Oh my, people seem to be reading into this a little far: To clarify, I am _well aware_ that circline fluorescent tubes are common--I knew I could find a replacement at Home Depot! But to shoehorn them into a regular lamp using the adapter from GE is what I'm claiming is weird and likely unpopular. Many people seem to think I'm painting this assessment onto circline tubes in general, which just isn't the case. Carry on!
frankly the only weird thing about it is the old magnetic ballast, these (not just tube, the entire ballast assembly with screwing thing) are quite common, around here I've seen them plenty, it's really just a matter of where you put them on. My neighbors for example had all their lamps in the house as this type, specially because changing the tube is cheaper than the entire ballast thing from a normal CCFL.
My grandparents had these in every lamp in their house, as well as the ceiling lamps in the basement kitchen. Like my grandparents, they were weird, functional, and lasted a really long time.
My grandparents had these in lamps and all over their house when I was a kid in the 80’s. My grandpa who was a supervisor at Niagara Mohawk electric company in Buffalo, NY installed them in the 60’s/ 70’s and they were in use until my widowed grandma sold the house in 1992. She replaced most of her furniture when she moved so I’m sure the lamps with these fluorescent kits went to the Goodwill.
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Being a frugal guy and old as well, I remember when these were the only thing that could be bought to suit standard table and floor lamps originally designed for incandescents. I was well aware that they flickered to start, but thankful that they were not the linear 18 inch desk fluorescents that needed to have a button held down for starting, though at least those came on instantly if you held the button long enough to vaporize the mercury. They were most popular during the energy saving days during the Carter administration as I recall. To sell them as energy savers, it seems they wanted to produce the most lumens per watt, and as you probably know, fluorescents do that with cool white phosphor formulations most popular in the early fifties before rare earth phosphors were brought to market to improve the brightness of color TV. I still have in the back of my garage an RCA color set from the late fifties that used a variety of red phosphors that was so dim, that to white balance the other two phosphors, needed those to be severely attenuated. A very dark room was required to enjoy that TV, but some say that the color renditions were superior to the later versions. RCA was still shipping development money with each set sold in those days. GE was probably getting rid of poor quality phosphor mixes with that circleline lamp you show here. The cost to design that ballast as a self starter may have caused the division to cheapen its light output for that product. For commercial and hospital users of the circleline lamps in the ceiling fixtures they normally would serve, I think they had better QC for the color rendition, but so much light is wasted, with standard table lamp shades already generally yellowed to some extent from being cooked with incandescent heat, perhaps they felt they needed the more enrgetic phosphors.
SPIRAL STYLE CFLs didn’t exist much before 1990. If you wanted a compact fluorescent, you bought these circle things. My parents have one in their basement simce the 1970s (almost 50 years)! Mounted upside down .
My parents house was filled with those lamps. When better ones became available they were moved to the basement, where they are still providing the light. So, at least 40 years later I can't tell you yet how long they last.
Checked this weekend and there are 3 circle lights in the basement, which is the number of lamps in the family room from which they came. 1 is a GE, probably the original, the other 2 are "lights of America", probably purchased on sale. All look about the same. All still functioning. I've had mixed results with CFLs. I've heard fluorescents don't like being started, so usage where they are frequently turned on and off will greatly shorten their life.
I have one of those 22 watt circline lamps in my hall way. (in a proper fixture I might add) they last a LONG, LONG time. 15 years and it is still going strong and I don't anticipate changeing it for many more years. OK now I have junxed myself it will probably burn out next time I turn it on.
The problem with CFL especially the "instastart" is that they are to harsh on the tubes, meaning a CFL that would be on 24/7 would actually last longer than turning it off and on, so I wouldn't be surprised that on a bathroom they last less because it has greater on/off cycles, each time you turn one on the life span reduces greatly. On the other hand those older CFLs that took 2 or 3 seconds to turn on lasts much much more because the tube warms up slowly and softly, I have one of those in a bedroom, it has been used daily for atleast 10 years and it's still going strong, on the other hand all of the other CFL (instant ones) have been replaced more than once during that time. If you notice these newer CFLs in a short time the ends of the tube become darker and darker, that's because they are wearing out.
Right. The longest lasting fluorescent tubes were the preheat start type such as this one. My parents had an old 15 watt 18" preheat lamp over their kitchen sink. It was left running 24x7, had an old GE F15T12 tube in it. It was there for over 25 years until the kitchen was renovated. That old fixture is now sitting in my garage on a shelf not connected with the original tube that is now over 50 years old. I would bet if I connected it, it would still fire up. Has been sitting on that shelf since 1993 when I rescued it from the scrap and stuck it on the shelf at the back of my garage.
Yeah, it's tough driving in the States, because my usual road speed is 3.9 million nine eighths of an inch per hour, and officers don't like it when I tell them that's how fast I was going.
Don't worry, Philo Farnsworth's video is on the way! But for now, enjoy a quick look at this....thing. EDIT: I'm sorry about the audio whine! Shoulda used headphones when editing...
i actually remember seeing these things before i saw a old building using one in ceiling in the 2000's looks like been there long time i wanted one for the fact that it was weird thing. but i like odd old/vintage looking things anyhow. and that managed to find a tube replacement for it was kinda interesting as well as ive never seen those at home depot any as its just a wall of led/cfls/some incandescents and T5's T8's and 12's of all lengths.
Recent subscriber from the UK here, and I look forward to all of your videos; so pleased that I found your channel from a recommended video - your videos are excellent, and invariably there is something within them that I did not know. Thank you, and please keep them coming!
Technology Connections The same thing happened to Tom Scott a while back. He shot a video in a room full of CRT's. He didn't hear it, but the younger viewers did!
This is fascinating, my grandfather installed this exact lightbulb in my mother's sewing closet when I was around 5 years old. Must have been 1983 or something. The exact same lightbulb is still installed and still works to this very day. It is rarely used, which certainly explains why it has lasted this long. When it "ignites" it plinks and dinks and flashes around for a good 5 seconds before it illuminates, dimly at that. Takes another minute or two before maximum brightness. We talked about putting in an LED fixture a while ago, but decided it was pretty neat this old bulb was still chugging along. Thanks...
Oh wow, I remember Circline lights. My grandparents had them the hallways and such of their house when I was a kid. They were in normal Circline ceiling fixtures, though, not these... things. The ghastly character of the 1960s-tech fluorescent light they made was the same, though! To bathe in their (showerless) downstairs bathroom was to get a sneak preview of what one would look like as a week-old corpse discovered in one's living room armchair by neighbors alerted by the smell.
SPIRAL STYLE CFLs didn’t exist much before 1990. If you wanted a compact fluorescent, you bought these circle things. My parents have one in their basement simce the 1970s (almost 50 years)! Mounted upside down .
could the bulbs color / brightness have been negatively affected by its age? i imagine the metals could have went through some reactions in the years that passed.
Naw, that's how they looked. There is a reason people hated CFLs when they first came out. They gave ghastly light. We had florescent tubes everywhere in my early 60s house, and fortunately the decor was yellow themed... Actually any color would have been yellow themed with that lighting!
Had the exact same thing in our old house. Cost 15.99Cdn in 1985, worked flawlessly for 29 years and counting till we moved out in 2014. It never needed a ballast replacement either.
SPIRAL STYLE CFLs didn’t exist much before 1990. If you wanted a compact fluorescent, you bought these circle things. My parents have one in their basement simce the 1970s (almost 50 years)! Mounted upside down .
I bought one of these fluorescent adapters at Caldor for $11.99 in 1983. The ballast assembly always reminded me of a bottle of Old Spice aftershave. I found it interesting that the FC8T9/WW circline lamp included with the adapter read "RAPID START" in spite of the device being a preheat setup. [Meanwhile, the contemporaneous GE Bright Stik pre-heat start fluorescent lighting apparatus contained a non-etched linear F20T12 lamp]. Anyhow, the circline lamp didn't reach end-of-life before the internal starter crapped out. I remember replacing that Circline adapter with another one that came with a GE Soft-White Home Fluorescent, FC8T9/SW lamp, around 1990 or so. I used that until early 1997, when I moved out of my parents' house at age 23, to embark on my emancipated adult life.
One of my grandmothers had one in her kitchen as well, and I can't ever remember her having to ever replace the bulb until well into the mid 90's, but I never did like the color of light it gave out.
Interesting that you report the longevity of these bulbs. My experience has been exactly the opposite. My family bought several of these donut-shaped disasters back in the '90s, and they all failed within nine months. Our experience was so bad that not only did we never purchase another circular fluorescent bulb ever again, we stayed away from compact fluorescents (CFLs) for many years as well.
