"Sawney Beane" wrote in message
...
wrote:


In the UK screw caps are mainly used on discharge lamps, such as SON
(high pressure sodium), metal halide, mercury etc. For some reason SOX
(low pressure sodium) lamps use bayonet caps. I prefer screw caps;
they hold the lamp more securely, important with large or heavy lamps,
such as the early Philips SL ones, and contary to the experience of
others here, I find that they're less likely to stick in the holders.

Good point! They are relatively heavy, expensive bulbs, mounted on
poles where there may be movement and vibration. So the mounting
system must be secure. The fixture may get wet on foggy days, so
the system can't be prone to corrosion and sticking. The
maintenance man may be on a metal ladder against a metal pole, so
the system must be safe.

The designers of these bulbs must have found that Edison bases could
work very well. (One problem in America is that two of the most
popular sizes of sodium bulbs use the same size base. It may not be
apparent which size a fixture requires. If the bulb doesn't match
the ballast, it will keep cycling on and off, and nobody may know why.)

A maintenance man probably wouldn't use pliers to unscrew a base
unless he knew for sure the circuit was dead. Skin resistance is
usually pretty good protection against serious injury from household
voltage, but it won't protect you so well if you're gripping metal
pliers. On the few occasions I've unscrewed the bases of broken
bulbs, I've used rags, not pliers, which could cause an arc besides
a shock. A rag distributes the force you apply and reduces the
possibility of glass getting in the eyes.

I'm more mistrustful of bayonet bases than Edison bases. Most
bayonet bulbs I deal with are automobile tail lights, which may have
been corroding and vibrating for decades.

An American can save money by buying unfamiliar foreign brands of
Edison-base bulbs. They may be more troublesome than the familiar
brands. I can buy an American brand with confidence because the big
American companies have lots of experience making Edison-base bulbs
and they are competing for customer loyalty. That's probably true
of bayonet bulbs in England.

The big American brands used to be made in a factory which simply stamped
and packaged a run of bulbs with a given brand name as ordered. Same bulb
different big name. The difference now is that the factory is in China.

--

Don Kelly @shawcross.ca
remove the X to answer
----------------------------

On Sat, 26 Nov 2005, Gary wrote:

We've been using screw-in (ES) type bulbs over here ever since Edison
invented the damn thing. No problems.

Typical American thinking.

On Sun, 27 Nov 2005, Sawney Beane wrote:

I'm more mistrustful of bayonet bases than Edison bases. Most bayonet
bulbs I deal with are automobile tail lights, which may have been
corroding and vibrating for decades.

Vibration: Poor socket design.
Corrosion: Failure of US specifications to require nickel-plated bases.

Neither is due to the bayonet base design per se.

An American can save money by buying unfamiliar foreign brands of
Edison-base bulbs. They may be more troublesome than the familiar
brands. I can buy an American brand with confidence

Are you *sure*? That used to be the case, but many of the American-brand
lamps now available are (badly) made in China.

In article 6Duif.638864$tl2.159142@pd7tw3no, Don Kelly wrote:

The big American brands used to be made in a factory which simply stamped
and packaged a run of bulbs with a given brand name as ordered. Same bulb
different big name. The difference now is that the factory is in China.

Look at country of manufacture of "lamps"/"lightbulbs" of
higher-production-volume versions by the big name brands. These would
be 4-foot fluorescents as well as "A19" ("USA-regular lightbulb shape,
USA-regular lightbulb size") of wattages 25 to 100 watts.
Same for A19 incandescents of "store brand" that have same life
expectancy and light output specifications as any or more than one of the
"Big 3" brands.
Most of these sold in the USA were still made in the USA or in Canada
last time I looked at lightbulb packages when I was in stores that sold
lightbulbs (a week ago at most?). Mexico is a place that makes some
Philips lamps sold in the USA, although ones of lower production volume
than "A19" ones.

- Don Klipstein (Jr) )

"Daniel J. Stern" wrote:

On Sun, 27 Nov 2005, Sawney Beane wrote:

I'm more mistrustful of bayonet bases than Edison bases. Most bayonet
bulbs I deal with are automobile tail lights, which may have been
corroding and vibrating for decades.

