"life imitates life" wrote in
message ...
Just to clarify-
You mean don't touch the arc lamps? Don't think you meant anything against
Bulbtronics. They've always done well by me.


I was talking about finger oils.

Yes, touching the high temperature quartz envelope of Tungsten/Halogen or
arc lamp capsules is a definite no-no. The oil on your skin get on the
envelope and if not removed may cause the lamp to explode. The oil darkens
from heat and UV, absorbs more heat locally and resulting imbalance of
thermal stresses causes the envelope to burst. Particularly troublesome with
Xenon lamps that are under about 10 atmospheres pressure at operating
temperature. Even with the envelope cleaned after an accidental touch, I've
seen finger prints etched into the surface.