I've been using an LED "bulb" in my desk lamp for over 3 years now and have experienced no ill effects at all. It's a cheap bulb I got in a two pack from Lowe's for $3.38. The other is in a lamp in the living room. The desk bulb has burned continuously this whole time 24 hours a day, 7 days a week except for the occasional power outage during a storm. If the other bulb in the living room has the same lifespan as this one has I'll never buy another type of bulb again. In fact I have about 12 boxes of these LED's that have been in my bedroom closet for over a year now and as my older CFL's and incandescent ones burn out I'll be replacing them with the LED's. I wouldn't worry too much about kilohertz either, the very air around you is filled with it and megahertz signals with radio and television transmissions and have been for ages.
Rebel9668 Yep, in fact whatever device one is using to read this is cranking out 2.4 or perhaps 5 Gigahertz of RF just for WiFi, plus RF for Bluetooth and more RF for the cellular service is it's a phone!
Thanks for the review of this lamp! My grandmother's house had many ceiling fixtures with really creative round globes and chrome rings. They had several different diameters tubes in then and were really cool "space age" things. I am so sad that I didn't get to remove them from her house after she passed. They were super cool! Those cool old fixtures with new fluorescent tubes (with better phosphor colors!!!) would be a great addition to any vintage fixture collectors home. You can definitely replace the starter in the adapter. You need to take the 'glow switch' capsule out of a starter plug and install just that part into the Circline adapter in place of the worn out one. It's been a long time, but remember popping the adapter apart at a seam, changing the starter, and then re-assembling it with PVC solvent cement (plumbing section).
SPIRAL STYLE CFLs didn’t exist much before 1990. If you wanted a compact fluorescent, you bought these circle things. My parents have one in their basement simce the 1970s (almost 50 years)! Mounted upside down .
I'm always amazed at how you can take a boring mundane object and show us how interesting or complicated it can be. Always excellent work on your vids! Love them!
I believe that I bought two of these many years ago. The;y were difficult to install and I am a electronic technician! I like the new LED lights better,. Better light and choice of colors. I love your videos and look forward to more. You videos are like a walk down memory lane. And thats a good thing!
My parents and grandparents had these in the kitchen. They screwed into simple light sockets that pointed straight down from the ceiling, and there was nothing covering them, just an exposed halo hanging right in the middle of the room. haha God, these things perfectly encapsulated the aesthetic of "cheap and old".
My great aunt had a some of these in her basement. She just screwed them into the socket and there they were. She probably had like two of them. Each light in the basement was on a pull chain so you had to walk around turning them on. I saw those lightbulbs hanging there and I thought they were something else until I saw they had pull chains as well. It always scared me to turn them on because they would blink and flicker a bunch before officially turning on.
It's just an adapter to put a Circline tube into an Edison socket. Circline tubs were developed as their own thing, so it makes sense to make an adapter so you can sell those tubes for more applications. Also, the T-sizing thing is an international thing, not just a US thing. Though, to make it more confusing, T8 is also called T26, because it's about 26mm (actually 25.4mm) and T12 is also called T38, even though it's actually 38.1mm. The mm sizes are just adapted over from the sizing in eights of an inch, however.
They call that "soft conversion". Convert to Metric and if the precise size isn't critical, round to the nearest whole number. Hard conversion is actually altering the product design to make it the nearest whole number metric dimension - and making it incompatible with the previous Imperial dimension version.
My aunt and grandmother had these in a couple lamps... never thought much of them but nostalgic and really cool to see some back story behind these. Thank you !
My grandparents had these bulbs in many of their downstairs lamps. When I moved out of my parent's house into my first home, they gave me several lamp adapters for the ring bulbs. I liked them. For the nostalgia of childhood family gatherings. Thank you for this explication of the technology.
TheChipmunk2008 Lights of America was one of the pioneers in the "fluorescent isn't just linear tubes for ceiling fixtures any more" market niche. The first CFL I ever got in the late 90s was LoA branded. So it doesn't surprise me they were selling circline adapters before that.
I have two of these lights. Now they are in the garage. When it's cold, sometimes they don't start up, but I don't care because they are in the garage.
Fluorescent lights work by heating the gas inside the tube which make the coating on the wall of the tube to fluoresce, or give off light. When used in cold locations like your garage or as a porch light, the heating takes longer and the colder it is it may never get warm enough to fluoresce.
First of all, let me say that I really love your channel. I thought I was the only one who explained things way more than most people want! Secondly, I bought that exact same product in the mid '80's for a bedside lamp. When we moved into our new home in the mid '90's I screwed it into a basic socket in the ceiling of a storage room in my garage. I'll let you know when it stops working.
I live in venezuela and similar lamps were still being sold here until 2015 at least, and might still being sold. There is a similar one in my kitchen right now, Osram branded but it uses a more modern electronic ballast.
The tubes themselves are still pretty common here in the US as well, but the idea of using them in an ordinary lamp using one of these adapters is long since gone.
Here in Italy they sold them as a single piece, you couldn't remove the circline. I too had one of them mounted in the kitcken not many years ago. I don't know if they still sell them. EDIT: they do still sell them www.amazon.it/dp/B009T33I1W/ref=asc_df_B009T33I1W46547464/?tag=googshopit-21&creative=23394&creativeASIN=B009T33I1W&linkCode=df0&hvdev=c&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=
My grandparents had a circline luminaire just like this one in their kitchen. I used to love watching it fire up, and it sure was crazy with illuminating colors on coupon books, right next to the spice drawer. Brings back lots of memories.
AGREED. I am always changing them. They fail under warranty, but the warranty doesn't cover the 10.00 in as I have to burn to return them to the stroe for an exchange.
This gave me great nostalgia. I used these bulbs a lot when I was a kid, and replacing them was indeed a bit of a pain. You were right to worry about clipping the glass tube in. I've had at least one shatter on me while trying to clip it in.
Interesting, we have this old magnifying glass lamp at work, its like one of those articulating desk lamps, but its got a big round magnifying glass in the middle, and one of these bulbs around it. I think this bulb originally came out in a 1950s ceiling fixture.
THIS is why I like the preheat started magnetic ballast system, it's really simple and lasts a VERY long time. I have an old sheet music\table lamp that was bought back when my grandmother was a kid, and it still works with it's original tube! (it doesn't get used much, but still) also, a similar corded under cabinet lamp. I bought a replacement tube cause of the color, but that lamp lasted for nearly TEN YEARS of running about 4 hours every morning.
It's a perfectly serviceable system that can be easily converted to a standard unit if you for some reason want to. Measuring bulb diameter in mm would be stupid.
@@runed0s86 I've found hot dogs require a temperature diameter correction formula or table application for accuracy. Not to be confused with their color temperature chart.
I still have one of these that I purchased around 1992. it still works, and as far as the color, at the time, it wasn't a big deal. Today's technology has spoiled us to the number of choices available.The newer CFL's seem to be more of a hazard, to me, as I have never had any of the older ones explode on me. I have had four of the newer 'curly Q' CFL's do that; one of them less than 2 feet away from my head at the time! I'm also not a huge fan of the newer LED's, but understand the need to reduce electricity usage to have several in my house. Thanks for the trip down memory lane!
These circline tube's are still used in workbench magnifiers where you look though the center magnifying glass with the tube illuminating around the opening. Works really well when your trying to solder something or doing other delicate close up work. I've seen new ones with a ring of LED's, but I don't know if they have dim-able ones in LED, that would be useful. I agree, the old circline florescent tubes had bad color rendition with their limited 2-phosphor blend versus the newer tricolor phosphors.
One issue that I have with modern LEDs (and even CFLs) is that they have horrific brightness. In my room I have two normal 58W (150cm) cool white fluorescent tubes (with around 5200 lumens each). Getting something like that with LEDs is a bit hard. I don't think I will be replacing those anytime soon. Though we did finally replaced the incandescent 150w bulb in out kitchen earlier this year. With a huge LED lamp (1m in diameter), 8500 lumens with settable dimming and color temperature. It's ok-ish, but the CRI leaves a bit to be desired.
Your problem is ordering from Home Depot and not a professional lighting shop. If you are comparing a LED to a linear fluorescent, Cree makes up to 5,000 lumen troffers and max 10,000 lumen surface mount ambient with 90+ CRI. Those replace anything a linear fluorescent can do.
I see I already commented years ago about how my parents basement was full of these. I also remember we used them on every table and floor lamp in the living room. My dad was an environmentalist so we more or less tried every new technology that was supposed to be efficient as soon as we could afford it. I quite liked these at the time, they produced more light output than whatever incandescent bulbs we would have used in their place. The biggest problem was the fixtures they didn't fit, and they were not dimmable. I have a workshop space that I moved into in the mid-2000s and will be moving out of at the end of the year. There is one hard to reach fixture in that space that still uses one of these simply because it was the best option available at the time and I have not had access to that picture since we moved in. I bet it still works.