Vibration: Poor socket design.
Corrosion: Failure of US specifications to require nickel-plated bases.

I meant I've had more trouble with bayonet bulbs getting stuck in
the socket and maybe having the glass break loose from the base, but
it's like comparing apples to oranges because the bayonet bulbs have
served under worse conditions than household bulbs. I don't know if
I've had less trouble with bulbs in Japanese cars.


Neither is due to the bayonet base design per se.

I'm willing to believe that the bayonet design might be better than
screw bulbs for automobiles with their vibration and moisture. I've
never tried a bayonet household bulb, but screw-in bulbs have served
me well in buildings.


An American can save money by buying unfamiliar foreign brands of
Edison-base bulbs. They may be more troublesome than the familiar
brands. I can buy an American brand with confidence

Are you *sure*? That used to be the case, but many of the American-brand
lamps now available are (badly) made in China.

You're right, I'm not sure. Decades ago, I began replacing
incandescents with flourescent strip lighting for better efficiency,
more diffuse light, and longer bulb life. More recently,
helix-style screw-in fluorscents have performed so well for me that
I may never use up my small supply of household incandescents. The
American incandescents in my closet are several years old. The
foreign ones in my closet look different. It makes me uneasy, but
now I don't recall if I've actually had a bad experience with one.

You've caught me talking through my hat. slap slap Thanks, I
needed that!

In article , Clive Mitchell wrote in part:

A current as low as 1mA (one thousandth of an amp) is enough to feel
distinctly with a single finger contact. 8mA will cause significant
muscle contraction and a shock sensation to extend the length of an arm.
30mA is the point where current flow to the feet causes asphyxiation by
involuntary contraction of the diaphragm. 100mA has a modest risk of
heart fibrillation. 1A is almost certain heart fibrillation generally
resulting in death if your heart can't be restarted within a short space
of time.

According to most sources, 100mA to 1 amp is the range most likely to
cause heart fibrillation. Currents somewhat to fairly outside this range
have merely lower but awfully significant chance of causing this deadly
effect. Neon sign transformers with short-circuit-current of their
secondaries are somewhat known to not be completely non-fatal. A few
sources cite current as low as about 5 mA having slight capability of
being fatal.

Currents above 1 amp have significant chance of causing cardiac arrest
as opposed to fibrillation, although with some chance that your heart
successfully "restarts" when the shock ends. But this does not sound good
to me!!!

========================

Electrocution is so unreliable that "The Electric Chair" relies on
delivering enough current and/or power to either cook vital organs or to
deprive the "condemned" from breathing long enough to impair the brainstem
from resuming breathing after the shock ends (if not cooked first). Many
times more than one jolt is delivered to the "condemned" before the
"condemned" person is declared dead.

As unreliable as electrocution is, I would beware that lack of
electrucution from usually-notfatal shocks is or at least can be similarly
unreliable.

Keep in mind that in the USA, body count as a function of voltage is not
a whole lot lower for 120V than for 440-480V, despite lack of 440-480V in
homes. And on USA Navy ships that have both 110-120V and 440-480V, the
lower of these two has a higher body count! I suspect that people get
dangerously careless with voltages that have a low shock fatality rate!!!

- Don Klipstein )

In uk.d-i-y, Sawney Beane wrote:
On the few occasions I've unscrewed the bases of broken
bulbs, I've used rags, not pliers, which could cause an arc besides
a shock. A rag distributes the force you apply and reduces the
possibility of glass getting in the eyes.

I find that a potato usually works well.

--
Mike Barnes

Clive Mitchell wrote:

Oh dear. Before we start the macho bragging about how we can "take"
240V,

Certainly not a case of 'macho bragging'; I would *strongly* advise
against connecting oneself to any mains Voltage. A previous post
implied that mains Voltage *will* kill; this is not the case, most
people will survive it, whether it be 120V or 240V. However, both
Voltages can, and sadly sometimes do, put enough current through the
body to result in death. The risk of death is small, but not
negligable, and not one which it is wise to take.

