In article ,
Capitol writes:
Oldest CFLs I bought around 1980 IIRC.Made by Philips.

Yes, first commercially available was the Philips SL18 - I got a
pre-production one in 1980 (worked but smelt of burning polystyrene
for first few weeks). I used it until 1984, when I accidentally
left it behind when I left a bedsit. I still have a SL25 which was
a later higher powered version, but it's not in use.

The SL18 was quickly followed by the Thorn 2D lamps - same idea but
with separate reusable control gear. (Thorn eventually sold all
their lamp manufacture to GE, although they retained luminare design.)

Thorn Lighting had done the first energy saving fluorescent tube,
the 100W 8' tube to retrofit into 125W fittings, around 1978, and
there was a bit of a race to come up with the first filament lamp
retrofit compact fluorescent after that. Both Philips and Thorn
Lighting demonstrated their products, but I think Philips was first
to get theirs to market, just.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]