Here in the UK, circline tubes were never too common with 2D lamps (sort of square-shaped CFL lamps) being widespread instead. The solution here was an adapter made for miniature versions of these lamps. It was less awkward-sized than this one and was quite practical, but also suffered from its large weight and awful colour temperature!
I can’t believe I came across this till today! My parents house had these lights all over the place, as the cost of electricity in my home country is relatively high, my dad tried to transform the house to CFLs since he bought it in the late 80s... We had about 4 of these, and next time I’m home I’ll check, but I’m almost positive they still work, over 30 years later... we didn’t use them for lamps, but for basic ceiling fixtures, they do achieve the purpose as you don’t even need to replace the fixture, and boy are they durable
to be honest - the lighting images you showed - show this as being a more accurate and pleasing light source for photography than the LED you compared it to - I feel like these would be great if fitted around the lens of a camera.
Hmm, perhaps a new adapter could be made which has long "arms" so it can go well around the camera! But the issue remains with the weight, some UV (which the camera MIGHT pick up and ruin some vividness) and the… i guess… high voltage? And a magnetic ballast may affect the camera's functioning, I don't know.
@@SreenikethanI Any digital camera would be heavily affected by the magnetic ballast, if it were placed anywhere practical on the camera, and it would draw too much power to be practical for a portable device, but I can certainly say that it would work perfect for lighting a set that you're taking pictures on.
We bought one of these in the mid 80's but the design was slightly different as far as I can recall. The tube had a permanently attached crosspiece with a large circle in the center which slipped onto the ballast/starter and had a slider piece near the center which made the connection from the tube to the starter unit. We also learned the hard way that lamps with small bases became very top heavy with this thing installed. One evening while trying to turn a desk lamp on, it tumbled onto the floor and the tube exploded. After cleaning up the glass shards, my dad threw the attached crosspiece in the trash too so I never got a chance to see if another tube could be used. Years later I found the starter unit in a drawer and it remembered this oddball lamp that never took off and how we hated it.
I have one similar in a basement fixture for 20 years. Model FCB700/1 GE NELA PARK CLEVELAND 14:09. I use it a few hours a week. One end is just starting to darken. Great conversation piece. Thanks for covering it.
ima prolly go buy one. I have a few magnetic ballasted fluros around and they still work. (the one in my kitchen is a standard linear tube rapid start system, though even though it is nearly 20 years old, we haven't had to replace a single tube or ballast yet. because they are so simple, there's not much to fail. only 3 components, the ballast, starter and the 1-4 tubes in circuit.
LED-lights aren't that good either. They produce ugly light, often have bad colour rendering and produce a lot of blue light which is bad for your eyes.
You can not say things are in a certain way without telling how. LED has no heavy metals. Fluorescent lamps must have more mercury if the tube is bent. LED does not need to flicker at a certain frequency, driving them with DC is actually the best, zero flicker! However, incadescent bulbs have the best colors.
Emil Almberg plus leds are super cheap you can buy rgb ones and change the colour to something a little warmer or with less blue(one of his complaints)
LED or discharge lamp make up your mind but don't go to incandescent. Discharge lighting is just as efficient as LED when made properly, so I'm really neither here nor there.
@Rick Delair DO NOT under any circumstances go outside. Harmful carcinogenic actinic rays confirmed! You must be confined to the Martian colony training camps underground. Removal from Earth when ready for the BFR launches. 60 or more accurately 120 Hz is known to be disturbing to human vision, everyone finds the florescent light that goes on half cycle (60) Hz flickering to be a real annoyance. 25kHz cannot be measured in the LED light. Oh and no TV or film either. The finest art museums are able to use LED's for the best color balance, so can everyone now.
Thank you for the video ...I actually prefer Cool White light...so way back when, the only way I could achieve that was to buy this adapter, and then buy a cool white tube... and lamps that it wouldn't physically fit into I had to actually tie wrap it onto the shade and not use the arms.. other companies fixtures were not as rugged and you could just cut the arms off.. and had wires and a plug onto the tube.. still using today.... internal starter is the same as an FS 2
I think White balance is actually the color temperature itself, just the measurement or balance scale of color temperatures.... Technically, same thing
“Not so popular”?? - man, you led a sheltered life! Circular fluorescents were common until quite recently, and the Edison base adapters like you showed here are just a minor implementation.
Video fail. I had several of these in the 90's and they worked fine. No problems, worked without trouble, and no difficulty installing. You have created 'problems" where none existed. My kitchen used a standard circline tube. Simple to install.
I don't recall suggesting the product had operational flaws, rather that it had somewhat limited applications, required assembly which could be awkward, and had horrible light quality. Hence they enjoyed limited popularity and were more of a niche product.
I'm not talking about the tube, I'm talking about the adapter. Referencing your first comment, you seem to think this video is a commentary on circline tubes in general--I doubt your kitchen fixture used an adapter like this, it was probably designed for circline tubes. Obviously I know they're common, as I knew I could find a replacement at the hardware store.
I mentioned Circline tube applications since you take pot shots at the tube in particular. At heart I feel your criticism unfounded; this was a satisfactory product in its day. Perhaps the tube you have is defective or aged poorly.
I am so confused by the series of comments. Did you watch the video? I replaced the tube, and am using the lamp right now! And as I've now pinned a comment above, never was this video meant to criticize the circline tube. Rather, it's a retrospective on GE's weird attempt to shoehorn them into an everyday table lamp using this adapter, and in hindsight it looks like an odd, early attempt at a CFL.
I love your videos dude, it's great looking back at old tech. I remember these being all the rage with hotels back in the day. EVERY light in the room had these.
Your testing is flawed you need to run this lamp for 50 hours then do your test. My sylvannia's CFL's will give off that purplish color you describe and they came out just a few years ago when new until 50 hours have past. Also, then color goes from 1500k to 6500k and the 6500k is a very sterile white color while the 1500k is a very soft white color.
We had one of these in our living room lamp in the mid-90's. When I grew up and got my own apartment, I got to take the lamp AND the bulb. The tube only failed a couple of years ago, lasting well over 25 years, and the bulb is still going strong in my living room as I type this. I love this bulb! Here's to another 25 years together.
We had a bunch of those, along with ceiling circline lighting fixtures. Fortunately they didn't fit the fixtures in our bedrooms. Over time my parents replaced the overhead bulbs with better flourescents, but the ones in the lamps never seemed to burn out. In fact, my parents still have one lamp with a circline flourescent in it. It was there before I moved out about 30 years ago.
There's a blast from the past. There was one of these in my kitchen growing up in the 90's. I can recall clearly my father swearing and taping on the thing to get it going. Haven't seen one since.
My family had one of these crazy blinky-blink lights in our TV room in the mid-90s. It was always fun to turn it on and listen to the sounds and watch the randomness of start-up.
Nicely done video, and the side by side comparison was very well done with the flickering text a great touch. I'd forgotten about these lights, now I want to go on eBay and see if I can find one.
OMG, you reminded me of one of my youngest memories. My grandfather had... I think it was a storage place, or perhaps it was a place he worked and there was some stuff stored there? no idea, but it had that sickly green hue from Florescent bulbs... so badly green that the place with it's... groovy wallpaper and ... wall fabrics with wood paneling ... made it VERY strange to go into for me, especially seeing that I grew up in the 90's (born mid 80's)... so the few times we went there, I always felt off, as if in a dream or a nightmare...
We got one of those in the early 90s. I remember it lasted more than 15 years, we changed the circline tube at least once before the ballast went out and it got replaced by a CFL. Both the tube and the ballast are more efficient and longer lived than a CFL because the tube isn't so thin, and heat dissipates much better.
I bought 2 or 3 of these units from my utility company, PSE&G, around 1983. I installed them in table lamps where they were on 8-10 hours a day. I used them well into the 2000's when they finally began to need replacement bulbs. My "innards" weren't as slick as the one you show; it was basically a block with 2 flat and 2 curved sides and had vent slots molded into the flat sides. I think I might still have them out in the garage.
My grandparents had 2 of those circline light is in their kitchen. With pretty attractive circline fixtures. They did a good job at lighting the entire kitchen between the 2 of them. Ah nostalgia. This takes me back. That house was built in the 60s. Those fixtures were replaced with incandescent fixtures and were more of a pain as incandescent lamps have a shorter lifespan.
I remember my parents buying one of those in the 90s or possibly 1989. They used it on the porch and we were amazed at its life. It was still working when we moved after about 7 years.