The time I got 415 was partly due to faulty equipment, metalwork which
should have been Earthed wasn't, and had actually become connected to
one phase, and partly due to my carelessness in touching something that
was, quite correctly, connected to another phase. It's a long time ago
now, but I don't remember feeling any effect when touching the first
phase. This was, to say the least, not a pleasant experience, and not
one which I would wish to repeat. Saying that something will not
necessarily result in death is not the same as recommending it, or
saying that it has carries no risk.

Any common mains Voltage certainly can be fatal, it is sensible to use
good quality fittings, e.g. ones which do not fall apart when touched,
and to take care, which I was not doing, particularly as a child, under
5, when I had a habit of exploring the insides of things like table
lamps and mains radio sets; we had an old radio with the screws
securing the fibre back missing, and the valves inside it used to
fascinate me. Unfortunately, the exposed incomming mains connections
were very easy to touch. My first experience should have put me off
doing so, but it didn't, it took several more for me to learn the
lesson. At that age I knew that it was unpleasant, but I didn't
understand the risk.

In message , Mike Barnes
writes
I find that a potato usually works well.

Really? I've always found their light output disappointing.

--
Clive Mitchell
http:/www.bigclive.com

In article ,
Clive Mitchell writes:
In message , Mike Barnes
writes
I find that a potato usually works well.

Really? I've always found their light output disappointing.

Large pickled gherkins light up much better ;-)

--
Andrew Gabriel

In message . com,
writes
Any common mains Voltage certainly can be fatal, it is sensible to use
good quality fittings, e.g. ones which do not fall apart when touched,
and to take care, which I was not doing, particularly as a child, under
5, when I had a habit of exploring the insides of things like table
lamps and mains radio sets; we had an old radio with the screws
securing the fibre back missing, and the valves inside it used to
fascinate me. Unfortunately, the exposed incomming mains connections
were very easy to touch. My first experience should have put me off
doing so, but it didn't, it took several more for me to learn the
lesson. At that age I knew that it was unpleasant, but I didn't
understand the risk.

Round about the same age I stripped my mums vacuum cleaner to bits. I
distinctly remember having extreme difficulty getting the motor to sit
back in properly.

(I always wonder if the thing had been unplugged at the time!)

Subsequently my mum foolishly gave me a battery and torch lamp to play
with and it all went wrong from there.

--
Clive Mitchell
http:/www.bigclive.com

Clive Mitchell wrote...
Subsequently my mum foolishly gave me a battery and torch lamp to play
with and it all went wrong from there.

I wonder how I managed to survive! My grandparents had a drawer full of
mains plugs and sockets that they used to give me to play with as a toddler.
That was fine but, sometime between the ages of 5 and 10, I gleefully
discovered a similar stash in my father's workshop but together with lamps
and cable! I had many happy hours making little projects to impress my
mates, such as a warning system with a switch on the roof and lamp in the
workshop. Occasional short-circuits and flashes and bangs only added to the
fun but fortunately for me my early electrical career was prematurely
terminated when my father discovered that an old radio had miraculously come
back to life and found it's plug to be wired between live and earth!
Somehow he didn't see the funny side and certainly didn't appreciate my
research approach to working out which wire should go to which pin!

BTW does anyone happen to know what the Sheffield supply voltage was back in
the 1950s - I remember a van coming down the street and engineers converting
all our appliances to work on 240V AC but for the life of me I can't
remember what it was before that.

David

On Fri, 25 Nov 2005 12:00:46 +0000, Chris Bacon wrote:

Lars wrote:
Here in the UK many of the desk lamps I can buy nowadays take a bulb
with an Ediscon Screw fitting. Also many wall lights for outdoor use
(sometimes with a PIR detector) take an ES fitting bulb.

Try and avoid them.

Until recently all I ever needed for a general purpose light bulb was
a bayonet fitting. Now ES fittings seem to be appearing!
Pictures: http://www.bltdirect.co.uk/base.htm

Is there a particular advantage of the ES fitting over the bayonet
fitting in these sorts of applications?

No, they are not as good as bayonet fittings.

I dinno. Ive had tow cheapo bayinets disnitegeate on me this month. Would
raher have had screws...

