In , snipped-for-privacy@att.bizzzzz wrote, edited by me for space:
I have looked at the color of glow produced by many of those. My experience as of the late 1970's was that few produced a neon-like color, and that those appeared to me less-modern-than-usual as of then. I have also seen the glow from the starters built into PL-13 CFLs.
My experience is that most starters produce a lavendar glow of a color close to usual for argon, only a little more whitish.
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As much as you appear to me to hate fluorescent lamps, I suspect you might be interested in a characteristic that some starters have. I thought that maybe you would have mentioned this by now. Some fluorescent lamp starters are cranky about starting in complete darkness! Some of those starters are cranky about starting without assistance from the photoelectric effect.
One solution was to add Kr-85 to the gas (or gas mixture) in the starter bulb. But radioactivity got to be politically incorrect. I also see that many aluminum can style starters have a hole in the center of the top of the aluminum can. I wonder if that is to allow one to see whether the starter glows, or to let light into the starter.