My parents have one of these in their kitchen as their main light. It was on there when they bought the house over 15 years ago and it’s still working great. I assume it was in there a while before they moved in as well...I always wondered what it was because I never saw one before or since really...On rainy and cold mornings it would take a little while to kick on... glad I came across this video.
Wow, what a trip down memory lane. These were common in my household when I was young. My dad always had a problem with incandescent lamps. Too much power wasted, too much heat generated, light was way too yellow. GE made these in cool white, that's what we had. In the mid nineties, Lights Of America brought out a similar product except they used electronic ballasts, and the lamp was packaged pre assembled. Really plug and play. Thanks for the vid.
Your point about the downward illumination is really interesting... I had been shying away from standing desklamps because of this very issue. I might have to hunt for one of these bulbs...
We used to have one of these when I was a kid! I always thought it was fascinating and unique as it didn't get blazing hot like the incandescent bulbs. What I remember most, though, is how we got it. There was a man coming door to door from the power company giving them away as a promotion! They were getting people to try out replacement bulbs to save power. They obviously don't fit in most fixtures designed for Edison bulbs but they work well standing lamps with a big shade. We had that thing for years before it quit.
That bit you mentioned at the end where it provides a very concentrated ring around the lamp and has a flickering start that reminds me of a lot of the lights that I saw in many numerous hotels I think that this was a popular model with hotels.
I grew up with these, as my Dad worked a job somewhat related to conservation, and we walked the walk. The thing I remember the most is turning them on and that flickering start. When you are a little kid, and still somewhat afraid of the dark, you want your light to come on straightaway when you turn it on, not flicker like you are in some horror sci-fi movie.
My great grandpa had one of these for as long as I can remember and when he died, I somehow ended up with it and had it in my bedroom for many more years!
That old bulb is actually a relic for a lightning collector! Old, greenish phosphor tube being operated by a huge heavy magnetic ballast WITH A NEON STARTER! If you don’t want it, I surely won’t be upset at all if you give it to me! This things are getting really hard to find these days!
"Why am I watching a video about an obscure bulb?" Because *apparently* this bulb deserves to be remembered! We all take so many incredible engineering accomplishments for granted. Thanks for reminding us how spoiled we are! Keep them coming!
I remember seeing those things in other people's houses. They were always hanging upside-down from naked ceiling fixtures. I like the way you put it in a lamp--that's new to me!
I can remember the purple glow of my grandfather's circline magnifier that he read his Bible with - it had an armature that clamped to the kitchen table. I remember it humming a little as well. I wonder if anybody has seen an old circline magnifier like that.
Yes! I remember these! The upstairs hall in the home where I grew up used to always have this bulb since the mid 80s. I don't think it does now, but this was the first kind of florescent light I ever saw! Nostalgia ftw! Surf Wisely.
Dad had one of these in the table lamp next to his easy chair back in the day. Our kitchen had a Circline ceiling fixture. I'd forgotten about these lights until now.
these lights bring back memories.. my grandmothers house had a double tube type one of these (one small and one larger around the smaller bulb) in the bathroom, im certain that light was never changed in the 26 years i visited and lived in that house and the dang thing was still working when she passed away! i do not think i ever saw this style bulb anywhere else but in that house, the house was built in late 40s so i assume given all the chrome on the housing of that lighting fixture it was probably put into that bathroom 50-60s maybe? non the less i enjoyed the video as i do all your videos, indeed i do like to sit and learn random things..
Lights of America sold a great many of this style, in fact I think I still have one in its original package! I used them in the mid 1980s and beyond, they were quite reliable.
We definitely had at least one of these (or a successor) in my parents' table lamp in the early to mid-'90s. Vivid memories of its shape under the shade.
I just replace two standard circline fluorescent ceiling fixtures earlier this year. The ballast went out in one and then the other went a month later. I believe they were installed some time in the early-to-mid 80s so they seem to have lasted a bit longer than the expected lifespan of that GE converter model would suggest.
When I used to live at home with my folks, our house had a "circline" fluorescent light fixture using a T9 lamp just like the CFL featured in this video, it was mounted on the ceiling at the bottom of the stairs in the basement. It kept going for the 14 years I lived there until I moved out on my own about 16 years ago (that light is probably still going nowadays). Those Circline lamps seemed to be quite popular in the 70s & 80s.
This was the light we had in our front entrance in the 80's. Towards the end of it's (what we thought at the time) lifespan, it started randomly flickering at different speeds and brightness. The life of the bulb lasted ANOTHER 10 years. Mind you, it was only used 4 hours each year on Halloween night, creating a PERFECT random lightning effect in the front entrance of the house as we handed out candy. It was a sad Halloween the year we screwed it in, turned it on and gave us nothing more than a faint soft glow.
I had one of these installed and operating continuously from circa 1991 until around 2008 in a hanging ceiling fixture. I needed to make an indoor space safer and I figure this saved me a lot of energy and money.
Oh my, people seem to be reading into this a little far: To clarify, I am _well aware_ that circline fluorescent tubes are common--I knew I could find a replacement at Home Depot! But to shoehorn them into a regular lamp using the adapter from GE is what I'm claiming is weird and likely unpopular. Many people seem to think I'm painting this assessment onto circline tubes in general, which just isn't the case. Carry on!
You should send the starter to Big Clive when it eventually dies.
i can buy similar shaped tube and mount in the nearest lighting store
you can still get the whole package, on eBay & search 'circlite'
frankly the only weird thing about it is the old magnetic ballast, these (not just tube, the entire ballast assembly with screwing thing) are quite common, around here I've seen them plenty, it's really just a matter of where you put them on. My neighbors for example had all their lamps in the house as this type, specially because changing the tube is cheaper than the entire ballast thing from a normal CCFL.
I have the exact same adapter, have had it for years, and it still works, with the original lamp i might add.
Ah yes, the rather pleasing "1960's insane asylum hallway white".
No joke:
I am not a native English speaker, and it's comments like yours that improve my English. Great, thank you.
This is such an astute description that it's unsettling...
Did I blink, or did the room blink? Lemmie blink agai.…son of a bitch!
I love this aesthetics
Constantly blinking 50 times a second.. DRIVING YOU CRAZY!!!
My grandparents had these in every lamp in their house, as well as the ceiling lamps in the basement kitchen. Like my grandparents, they were weird, functional, and lasted a really long time.
Your grandparents had a kitchen in their basement?
@@oneirophon8912 Yes. And a living room. They were nice but a little ... odd...
My house has a small kitchen & bathroom in the basement. It’s because we have holiday dinners down there, and we got tired of climbing the steps
This was my parents house. As well as to a lesser degree my grandparents house.
My grandparents had these in lamps and all over their house when I was a kid in the 80’s. My grandpa who was a supervisor at Niagara Mohawk electric company in Buffalo, NY installed them in the 60’s/ 70’s and they were in use until my widowed grandma sold the house in 1992. She replaced most of her furniture when she moved so I’m sure the lamps with these fluorescent kits went to the Goodwill.
I love the way you made the text flicker in. attention to detail like that makes such a difference.
Went back to check that :-) - Nice!
What where when
@@EddieKMusic When he's comparing it to the incandescent and a more modern CFL at 3:07.
If you like attention to detail, I think you’ll appreciate how much the host of this video appreciates the attention to detail he analyzes in this video:
th-cam.com/video/mUF4afxMpQk/w-d-xo.html
I hope you take the time to watch it and I hope you enjoy it.
Merry Christmas. 🎄🙂
@@alitlweird I DID. Many many thanks
Being a frugal guy and old as well, I remember when these were the only thing that could be bought to suit standard table and floor lamps originally designed for incandescents. I was well aware that they flickered to start, but thankful that they were not the linear 18 inch desk fluorescents that needed to have a button held down for starting, though at least those came on instantly if you held the button long enough to vaporize the mercury.
They were most popular during the energy saving days during the Carter administration as I recall. To sell them as energy savers, it seems they wanted to produce the most lumens per watt, and as you probably know, fluorescents do that with cool white phosphor formulations most popular in the early fifties before rare earth phosphors were brought to market to improve the brightness of color TV. I still have in the back of my garage an RCA color set from the late fifties that used a variety of red phosphors that was so dim, that to white balance the other two phosphors, needed those to be severely attenuated. A very dark room was required to enjoy that TV, but some say that the color renditions were superior to the later versions. RCA was still shipping development money with each set sold in those days.
GE was probably getting rid of poor quality phosphor mixes with that circleline lamp you show here. The cost to design that ballast as a self starter may have caused the division to cheapen its light output for that product. For commercial and hospital users of the circleline lamps in the ceiling fixtures they normally would serve, I think they had better QC for the color rendition, but so much light is wasted, with standard table lamp shades already generally yellowed to some extent from being cooked with incandescent heat, perhaps they felt they needed the more enrgetic phosphors.