In article ,
"David Lee" writes:
Clive Mitchell wrote...
Subsequently my mum foolishly gave me a battery and torch lamp to play
with and it all went wrong from there.

I wonder how I managed to survive! My grandparents had a drawer full of
mains plugs and sockets that they used to give me to play with as a toddler.
That was fine but, sometime between the ages of 5 and 10, I gleefully
discovered a similar stash in my father's workshop but together with lamps
and cable!

Snap!
My grandfather had a box full of mains lampholders, bulbs, cables,
plugs, etc, and I played with these, connecting them up in series
and parallel whenever we visited them, and observed effects of
different wattage bulbs in series, etc. I would guess this was when
I was between 7 and 10 years old (he died when I was 10). I don't
ever recall giving myself an electric shock in the process.

BTW does anyone happen to know what the Sheffield supply voltage was back in
the 1950s - I remember a van coming down the street and engineers converting
all our appliances to work on 240V AC but for the life of me I can't
remember what it was before that.

I have a book with the voltage of all UK towns listed (and much of
the former Empire too). I can look it up this evening if no one
else knows. BTW, Reading was 200VAC 50Hz. My dad still has his old
B&D drill which was converted from 200V to 240V, and the rating
plate over-stamped.

--
Andrew Gabriel

My first shock of mny life was offa 12v electric train transformer coupled
to a meccano motor. It stalled and I disconnected its contacts and got a
nice zap from the inductivce surge, Threw me across the room.

Took about 3 years till I knew enough theory to understand WHY.

Sawney Beane wrote:

An American can save money by buying unfamiliar foreign brands of
Edison-base bulbs. They may be more troublesome than the familiar
brands.

Bwhahahahahahaha

GEC bulbs used to be manufactured at the Ediswan factory in Leicester
(UK) and exported to the USA. Nowadays they are made in China.

What you are revealing is the usual parochial American belief that
anything "American" must be better than anything "foreign". And too dumb
to realise that most manufactured "American" goods now come from Mexico,
Taiwan and China.

The Natural Philosopher wrote...
My first shock of mny life was offa 12v electric train transformer coupled
to a meccano motor. It stalled and I disconnected its contacts and got a
nice zap from the inductivce surge, Threw me across the room.

The last really nasty belt I received was a static shock when I foolishly
put my hand in a Dyson vacuum cleaner canister to dislodge the fluff - just
goes to show that being a physicist with a PhD is no indication of any real
intelligence!

David

Andrew Gabriel wrote...
I have a book with the voltage of all UK towns listed (and much of
the former Empire too). I can look it up this evening if no one
else knows. BTW, Reading was 200VAC 50Hz. My dad still has his old
B&D drill which was converted from 200V to 240V, and the rating
plate over-stamped.

I'd be grateful if you could - it's one of those little bits of trivia
that's been niggling in the back of my mind for years! I can't even
remember whether the conversion was increasing the voltage or DC to AC.

David

On Mon, 28 Nov 2005 12:26:59 -0000, "David Lee"
wrote:

BTW does anyone happen to know what the Sheffield supply voltage was back in
the 1950s - I remember a van coming down the street and engineers converting
all our appliances to work on 240V AC but for the life of me I can't
remember what it was before that.

There is a list online somewhere, google ought to turn it up.

--

Daniel J. Stern wrote:
many of the American-brand lamps now available are (badly) made in China.

That is the fault of the quality control of the American firms
having the lightbulbs made in China. Some of the best stuff in
the world is made in the PRC.

David Lee wrote:
The last really nasty belt I received was a static shock when I foolishly
put my hand in a Dyson vacuum cleaner canister to dislodge the fluff

How did that happen, then?

Matt wrote...
BTW does anyone happen to know what the Sheffield supply voltage was back
in
the 1950s - I remember a van coming down the street and engineers
converting
all our appliances to work on 240V AC but for the life of me I can't
remember what it was before that.

There is a list online somewhere, google ought to turn it up.

