Written 2024-07-27
Earlier this week I found this cool fluorescent desk lamp at a thrift shop. I've seen a lot of these kinds of lamps on the "fluorescent light" side of YouTube (which I admit that I frequent) and have wanted one for a while. This lamp is 13W and has a manual preheat (!!) ballast. It was manufactured by "Electrical & Electronics Co. (Taiwan) Ltd." and lacks a model number. I've been able to find several nearly/completely identical lamps online, all with different branding, so it's likely that this lamp was sold under several different brands at the same time. If I had to guess, I'd place its production date sometime in the mid-60s. Here are some pictures, and a video of me starting it:
At the moment, it emits a loud buzz and vibrates enough that you can feel it when you touch the base. I've opened it up and it seems like it wouldn't be hard to fix this by replacing the ballast, if I could find one. It may also be interesting to try and source a warmer tube for it, although my understanding is that a fluorescent tube in this size is somewhat hard to find in the year of our Lord two thousand and twenty-four. Plus, I appreciate how much a 5000K tube in a brown gooseneck lamp screams '1965'.