SPIRAL STYLE CFLs didn’t exist much before 1990. If you wanted a compact fluorescent, you bought these circle things. My parents have one in their basement simce the 1970s (almost 50 years)! Mounted upside down
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My parents house was filled with those lamps. When better ones became available they were moved to the basement, where they are still providing the light. So, at least 40 years later I can't tell you yet how long they last.
That's pretty good value compared to the CFL and LED lights now which only seem to last 3 years if you're lucky.
Checked this weekend and there are 3 circle lights in the basement, which is the number of lamps in the family room from which they came. 1 is a GE, probably the original, the other 2 are "lights of America", probably purchased on sale. All look about the same. All still functioning.
I've had mixed results with CFLs. I've heard fluorescents don't like being started, so usage where they are frequently turned on and off will greatly shorten their life.
I have one of those 22 watt circline lamps in my hall way. (in a proper fixture I might add) they last a LONG, LONG time. 15 years and it is still going strong and I don't anticipate changeing it for many more years. OK now I have junxed myself it will probably burn out next time I turn it on.
The problem with CFL especially the "instastart" is that they are to harsh on the tubes, meaning a CFL that would be on 24/7 would actually last longer than turning it off and on, so I wouldn't be surprised that on a bathroom they last less because it has greater on/off cycles, each time you turn one on the life span reduces greatly. On the other hand those older CFLs that took 2 or 3 seconds to turn on lasts much much more because the tube warms up slowly and softly, I have one of those in a bedroom, it has been used daily for atleast 10 years and it's still going strong, on the other hand all of the other CFL (instant ones) have been replaced more than once during that time.
If you notice these newer CFLs in a short time the ends of the tube become darker and darker, that's because they are wearing out.
Right. The longest lasting fluorescent tubes were the preheat start type such as this one. My parents had an old 15 watt 18" preheat lamp over their kitchen sink. It was left running 24x7, had an old GE F15T12 tube in it. It was there for over 25 years until the kitchen was renovated. That old fixture is now sitting in my garage on a shelf not connected with the original tube that is now over 50 years old. I would bet if I connected it, it would still fire up. Has been sitting on that shelf since 1993 when I rescued it from the scrap and stuck it on the shelf at the back of my garage.
I measure everything in nine eights of an inch. For example, I'm 68.5 nine eights of an inch tall.
That's pretty tall. 6' 5"
Yeah, it's tough driving in the States, because my usual road speed is 3.9 million nine eighths of an inch per hour, and officers don't like it when I tell them that's how fast I was going.
My father's hat size is six and seven eighths, my head is a little larger so I guess I must be seven and eight ninths.
Ian Darley .... Swing and a miss.
NOW it all makes sense
Don't worry, Philo Farnsworth's video is on the way! But for now, enjoy a quick look at this....thing.
EDIT: I'm sorry about the audio whine! Shoulda used headphones when editing...
Interesting device. And how to describe fluorescent tubes based on its diameter in eights of an inch! I didn't know that! Cool
i actually remember seeing these things before i saw a old building using one in ceiling in the 2000's looks like been there long time i wanted one for the fact that it was weird thing. but i like odd old/vintage looking things anyhow. and that managed to find a tube replacement for it was kinda interesting as well as ive never seen those at home depot any as its just a wall of led/cfls/some incandescents and T5's T8's and 12's of all lengths.
Somewhat standard in the movie industry. And totally nutz.
Recent subscriber from the UK here, and I look forward to all of your videos; so pleased that I found your channel from a recommended video - your videos are excellent, and invariably there is something within them that I did not know. Thank you, and please keep them coming!
Technology Connections The same thing happened to Tom Scott a while back. He shot a video in a room full of CRT's. He didn't hear it, but the younger viewers did!
This is fascinating, my grandfather installed this exact lightbulb in my mother's sewing closet when I was around 5 years old. Must have been 1983 or something. The exact same lightbulb is still installed and still works to this very day. It is rarely used, which certainly explains why it has lasted this long. When it "ignites" it plinks and dinks and flashes around for a good 5 seconds before it illuminates, dimly at that. Takes another minute or two before maximum brightness. We talked about putting in an LED fixture a while ago, but decided it was pretty neat this old bulb was still chugging along. Thanks...
Not a light bulb, an Illumination Toroid
Haha I like that name
Sounds like a name Sheldon Cooper would use.
@@Milesco or Aperture Science
haha I thought the same thing along with radioactive donut 😂
Glow donut :(
Oh wow, I remember Circline lights. My grandparents had them the hallways and such of their house when I was a kid. They were in normal Circline ceiling fixtures, though, not these... things. The ghastly character of the 1960s-tech fluorescent light they made was the same, though! To bathe in their (showerless) downstairs bathroom was to get a sneak preview of what one would look like as a week-old corpse discovered in one's living room armchair by neighbors alerted by the smell.
SPIRAL STYLE CFLs didn’t exist much before 1990. If you wanted a compact fluorescent, you bought these circle things. My parents have one in their basement simce the 1970s (almost 50 years)! Mounted upside down
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How the hell have you made a video about an old lightbulb interesting?
could the bulbs color / brightness have been negatively affected by its age? i imagine the metals could have went through some reactions in the years that passed.
Unless memory fails to serve, that's exactly the hideous colour those things put out. It's not age, it was meant that way. Horrid.
He hasn't.
Naw, that's how they looked. There is a reason people hated CFLs when they first came out. They gave ghastly light. We had florescent tubes everywhere in my early 60s house, and fortunately the decor was yellow themed... Actually any color would have been yellow themed with that lighting!
Cause he's awesome and I want his children?
OMG pure nostalgia. My grandparents had those in their house when I was young back in the 80s and early 90s. They lasted for a long long time.
Glad to hear about your grandparents. Did they attribute their long lives to these bulbs?
@@Paul-ou1rx : LOL ! 😄
Had the exact same thing in our old house. Cost 15.99Cdn in 1985, worked flawlessly for 29 years and counting till we moved out in 2014. It never needed a ballast replacement either.
SPIRAL STYLE CFLs didn’t exist much before 1990. If you wanted a compact fluorescent, you bought these circle things. My parents have one in their basement simce the 1970s (almost 50 years)! Mounted upside down
.
I bought one of these fluorescent adapters at Caldor for $11.99 in 1983. The ballast assembly always reminded me of a bottle of Old Spice aftershave. I found it interesting that the FC8T9/WW circline lamp included with the adapter read "RAPID START" in spite of the device being a preheat setup. [Meanwhile, the contemporaneous GE Bright Stik pre-heat start fluorescent lighting apparatus contained a non-etched linear F20T12 lamp]. Anyhow, the circline lamp didn't reach end-of-life before the internal starter crapped out. I remember replacing that Circline adapter with another one that came with a GE Soft-White Home Fluorescent, FC8T9/SW lamp, around 1990 or so. I used that until early 1997, when I moved out of my parents' house at age 23, to embark on my emancipated adult life.
I remember those, as a kid assembling it was scary
My grandma had one of these from at least the late '70s. Ugly, but they lasted a long time. They were common up until the late '80s.
One of my grandmothers had one in her kitchen as well, and I can't ever remember her having to ever replace the bulb until well into the mid 90's, but I never did like the color of light it gave out.
Interesting that you report the longevity of these bulbs. My experience has been exactly the opposite. My family bought several of these donut-shaped disasters back in the '90s, and they all failed within nine months. Our experience was so bad that not only did we never purchase another circular fluorescent bulb ever again, we stayed away from compact fluorescents (CFLs) for many years as well.
Is it bad that I find the old fluorescent light quality really comforting?
Joshua Hillerup I still use daylight bulbs all over my house. Now they're mostly LED, though.
Nothing bad, it's just a different "vibe" or "mood" it. I like different choices in light color depending upon application.
I've been using an LED "bulb" in my desk lamp for over 3 years now and have experienced no ill effects at all. It's a cheap bulb I got in a two pack from Lowe's for $3.38. The other is in a lamp in the living room. The desk bulb has burned continuously this whole time 24 hours a day, 7 days a week except for the occasional power outage during a storm. If the other bulb in the living room has the same lifespan as this one has I'll never buy another type of bulb again. In fact I have about 12 boxes of these LED's that have been in my bedroom closet for over a year now and as my older CFL's and incandescent ones burn out I'll be replacing them with the LED's. I wouldn't worry too much about kilohertz either, the very air around you is filled with it and megahertz signals with radio and television transmissions and have been for ages.