You would think so but I've never been able to find anything useful. Google
is really frustrating when you have been used to proper bibliographic search
engines with real Boolean search, word stemming and wildcard facilities.
Alta Vista used to be best for that but apparently the facility is far too
expensive to maintain so all the search engines have now dumbed down to a
price.

David

Chris Bacon wrote...
The last really nasty belt I received was a static shock when I foolishly
put my hand in a Dyson vacuum cleaner canister to dislodge the fluff

How did that happen, then?

Basically works like a van der Graaf generator. Dry dust particles build up
a static charge by tribo-electrification and this gets transfered to the
walls of the container. Static charge is always repelled towards the
outside of a container and because the dust-container is made of insulating
plastic it builds up on the inside surface of the cylinder. As soon as an
eathed paw is inserted a path to earth is provided and you are on the
receiving end of a large and painful spark!

Used to have the same problem with a HEPA filtered Nilfisk vacuum cleaner
that I used to clean up contaminated spillages of dry alumina powder from an
air abrasive machining apparatus (precision "sand-blaster" I used for
preparing semiconductor specimens). The static charge on the vacuum pipe
(and hence me) - of opposite polarity to that on the dust - would build up
until whatever was most insulating in the circuit via me to ground broke
down, whereupon I would get a nasty shock - until I made up an earthing
strap for the vacuum cleaner!

David

David Lee wrote:
Chris Bacon wrote...
It was David Lee, I think, that wrote:
The last really nasty belt I received was a static shock when I foolishly
put my hand in a Dyson vacuum cleaner canister to dislodge the fluff

How did that happen, then?

Dry dust particles build up
a static charge by tribo-electrification and this gets transfered to the
walls of the container. Static charge is always repelled towards the
outside of a container and because the dust-container is made of insulating
plastic it builds up on the inside surface of the cylinder.

Ah. I'd imagined that the dust container would be to some
extent conductive. Silly me.

On 28 Nov 2005 12:42:50 GMT, (Andrew
Gabriel) wrote:

In article ,
"David Lee" writes:
Clive Mitchell wrote...
Subsequently my mum foolishly gave me a battery and torch lamp to play
with and it all went wrong from there.

I wonder how I managed to survive! My grandparents had a drawer full of
mains plugs and sockets that they used to give me to play with as a toddler.
That was fine but, sometime between the ages of 5 and 10, I gleefully
discovered a similar stash in my father's workshop but together with lamps
and cable!

Snap!
My grandfather had a box full of mains lampholders, bulbs, cables,
plugs, etc, and I played with these, connecting them up in series
and parallel whenever we visited them, and observed effects of
different wattage bulbs in series, etc. I would guess this was when
I was between 7 and 10 years old (he died when I was 10). I don't
ever recall giving myself an electric shock in the process.


Likewise.

I had access to a similar stash at about 4 and was given a ball of
string and a screwdriver to wire them up with. I was using a
soldering iron at about 8 or 9 and going on my own to places like
Henry's in London to buy components at about 10. I still have one of
my early Veroboard projects - a timer made using geranium transistors.

I remember fixing an old Bush TV22 obtained from a jumble sale at
about the same time and learned about the concept of live chassis
products.

http://bakelite_world_2001.tripod.co...know/id48.html



--

..andy

Mike Barnes writes:

I find that a potato usually works well.

Which variety ? One good for frying ?

Jon

Chris Bacon wrote
Ah. I'd imagined that the dust container would be to some
extent conductive. Silly me.

No - if James Dyson really was half as good an engineer as he's cracked up
to be then he would have thought of this and it would have been! As it is,
even if you don't get a shock when you empty the dust container, dust is
transferred all over the outside by static repulsion, which is not a good
design feature for a vacuum cleaner!

David

Andy Hall wrote:
On 28 Nov 2005 12:42:50 GMT, (Andrew
Gabriel) wrote:


In article ,
"David Lee" writes:

Clive Mitchell wrote...

Subsequently my mum foolishly gave me a battery and torch lamp to play
with and it all went wrong from there.

I wonder how I managed to survive! My grandparents had a drawer full of
mains plugs and sockets that they used to give me to play with as a toddler.
That was fine but, sometime between the ages of 5 and 10, I gleefully
discovered a similar stash in my father's workshop but together with lamps
and cable!

