"Jim" wrote in message
...
My elderly mother has called with a strange problem - her
bulbs have started flickering blue and with what she
described as little "caspar ghost" shapes forming inside the
glass. My sister has seen this too, and they called in an
electrician who examined the meter, but said they must have
the "wrong kind of bulbs" ("Probably B&Q", he said).

Anyone here got any ideas what's going wrong? By the way,
there's a mix of bulbs types and this only happened in the
last 48 hours...


You got an electrician round within 48 hours? To check light bulbs?

How the hell did you manage that? All the ones round here take at least two
weeks before they even phone back and then aren't interested unless you want
to rewire something the size of Telecom Tower!

Tony

Jim wrote:
My elderly mother has called with a strange problem - her
bulbs have started flickering blue and with what she
described as little "caspar ghost" shapes forming inside the
glass. My sister has seen this too, and they called in an
electrician who examined the meter, but said they must have
the "wrong kind of bulbs" ("Probably B&Q", he said).

Anyone here got any ideas what's going wrong? By the way,
there's a mix of bulbs types and this only happened in the
last 48 hours...

You're trolling, right?

--
Grunff

"Jim" wrote in message
...
My elderly mother has called with a strange problem - her
bulbs have started flickering blue and with what she
described as little "caspar ghost" shapes forming inside the
glass. My sister has seen this too, and they called in an
electrician who examined the meter, but said they must have
the "wrong kind of bulbs" ("Probably B&Q", he said).

Anyone here got any ideas what's going wrong? By the way,
there's a mix of bulbs types and this only happened in the
last 48 hours...


You haven't got Yvette Fielding and the Most Haunted crew hanging around
outside by chance?

Cheers
Clive

We have some Phillips ecotone low energy lamps and one of them continues to
flicker intermittently with a bluish light for hours (most of the night!)
after it's been switch off. I thought at first that maybe the light switch
had a high resistance bridge when "off" but I've moved the lamp and it still
does it. I assume then that there must be some residual discharge within
the bulb - is there some PF capacitor or something like that?

"Jim" wrote in message
...
My elderly mother has called with a strange problem - her
bulbs have started flickering blue and with what she
described as little "caspar ghost" shapes forming inside the
glass. My sister has seen this too, and they called in an
electrician who examined the meter, but said they must have
the "wrong kind of bulbs" ("Probably B&Q", he said).

Anyone here got any ideas what's going wrong? By the way,
there's a mix of bulbs types and this only happened in the
last 48 hours...

Cheers!


To email, take out the dog...

"Jim" wrote in message
...
My elderly mother has called with a strange problem - her
bulbs have started flickering blue and with what she
described as little "caspar ghost" shapes forming inside the
glass. My sister has seen this too, and they called in an
electrician who examined the meter, but said they must have
the "wrong kind of bulbs" ("Probably B&Q", he said).

Anyone here got any ideas what's going wrong? By the way,
there's a mix of bulbs types and this only happened in the
last 48 hours...

Cheers!


Sounds very like a Tesla effect from an energy saver lamp. If the cable to
the lamp fitting isn't earthed, as in a two core flex, then the earth in the
ceiling rose may be drawing some current from the neutral and causing the
lamp to flicker, but this normally happens only when the lamp is switched
off.

Try checking that the lamp holder is properly connected and the spring
contacts are firmly making against the lamp when inserted. Make sure the
lamp holder bayonet clips aren't broken. Also check that the lamp isn't
becoming damp on the outside, maybe from condensation in the room, and that
it isn't arcing a spark along the outside of the lamp back to the holder.
If there is any arcing within the lamp holder, or along the lamp itself, it
might, just might, be the cause.


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Jim wrote:

No troll and no imagination ... believe me, I was as puzzled
as anyone, which is why I posted. My mother lives in
Glasgow, I live in Bristol. She called the Scottish
electricity board at midnight and they had someone out at
9am - not to check the bulbs as such, to check the supply
because they assumed there was a problem with the meter or
whatever. The electrician checked the meter and said all was
well, then checked the bulbs and said they were probably the
wrong type. Now THAT sounds like a troll!!!!