Rebel9668 Yep, in fact whatever device one is using to read this is cranking out 2.4 or perhaps 5 Gigahertz of RF just for WiFi, plus RF for Bluetooth and more RF for the cellular service is it's a phone!
Rick Delair Pretty much none of what you just said is true.
Thanks for the review of this lamp! My grandmother's house had many ceiling fixtures with really creative round globes and chrome rings. They had several different diameters tubes in then and were really cool "space age" things.
I am so sad that I didn't get to remove them from her house after she passed. They were super cool!
Those cool old fixtures with new fluorescent tubes (with better phosphor colors!!!) would be a great addition to any vintage fixture collectors home.
You can definitely replace the starter in the adapter. You need to take the 'glow switch' capsule out of a starter plug and install just that part into the Circline adapter in place of the worn out one. It's been a long time, but remember popping the adapter apart at a seam, changing the starter, and then re-assembling it with PVC solvent cement (plumbing section).
SPIRAL STYLE CFLs didn’t exist much before 1990. If you wanted a compact fluorescent, you bought these circle things. My parents have one in their basement simce the 1970s (almost 50 years)! Mounted upside down
.
Cool little video, I loved the color reproduction comparisons.
I'm always amazed at how you can take a boring mundane object and show us how interesting or complicated it can be. Always excellent work on your vids! Love them!
I believe that I bought two of these many years ago. The;y were difficult to install and I am a electronic technician! I like the new LED lights better,. Better light and choice of colors. I love your videos and look forward to more. You videos are like a walk down memory lane. And thats a good thing!
My parents and grandparents had these in the kitchen. They screwed into simple light sockets that pointed straight down from the ceiling, and there was nothing covering them, just an exposed halo hanging right in the middle of the room. haha God, these things perfectly encapsulated the aesthetic of "cheap and old".
I've got one in my kitchen overhead. It simply works.
Mike Nagy same here mine had a clear shade in the centre though.
I love them. I'm cheap, and I'm gonna be old soon. I want to have one someday.
dude im just liking your comment and subscribing you because you are sexy
My great aunt had a some of these in her basement. She just screwed them into the socket and there they were. She probably had like two of them. Each light in the basement was on a pull chain so you had to walk around turning them on. I saw those lightbulbs hanging there and I thought they were something else until I saw they had pull chains as well. It always scared me to turn them on because they would blink and flicker a bunch before officially turning on.
Loved how you had the flicker extend to the name on the 3 bulb comparison. It's the little things that warm my heart.
It's just an adapter to put a Circline tube into an Edison socket. Circline tubs were developed as their own thing, so it makes sense to make an adapter so you can sell those tubes for more applications. Also, the T-sizing thing is an international thing, not just a US thing. Though, to make it more confusing, T8 is also called T26, because it's about 26mm (actually 25.4mm) and T12 is also called T38, even though it's actually 38.1mm. The mm sizes are just adapted over from the sizing in eights of an inch, however.
They call that "soft conversion". Convert to Metric and if the precise size isn't critical, round to the nearest whole number. Hard conversion is actually altering the product design to make it the nearest whole number metric dimension - and making it incompatible with the previous Imperial dimension version.
...so it's x*3+2?
Ethan Alt Nope, that's just a coincidence from the two sizes given. T5 US is T16 elsewhere, because 5/8" = ~15.875 mm.
My aunt and grandmother had these in a couple lamps... never thought much of them but nostalgic and really cool to see some back story behind these. Thank you !
I have one of these in my room, still going strong after all these years.
My grandparents had these bulbs in many of their downstairs lamps. When I moved out of my parent's house into my first home, they gave me several lamp adapters for the ring bulbs. I liked them. For the nostalgia of childhood family gatherings. Thank you for this explication of the technology.
Worked at a motel when I lived in the states, they had them in every room, in the ceiling lamps. The tubes were all branded "Lights of America" tho
TheChipmunk2008 Lights of America was one of the pioneers in the "fluorescent isn't just linear tubes for ceiling fixtures any more" market niche. The first CFL I ever got in the late 90s was LoA branded. So it doesn't surprise me they were selling circline adapters before that.
Those were the ones we had!
One of these was in my house when I bought it. It was over the sink where it... illuminated the work surface directly below it. Brilliant!
I have two of these lights.
Now they are in the garage.
When it's cold, sometimes they don't start up, but I don't care because they are in the garage.
Sometimes simply flicking the switch a few times can make them light.
Fluorescent lights work by heating the gas inside the tube which make the coating on the wall of the tube to fluoresce, or give off light. When used in cold locations like your garage or as a porch light, the heating takes longer and the colder it is it may never get warm enough to fluoresce.
My aunt had these all over her house in the 90s , I have fond memories of waiting for what seemed like forever for each lamp to turn on.
I had several of these before the ‘swirlie’ CFLs came out. They worked fine. Bulb & base lasted forever!
Swirlie, that's an excellent name. My family calls them, " Curley Q's"
@@krisbolle5128 I call them twisty wisties and curly whirlies 😅
The lasted a lot longer than the little CFLs which got super-hot and burned out.
The ones I buy are actually labeled ‘Swirlies’ by the manufacturer..
First of all, let me say that I really love your channel. I thought I was the only one who explained things way more than most people want! Secondly, I bought that exact same product in the mid '80's for a bedside lamp. When we moved into our new home in the mid '90's I screwed it into a basic socket in the ceiling of a storage room in my garage. I'll let you know when it stops working.
From my personal experiences, Your next of kin will throw it away years after you are gone.
I live in venezuela and similar lamps were still being sold here until 2015 at least, and might still being sold. There is a similar one in my kitchen right now, Osram branded but it uses a more modern electronic ballast.
The tubes themselves are still pretty common here in the US as well, but the idea of using them in an ordinary lamp using one of these adapters is long since gone.
I actually was referring to the adapter itself
I can't say if they have ever been marketed here in Denmark, but i have never, ever, seen anything like them myself, before i saw this video.
Here in Italy they sold them as a single piece, you couldn't remove the circline. I too had one of them mounted in the kitcken not many years ago. I don't know if they still sell them.
EDIT: they do still sell them www.amazon.it/dp/B009T33I1W/ref=asc_df_B009T33I1W46547464/?tag=googshopit-21&creative=23394&creativeASIN=B009T33I1W&linkCode=df0&hvdev=c&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=
That doesn't surprise me as in Venezuela they sell new old model cars too.
My grandparents had a circline luminaire just like this one in their kitchen. I used to love watching it fire up, and it sure was crazy with illuminating colors on coupon books, right next to the spice drawer. Brings back lots of memories.
I have one of these and it STILL WORKS. I'd like to see a CFL or an LED bulb last this long. Mine is a little older than yours.
Yes I have one too.
coondogtheman1234 Good quality LEDs would probably beat it
coondogtheman1234 Exactly, they stopped making them because they pretty much lasted forever unlike any lights made today
Powder-phun No Way. LED don't last long, even high quality ones
AGREED. I am always changing them. They fail under warranty, but the warranty doesn't cover the 10.00 in as I have to burn to return them to the stroe for an exchange.
This gave me great nostalgia. I used these bulbs a lot when I was a kid, and replacing them was indeed a bit of a pain. You were right to worry about clipping the glass tube in. I've had at least one shatter on me while trying to clip it in.
Interesting, we have this old magnifying glass lamp at work, its like one of those articulating desk lamps, but its got a big round magnifying glass in the middle, and one of these bulbs around it. I think this bulb originally came out in a 1950s ceiling fixture.
We have a lot of those at work. They work great and last I checked were still available, not cheap of course!
Yes I depend upon my magnifying light for detailed electronic repair. The bulbs were last known to be about 20 bucks...
THIS is why I like the preheat started magnetic ballast system, it's really simple and lasts a VERY long time. I have an old sheet music\table lamp that was bought back when my grandmother was a kid, and it still works with it's original tube! (it doesn't get used much, but still) also, a similar corded under cabinet lamp. I bought a replacement tube cause of the color, but that lamp lasted for nearly TEN YEARS of running about 4 hours every morning.
I'm from the rest of the world. We also use the T-system here
SAVE ME!
It's a perfectly serviceable system that can be easily converted to a standard unit if you for some reason want to.
Measuring bulb diameter in mm would be stupid.
I'm american... How many hotdogs wide is the tube?
Btw a hotdog is equivalent to 1.27 inches
I'm american... How many hotdogs wide is the tube?
Btw a hotdog is equivalent to 1.3182 centimeters
@@runed0s86 I've found hot dogs require a temperature diameter correction formula or table application for accuracy. Not to be confused with their color temperature chart.