Snap!
My grandfather had a box full of mains lampholders, bulbs, cables,
plugs, etc, and I played with these, connecting them up in series
and parallel whenever we visited them, and observed effects of
different wattage bulbs in series, etc. I would guess this was when
I was between 7 and 10 years old (he died when I was 10). I don't
ever recall giving myself an electric shock in the process.



Likewise.

I had access to a similar stash at about 4 and was given a ball of
string and a screwdriver to wire them up with. I was using a
soldering iron at about 8 or 9 and going on my own to places like
Henry's in London to buy components at about 10. I still have one of
my early Veroboard projects - a timer made using geranium transistors.

I remember fixing an old Bush TV22 obtained from a jumble sale at
about the same time and learned about the concept of live chassis
products.

http://bakelite_world_2001.tripod.co...know/id48.html





Don't forget GW Smith's in Lisle Street... I nearly got arrested there
as a teenager -the policeman took some time to convince that I was
really after a wobbulator..

I have a 1968 Smith's Catalogue in near-mint condition, if anyone wants
to /really/ reminisce.

--
Sue

On Mon, 28 Nov 2005 10:17:31 GMT, Clive Mitchell
wrote:

In message , Mike Barnes
writes
I find that a potato usually works well.

Really? I've always found their light output disappointing.

They need to be properly salted - to increase their
conductivity :-)

--
Vic Roberts
Replace xxx with vdr in e-mail address.

Steve Firth wrote:

Sawney Beane wrote:

An American can save money by buying unfamiliar foreign brands of
Edison-base bulbs. They may be more troublesome than the familiar
brands.

Bwhahahahahahaha

GEC bulbs used to be manufactured at the Ediswan factory in Leicester
(UK) and exported to the USA. Nowadays they are made in China.

What you are revealing is the usual parochial American belief that
anything "American" must be better than anything "foreign". And too dumb
to realise that most manufactured "American" goods now come from Mexico,
Taiwan and China.

What I am revealing is the result decades of happy experience with
perhaps a thousand American bulbs. I've seen foreign-made bulbs
whose threads were an unfamiliar alloy and whose center terminal
was softer than in American bulbs. I don't recall any trouble with
them and would have bought them again as long as they performed okay.

I didn't realize American bulbs were better until I read the
negative remarks about English screw-in bulbs in this thread. I
can't imagine living in a country where the light bulbs are so bad
that some prefer to use potatoes (another American invention).

I'm not familiar with GEC bulbs, but I agree with you that
importing from China may be the best way to give the English
consumer access to quality light bulbs.

If I had a world map I could see if there's some place closer than
China for England to buy light bulbs. I'd love to have a map that
was color coded to show which countries have a chip on their
shoulder. Resentment of American superiority is the height of
arrogance, don't you think?

On Mon, 28 Nov 2005 14:52:08 +0000, Palindr?me
wrote:

Andy Hall wrote:


I had access to a similar stash at about 4 and was given a ball of
string and a screwdriver to wire them up with. I was using a
soldering iron at about 8 or 9 and going on my own to places like
Henry's in London to buy components at about 10. I still have one of
my early Veroboard projects - a timer made using geranium transistors.

I remember fixing an old Bush TV22 obtained from a jumble sale at
about the same time and learned about the concept of live chassis
products.

http://bakelite_world_2001.tripod.co...know/id48.html





Don't forget GW Smith's in Lisle Street... I nearly got arrested there
as a teenager -the policeman took some time to convince that I was
really after a wobbulator..

I have a 1968 Smith's Catalogue in near-mint condition, if anyone wants
to /really/ reminisce.

I remember them. I seem to remember that they advertised quite a
range of valve based kits for various things such as receivers and
audio amplifiers.

It's probably a sex shop now. Either that, or an eatery for luvvies
from the post places in that area.






--

..andy

In article , Palindr˜»me wrote:
Don't forget GW Smith's in Lisle Street... I nearly got arrested there
as a teenager -the policeman took some time to convince that I was
really after a wobbulator..

