loaded one we had when I was a kid! I think I may have seen one on TV and that jarred my memory.

How about the adjustable height dining room light? It had an egg shaped spring loaded center part to coil up the wire inside if you were to raise it up. You simply grabbed the light and pulled it down or pushed it up and the spring loaded wire would hold it there... until it got old.

[Nate Nagel]

My grandparents had both of those, as well as a big starburst clock over the console TV.

The lights are actually quite functional, albeit passe style-wise. Esp. so the pull down dining room table light, if you're the type of person who likes to lay down some newspaper on the table and tinker with stuff.

nate

[aemeijers]

Was the one your family had antique brass or copper colored? There may have been others, but those stick in my mind. My family's 1956 house had one of those in copper, to go with the Real Wood cherry cabinets, but the 1966 house had a very futuristic flying saucer lamp on a brush-nickel colored down pipe. The real dining table used 90% of the time, a table-height peninsula in the kitchen, had focused cans above it.

That 1966 house was great, my old man's big dream for his family. Too bad we couldn't afford it (68-70 being real bad years for custom builders), and ended up elsewhere by 72. If I was to hit the lotto, I believe I would knock on the door and make the current owners an offer for it. I drive by once a year or so, when I happen to be in that town. They have changed a few things, but they haven't mucked it up too bad, other than a hideous front door. I wonder if my key still fits the door? Probably best that I'll never know, I guess. Reality can never live up to memories.

-- aem sends....

[Tony]

We had to leave the tinkering in the garage, or in my bedroom. I did however picture pulling the light down while doing some big jigsaw puzzles.

[Mark Lloyd]

I have seen a 200W bulb in about 1978. It had a standard base. About the same time I found a 1000W bulb, which did have a mogul base. I gave off a lot of heat too.

[Tony]

In the pull down light I picture the egg,spring,cord holder as bright brass plated with spots where the clear finish didn't hold up. The light itself was sort of like a flying saucer metal on top and I think frosted glass on the bottom, and I think instead of the normal screw on part to hold the glass, it was made so you could grab it with your finger to pull it down. The top part had a design made with little holes in the metal that let a small amount of light out.

[Wayne Boatwright]

On Sat 17 Oct 2009 02:46:05p, Nate Nagel told us...

When I was growing up in the 1950s-1960s, we had both types of the pole lamps, the spring-tensioned style and the style with a base. We never had a pull down ceiling light, but I remember them well. There are contemporary versions still made, but the styling has been updated.

We also had a "TV lamp" that sat on top of the television and reflected light upward and backward. Back then it was considered bad for the eyes to view a televisioin in a totally darkened room, and ambient light somewhere around the TV was considered ideal.

[aemeijers]

Wayne Boatwright wrote: (snip)

Chuckle. There was a recent thread, forget which group, bitching about a brand of wall-mount flat TV that had lighting like that built into the edge of the 'picture frame' on the set, with a photo cell to measure the room light. As room got dark, it would switch itself on.

Don't know if it is actually bad for the eyes or not, but it does probably reduce bumped shins when you get up to run to the can during commercials. I usually just leave the light at the far end of the kitchen turned on.

-- aem sends...

[Mark Lloyd]

[snip]

And the light makes it harder to accidentally step on a cat. They're something like the other things you can bump into, but are mobile and can be found in unexpected places.

I keep a string of green LED holiday lights on all the time.

BTW, some of the lights (some in each series) have gone out over time, but others are still lit. That's strange.

[Wayne Boatwright]

On Sun 18 Oct 2009 11:01:34a, Mark Lloyd told us...

Actually, not at all strange. Typically these lights are wired in series, but the bulbs are designed to fuse the filament together when they burn out so that the circuit is still completed.

[celticsoc]

I have found those at Sam's Club. I have also seenj base adapters somewhere - Menard's, I think.

[celticsoc]

[Mark Lloyd]

LEDs don't have filaments, but semiconductor junctions.

[Don Klipstein]

Candelabra base CFLs are now getting a little common at Lowes and Home Depot.

- Don Klipstein ( [e-mail])

[Don Klipstein]

In , [e-mail] wrote in part:

I would expect a dimable CFL to dim more slowly than incandescents do. Incandescents greatly lose energy efficiency when dimmed.

Non-dimmable CFLs mixed with incandescents may give close enough to zero visible dimming effect until the incandescents are getting about 60% of full power and producing about 25-30% of full light output.

- Don Klipstein ( [e-mail])

[Don Klipstein]

My experience in USA is that 200 and 300 watt 120V single-filament incandescents and 50-200-250 watt 3-way ones tend to have medium bases.

- Don Klipstein ( [e-mail])

[Don Klipstein]

For lamps bright enough for general illumination, such as 40 watt incandescent equivalent, I am finding most LED ones to be low on light output and to often have an icy cold color.

This will improve over the next several years.

- Don Klipstein ( [e-mail])

[SMS]

Is this what you mean: "

"?

[Tony]

I could easily be wrong about the 200 300 watt bases. I'm going from memory from ~1979 and I have a hard time remembering today! I was probably just stunned at the size of the bulb itself. I'm sure it was at least 10" from base to top. Or maybe the wattage was higher than I remember?