I still have one of these that I purchased around 1992. it still works, and as far as the color, at the time, it wasn't a big deal. Today's technology has spoiled us to the number of choices available.The newer CFL's seem to be more of a hazard, to me, as I have never had any of the older ones explode on me. I have had four of the newer 'curly Q' CFL's do that; one of them less than 2 feet away from my head at the time! I'm also not a huge fan of the newer LED's, but understand the need to reduce electricity usage to have several in my house. Thanks for the trip down memory lane!
I've had that lamp since forever in my house. Still working for at least 20 years
These circline tube's are still used in workbench magnifiers where you look though the center magnifying glass with the tube illuminating around the opening. Works really well when your trying to solder something or doing other delicate close up work. I've seen new ones with a ring of LED's, but I don't know if they have dim-able ones in LED, that would be useful.
I agree, the old circline florescent tubes had bad color rendition with their limited 2-phosphor blend versus the newer tricolor phosphors.
One issue that I have with modern LEDs (and even CFLs) is that they have horrific brightness. In my room I have two normal 58W (150cm) cool white fluorescent tubes (with around 5200 lumens each). Getting something like that with LEDs is a bit hard. I don't think I will be replacing those anytime soon. Though we did finally replaced the incandescent 150w bulb in out kitchen earlier this year. With a huge LED lamp (1m in diameter), 8500 lumens with settable dimming and color temperature. It's ok-ish, but the CRI leaves a bit to be desired.
Your problem is ordering from Home Depot and not a professional lighting shop. If you are comparing a LED to a linear fluorescent, Cree makes up to 5,000 lumen troffers and max 10,000 lumen surface mount ambient with 90+ CRI. Those replace anything a linear fluorescent can do.
I used to not be happy with LED bulbs, but the newer ones put out better light than the CFL's now, so I'm happy to replace my CFL's with LED's.
I see I already commented years ago about how my parents basement was full of these. I also remember we used them on every table and floor lamp in the living room.
My dad was an environmentalist so we more or less tried every new technology that was supposed to be efficient as soon as we could afford it.
I quite liked these at the time, they produced more light output than whatever incandescent bulbs we would have used in their place. The biggest problem was the fixtures they didn't fit, and they were not dimmable.
I have a workshop space that I moved into in the mid-2000s and will be moving out of at the end of the year. There is one hard to reach fixture in that space that still uses one of these simply because it was the best option available at the time and I have not had access to that picture since we moved in. I bet it still works.
I had this bulb in my room. wonder very bright light
What is that second sentence supposed to mean?
Here in the UK, circline tubes were never too common with 2D lamps (sort of square-shaped CFL lamps) being widespread instead. The solution here was an adapter made for miniature versions of these lamps. It was less awkward-sized than this one and was quite practical, but also suffered from its large weight and awful colour temperature!
0:47 Seems GE Lighting is headquartered in my hometown of Cleveland.
Allocated Brain what.
Edit: oh
Nela Park! You didn't know this? They used to put on a great lighting show every Christmas. If they still do this you should check it out.
Had one of these in my closet as a kid. LOVED it. The bizzare "ignition" sequence of the then aged bulb captivated me as it tried to spring to life.
This is awesome! I think I want one. I do work at a battery and Bulb store so I bet I can order one. EDIT: nope.
+1 for the edit
I can’t believe I came across this till today! My parents house had these lights all over the place, as the cost of electricity in my home country is relatively high, my dad tried to transform the house to CFLs since he bought it in the late 80s... We had about 4 of these, and next time I’m home I’ll check, but I’m almost positive they still work, over 30 years later... we didn’t use them for lamps, but for basic ceiling fixtures, they do achieve the purpose as you don’t even need to replace the fixture, and boy are they durable
to be honest - the lighting images you showed - show this as being a more accurate and pleasing light source for photography than the LED you compared it to - I feel like these would be great if fitted around the lens of a camera.
Hmm, perhaps a new adapter could be made which has long "arms" so it can go well around the camera! But the issue remains with the weight, some UV (which the camera MIGHT pick up and ruin some vividness) and the… i guess… high voltage?
And a magnetic ballast may affect the camera's functioning, I don't know.
@@SreenikethanI Any digital camera would be heavily affected by the magnetic ballast, if it were placed anywhere practical on the camera, and it would draw too much power to be practical for a portable device, but I can certainly say that it would work perfect for lighting a set that you're taking pictures on.
i thought the same as you
Electronic ballasts have been around for a while. It should be a simple matter converting an F20T12 ballast and starter to the Circline.
We bought one of these in the mid 80's but the design was slightly different as far as I can recall. The tube had a permanently attached crosspiece with a large circle in the center which slipped onto the ballast/starter and had a slider piece near the center which made the connection from the tube to the starter unit. We also learned the hard way that lamps with small bases became very top heavy with this thing installed. One evening while trying to turn a desk lamp on, it tumbled onto the floor and the tube exploded. After cleaning up the glass shards, my dad threw the attached crosspiece in the trash too so I never got a chance to see if another tube could be used. Years later I found the starter unit in a drawer and it remembered this oddball lamp that never took off and how we hated it.
I had always seen these in some hotel rooms, I thought they were some kind of industrial/corporate type thing since I never saw them in anyone's home.
Lights of America usually supplies them for hotels.
I have one similar in a basement fixture for 20 years. Model FCB700/1 GE NELA PARK CLEVELAND 14:09. I use it a few hours a week. One end is just starting to darken. Great conversation piece. Thanks for covering it.
FYI, the bulb sizing system is used worldwide.
ima prolly go buy one. I have a few magnetic ballasted fluros around and they still work. (the one in my kitchen is a standard linear tube rapid start system, though even though it is nearly 20 years old, we haven't had to replace a single tube or ballast yet. because they are so simple, there's not much to fail. only 3 components, the ballast, starter and the 1-4 tubes in circuit.
These circular lamps have a big disadvantage, they use more mercury than ordinary fluorescent lamps, much more!
LED-lights to the people!
LED-lights aren't that good either. They produce ugly light, often have bad colour rendering and produce a lot of blue light which is bad for your eyes.
You can not say things are in a certain way without telling how.
LED has no heavy metals.
Fluorescent lamps must have more mercury if the tube is bent.
LED does not need to flicker at a certain frequency, driving them with DC is actually the best, zero flicker!
However, incadescent bulbs have the best colors.
Emil Almberg plus leds are super cheap you can buy rgb ones and change the colour to something a little warmer or with less blue(one of his complaints)
LED or discharge lamp make up your mind but don't go to incandescent. Discharge lighting is just as efficient as LED when made properly, so I'm really neither here nor there.
@Rick Delair DO NOT under any circumstances go outside. Harmful carcinogenic actinic rays confirmed! You must be confined to the Martian colony training camps underground. Removal from Earth when ready for the BFR launches. 60 or more accurately 120 Hz is known to be disturbing to human vision, everyone finds the florescent light that goes on half cycle (60) Hz flickering to be a real annoyance. 25kHz cannot be measured in the LED light. Oh and no TV or film either. The finest art museums are able to use LED's for the best color balance, so can everyone now.
Thank you for the video ...I actually prefer Cool White light...so way back when, the only way I could achieve that was to buy this adapter, and then buy a cool white tube... and lamps that it wouldn't physically fit into I had to actually tie wrap it onto the shade and not use the arms.. other companies fixtures were not as rugged and you could just cut the arms off.. and had wires and a plug onto the tube.. still using today.... internal starter is the same as an FS 2
colour temperature, not white balance!
I think White balance is actually the color temperature itself, just the measurement or balance scale of color temperatures.... Technically, same thing
The text over the old bulb flickering like that, it's a nice touch that made me smile. Honest.
“Not so popular”?? - man, you led a sheltered life! Circular fluorescents were common until quite recently, and the Edison base adapters like you showed here are just a minor implementation.
The video was more on the adapter and less on the circline tube itself. I'm claiming the _adapters_ weren't so popular.
I vaguely remember a "3" shaped tube at one time, too. It would usually be in a square panel.
3:07 that little text fading in for the incandescent and the flickering for the cfl is really nice attention to detail
Video fail. I had several of these in the 90's and they worked fine. No problems, worked without trouble, and no difficulty installing. You have created 'problems" where none existed. My kitchen used a standard circline tube. Simple to install.
I don't recall suggesting the product had operational flaws, rather that it had somewhat limited applications, required assembly which could be awkward, and had horrible light quality. Hence they enjoyed limited popularity and were more of a niche product.
No more a niche product than 3-way lamps that they might replace.
I'm not talking about the tube, I'm talking about the adapter. Referencing your first comment, you seem to think this video is a commentary on circline tubes in general--I doubt your kitchen fixture used an adapter like this, it was probably designed for circline tubes. Obviously I know they're common, as I knew I could find a replacement at the hardware store.