When I was about 13 I scared my parents by cycling there (from
Twickenham) to buy a cheap loudspeaker - I could afford the speaker but
not the P&P. Of course if they had really valued my life they could have
offered to pay it g. I used to pore over the catalogue (red and black
cover IIRC) looking at all the things I would like to buy.

--
Tony Bryer SDA UK 'Software to build on' http://www.sda.co.uk
Free SEDBUK boiler database browser http://www.sda.co.uk/qsedbuk.htm
[Latest version QSEDBUK 1.10 released 4 April 2005]

Sawney Beane wrote:
Steve Firth wrote:

Unfortunately both America and *Britain* appear to have
their own fair shares of pillocks.

In uk.d-i-y, Clive Mitchell wrote:
In message , Mike Barnes
writes
I find that a potato usually works well.

Really? I've always found their light output disappointing.

They must have been Chinese potatoes.

--
Mike Barnes

Palindr˜»me wrote:

Don't forget GW Smith's in Lisle Street... I nearly got arrested there
as a teenager -the policeman took some time to convince that I was
really after a wobbulator..

I have a 1968 Smith's Catalogue in near-mint condition, if anyone wants
to /really/ reminisce.

I was traveling to London at about that time, but missed GW Smith. :-(

You Brits missed one of the most fascinating places in the world. It
was in New York City right after WW II, and known as radio row. It was
replaced by the World Trade Center, now also gone.

After the war, all the surplus electronic parts ended up on radio row.
You could also buy surplus commercial parts of all kinds. My first TV
was made up of parts I bought there, made for the RCA 610 model. It was
a very good 10 inch, (round tube), set and we used it until 1951. I was
working for Bell Laboratories at the time, and they had a liberal policy
about using parts from the stores for home projects. They figured that
we engineers lost more time shopping for small parts than they were
worth in stores.

--
Virg Wall, P.E. K6EVE

Sawney Beane wrote:
Steve Firth wrote:

I'm not familiar with GEC bulbs, but I agree with you that
importing from China may be the best way to give the English
consumer access to quality light bulbs.

You'll find them sold with a GE logo in the USA.

Chris Bacon wrote:

Sawney Beane wrote:
Steve Firth wrote:

Unfortunately both America and *Britain* appear to have
their own fair shares of pillocks.

That's an arena where Britain is way a head of America. Jackie
Kennedy may have popularized the pillocks hat, but the British have
worn them at least as far back as the 16th Century.

In article ,
Sawney Beane wrote:
I'm not familiar with GEC bulbs, but I agree with you that
importing from China may be the best way to give the English
consumer access to quality light bulbs.

Don't think anyone in the UK is complaining about light 'bulb' quality.
Came from you.

--
*If a mute swears, does his mother wash his hands with soap?

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

David Lee wrote:

BTW does anyone happen to know what the Sheffield supply voltage was back in
the 1950s - I remember a van coming down the street and engineers converting
all our appliances to work on 240V AC but for the life of me I can't
remember what it was before that.

I don't know about Sheffield, but We had 200V until about 1960. Con.
Ed. were still supplying a few industrial customers in New York with
d.c. in the 1990s. I believe they had to give something like 40 years
notice to terminate the service.

Sawney Beane wrote:

If I had a world map I could see if there's some place closer than
China for England to buy light bulbs. I'd love to have a map that
was color coded to show which countries have a chip on their
shoulder. Resentment of American superiority is the height of
arrogance, don't you think?

If it was resentment of a superior product, then yes. However,
America, as with any other country you care to name, has both good and
bad. I've seen some really terrible products that were made in the US,
and some very good ones.

A few years ago most of what was coming out of China, for some reason
they seemed to export mainly plastic toys, was absolute junk; today,
just a few years later they are making some very high quality products;
Apple computers, for example. Of course, they're still making junk as
well, like anywhere else. The British GEC (General Electric Company)
is not connected with the American GE; some GE flashbulbs that I have
even state on the box that there's no connection.

I have a GE (American) SON lamp on my desk in front of me at the
moment; it's clearly marked 'Made in Hungary'. The origin of the
company is no indication as to where the product is made.