"Arfa Daily" wrote in message
...

"Terry" wrote in message
...
On Jul 15, 5:01 pm, "Arfa Daily" wrote:
"Samuel M. Goldwasser" wrote in
...



See:http://repairfaq.cis.upenn.edu/Misc/cflhole1.jpg

This is a ~1 mm hole in the glass near one of the filaments.
Something got hot enough for the glass to melt, and after
that, as they say, the rest was history.

I've seen this on 3 CFLs in 3 different lamps/fixtures. There are no
known
problems that could account for such nasty behavior. They were all high
mileage, so perhaps the filament at that end of the lamp opened
resulting
in the discharge going to one post, near the glass, or something.

The CFLs were all from GE but I don't know if they are of the same
ballast/lamp design.

Comments welcome.

--
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Hmmm. Another 'dangerous' aspect of these dreadful devices then. If they
don't send you blind, or provoke epileptic fits, they'll get you by
venting
their mercury vapour !! :-)

Arfa

Yep, soon they'll be considered as dangerous as incandescent lamps
that burn fingers, start fires, explode, send molten glass and
tungsten shooting about and electrocute those who try to change the
bulb. ;-)

Terry

My my, Terry. You do live an interesting and dangerous life ... During my
many years of shuffling around on this little orb of ours, I don't think I
have ever had a domestic incandescent light bulb start a fire, explode,
reach a temperature where the glss could become molten, shoot molten
tungsten at me, or try to electrocute me (how does that one work then ??).
I would have to admit to having scorched (rather than burnt) my fingers a
time or two, but that was down to me employing stupid tactics for handling
them ... d:-)

Arfa


All that stuff has happened usually because (full disclosure) I treated the
lamp rather badly. A drop or two of water on a hot 100 watt GLS lamp, for
example, is sure to cause damage and, probably, fireworks.

I was electrically shocked when I tried to put a 60-watt lamp into a
portable lamp socket with the socket turned on and didn't realize it was an
old portable which didn't have a polarized plug. It's easy to touch the
threaded part of the base when you reach under the shade with the lamp and
try to position it in the socket.

Terry McGowan