I mentioned Circline tube applications since you take pot shots at the tube in particular. At heart I feel your criticism unfounded; this was a satisfactory product in its day. Perhaps the tube you have is defective or aged poorly.
I am so confused by the series of comments. Did you watch the video? I replaced the tube, and am using the lamp right now! And as I've now pinned a comment above, never was this video meant to criticize the circline tube. Rather, it's a retrospective on GE's weird attempt to shoehorn them into an everyday table lamp using this adapter, and in hindsight it looks like an odd, early attempt at a CFL.
I love your videos dude, it's great looking back at old tech. I remember these being all the rage with hotels back in the day. EVERY light in the room had these.
Your testing is flawed you need to run this lamp for 50 hours then do your test. My sylvannia's CFL's will give off that purplish color you describe and they came out just a few years ago when new until 50 hours have past. Also, then color goes from 1500k to 6500k and the 6500k is a very sterile white color while the 1500k is a very soft white color.
1) It remains a flaw.
2) it should be in the product description.
We had one of these in our living room lamp in the mid-90's. When I grew up and got my own apartment, I got to take the lamp AND the bulb. The tube only failed a couple of years ago, lasting well over 25 years, and the bulb is still going strong in my living room as I type this. I love this bulb! Here's to another 25 years together.
We had a bunch of those, along with ceiling circline lighting fixtures. Fortunately they didn't fit the fixtures in our bedrooms. Over time my parents replaced the overhead bulbs with better flourescents, but the ones in the lamps never seemed to burn out. In fact, my parents still have one lamp with a circline flourescent in it. It was there before I moved out about 30 years ago.
There's a blast from the past. There was one of these in my kitchen growing up in the 90's. I can recall clearly my father swearing and taping on the thing to get it going. Haven't seen one since.
My family had one of these crazy blinky-blink lights in our TV room in the mid-90s. It was always fun to turn it on and listen to the sounds and watch the randomness of start-up.
Nicely done video, and the side by side comparison was very well done with the flickering text a great touch. I'd forgotten about these lights, now I want to go on eBay and see if I can find one.
OMG, you reminded me of one of my youngest memories. My grandfather had... I think it was a storage place, or perhaps it was a place he worked and there was some stuff stored there? no idea, but it had that sickly green hue from Florescent bulbs... so badly green that the place with it's... groovy wallpaper and ... wall fabrics with wood paneling ... made it VERY strange to go into for me, especially seeing that I grew up in the 90's (born mid 80's)... so the few times we went there, I always felt off, as if in a dream or a nightmare...
We got one of those in the early 90s. I remember it lasted more than 15 years, we changed the circline tube at least once before the ballast went out and it got replaced by a CFL. Both the tube and the ballast are more efficient and longer lived than a CFL because the tube isn't so thin, and heat dissipates much better.
I bought 2 or 3 of these units from my utility company, PSE&G, around 1983. I installed them in table lamps where they were on 8-10 hours a day. I used them well into the 2000's when they finally began to need replacement bulbs. My "innards" weren't as slick as the one you show; it was basically a block with 2 flat and 2 curved sides and had vent slots molded into the flat sides. I think I might still have them out in the garage.
My grandparents had 2 of those circline light is in their kitchen. With pretty attractive circline fixtures. They did a good job at lighting the entire kitchen between the 2 of them. Ah nostalgia. This takes me back. That house was built in the 60s. Those fixtures were replaced with incandescent fixtures and were more of a pain as incandescent lamps have a shorter lifespan.
I remember my parents buying one of those in the 90s or possibly 1989. They used it on the porch and we were amazed at its life. It was still working when we moved after about 7 years.
I like the way you made the Energy Choice description text flicker its way on just as the bulb did!!!
My parents have one of these in their kitchen as their main light. It was on there when they bought the house over 15 years ago and it’s still working great. I assume it was in there a while before they moved in as well...I always wondered what it was because I never saw one before or since really...On rainy and cold mornings it would take a little while to kick on... glad I came across this video.
Wow, what a trip down memory lane. These were common in my household when I was young. My dad always had a problem with incandescent lamps. Too much power wasted, too much heat generated, light was way too yellow. GE made these in cool white, that's what we had. In the mid nineties, Lights Of America brought out a similar product except they used electronic ballasts, and the lamp was packaged pre assembled. Really plug and play. Thanks for the vid.
Your point about the downward illumination is really interesting... I had been shying away from standing desklamps because of this very issue. I might have to hunt for one of these bulbs...
We used to have one of these when I was a kid! I always thought it was fascinating and unique as it didn't get blazing hot like the incandescent bulbs. What I remember most, though, is how we got it. There was a man coming door to door from the power company giving them away as a promotion! They were getting people to try out replacement bulbs to save power. They obviously don't fit in most fixtures designed for Edison bulbs but they work well standing lamps with a big shade. We had that thing for years before it quit.
That bit you mentioned at the end where it provides a very concentrated ring around the lamp and has a flickering start that reminds me of a lot of the lights that I saw in many numerous hotels I think that this was a popular model with hotels.
I grew up with these, as my Dad worked a job somewhat related to conservation, and we walked the walk. The thing I remember the most is turning them on and that flickering start. When you are a little kid, and still somewhat afraid of the dark, you want your light to come on straightaway when you turn it on, not flicker like you are in some horror sci-fi movie.
My great grandpa had one of these for as long as I can remember and when he died, I somehow ended up with it and had it in my bedroom for many more years!
That old bulb is actually a relic for a lightning collector! Old, greenish phosphor tube being operated by a huge heavy magnetic ballast WITH A NEON STARTER! If you don’t want it, I surely won’t be upset at all if you give it to me!
This things are getting really hard to find these days!
"Why am I watching a video about an obscure bulb?"
Because *apparently* this bulb deserves to be remembered!
We all take so many incredible engineering accomplishments for granted. Thanks for reminding us how spoiled we are! Keep them coming!
I loved these, I have some still in use today.
I remember seeing those things in other people's houses. They were always hanging upside-down from naked ceiling fixtures. I like the way you put it in a lamp--that's new to me!
My great grandmother has one of these in her garage and it has been there since the early 90s. It still works perfectly!
I can remember the purple glow of my grandfather's circline magnifier that he read his Bible with - it had an armature that clamped to the kitchen table. I remember it humming a little as well. I wonder if anybody has seen an old circline magnifier like that.
Yes! I remember these! The upstairs hall in the home where I grew up used to always have this bulb since the mid 80s. I don't think it does now, but this was the first kind of florescent light I ever saw! Nostalgia ftw! Surf Wisely.
Dad had one of these in the table lamp next to his easy chair back in the day. Our kitchen had a Circline ceiling fixture. I'd forgotten about these lights until now.
these lights bring back memories.. my grandmothers house had a double tube type one of these (one small and one larger around the smaller bulb) in the bathroom, im certain that light was never changed in the 26 years i visited and lived in that house and the dang thing was still working when she passed away! i do not think i ever saw this style bulb anywhere else but in that house, the house was built in late 40s so i assume given all the chrome on the housing of that lighting fixture it was probably put into that bathroom 50-60s maybe? non the less i enjoyed the video as i do all your videos, indeed i do like to sit and learn random things..
Lights of America sold a great many of this style, in fact I think I still have one in its original package! I used them in the mid 1980s and beyond, they were quite reliable.
We definitely had at least one of these (or a successor) in my parents' table lamp in the early to mid-'90s. Vivid memories of its shape under the shade.
I just replace two standard circline fluorescent ceiling fixtures earlier this year. The ballast went out in one and then the other went a month later. I believe they were installed some time in the early-to-mid 80s so they seem to have lasted a bit longer than the expected lifespan of that GE converter model would suggest.
When I used to live at home with my folks, our house had a "circline" fluorescent light fixture using a T9 lamp just like the CFL featured in this video, it was mounted on the ceiling at the bottom of the stairs in the basement. It kept going for the 14 years I lived there until I moved out on my own about 16 years ago (that light is probably still going nowadays). Those Circline lamps seemed to be quite popular in the 70s & 80s.
This was the light we had in our front entrance in the 80's. Towards the end of it's (what we thought at the time) lifespan, it started randomly flickering at different speeds and brightness. The life of the bulb lasted ANOTHER 10 years. Mind you, it was only used 4 hours each year on Halloween night, creating a PERFECT random lightning effect in the front entrance of the house as we handed out candy. It was a sad Halloween the year we screwed it in, turned it on and gave us nothing more than a faint soft glow.
I had one of these installed and operating continuously from circa 1991 until around 2008 in a hanging ceiling fixture. I needed to make an indoor space safer and I figure this saved me a lot of energy and money.