So this one's for real - as I say, my sister has seen it,
and loopy as she is, this has actually happened. right in
the middle of Glasgow in an old tenement flat. Nothing to do
with having a wee dram either...

Of course technical description is not my elderly mother's
strong point, so I'm having to use her somewhat colourful
descriptions until someone comes up with something better.

Would have been a good troll through, and I expect it's made
someone jealous, but no, this is for real.



Sounds like intense RF field or static field.

She hasn't been knitting a van de graaf generator on the sly...?

Or stroking that cats too hard?


Jim


To email, take out the dog...

On Wed, 14 Jan 2004 18:20:17 GMT, Jim
wrote:

Anyone here got any ideas what's going wrong?

No, but if it really is demonic posession then Ghostbusters are in
Gloucester and I'm sure they;d love to take a look !

By the way, there's a mix of bulbs types

I'm assuming that all of these are compact fluorescents ? There are
way that CFs can emit all sorts of odd squeaks and flashes, but I
can't see how it would happen with an incandescent.

Is there a bizarre amount of HF electricity coming in from the mains ?
Any huge UFOs parked in the back garden, or even a mad inventor / dope
grower / new substation next door ?

--
Do whales have krillfiles ?

In article ,
Andy Dingley wrote:

Is there a bizarre amount of HF electricity coming in from the mains ?
Any huge UFOs parked in the back garden, or even a mad inventor / dope
grower / new substation next door ?

Or even a dope growing mad inventor who is building a huge UFO in the new
substation next door?

Darren

"Jim" wrote in message news
Thanks for the ideas, guys. I'll investigate a bit more and
let you know what I find...

Is there a lamp post outside that has recently been worked
upon when these stange blue lights started, and could the
"little ghosts" be due to an incorrectly installed Wi-FI
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/69/34894.html
"One of the issues which is of concern, of course, is public fear of "radiation"
which has led to many pressure groups. It doesn't seem to matter whether
there's any evidence at all of a health hazard - just the sight of a mobile
phone mast can trigger fears of the invisible power beaming out of it.
So it will be a relief to all politicians to know that the new 63 GHz network
is far, far less powerful - at 200 milliwatts, the highway net transceivers will
produce around half of one per cent of the full power of a mobile phone mast."

BigWallop wrote:

Sounds very like a Tesla effect

A "Tesla effect" being what exactly?

--
Grunff

"Grunff" wrote in message
...
BigWallop wrote:

Sounds very like a Tesla effect

A "Tesla effect" being what exactly?


Grunff

If it is an energy saver lamp, then it can cause this.

http://www.charles.a.hobson.btinternet.co.uk/

BigWallop wrote:

If it is an energy saver lamp, then it can cause this.

http://www.charles.a.hobson.btinternet.co.uk/

BW - I know what a Tesla /coil/ is - I've built a few. My question was
what is the Tesla effect you're referring to in conjuntion with compact
fluorescents?

--
Grunff

"Grunff" wrote in message
...
BigWallop wrote:

If it is an energy saver lamp, then it can cause this.

http://www.charles.a.hobson.btinternet.co.uk/

BW - I know what a Tesla /coil/ is - I've built a few. My question was
what is the Tesla effect you're referring to in conjuntion with compact
fluorescents?

Grunff

Sorry Grunff. I didn't read who had asked the question. I mean when a
charged capacitor or coil discharges along the length of outside of the lamp
envelope to an earth or neutral, or vice versa, and creates a small blue
hazy spark on its travels. I've always called this a Tesla effect.

Jim wrote:

My elderly mother has called with a strange problem - her
bulbs have started flickering blue and with what she
described as little "caspar ghost" shapes forming inside the
glass. My sister has seen this too, and they called in an
electrician who examined the meter, but said they must have
the "wrong kind of bulbs" ("Probably B&Q", he said).

Anyone here got any ideas what's going wrong? By the way,
there's a mix of bulbs types and this only happened in the
last 48 hours...

Cheers!


To email, take out the dog...


Hello Jim,

Has the lady just had some new specs? I have for years had
chromatic aberration with mine - blue light is slightly defocussed. It's
not usually noticeable but at work where there were blue lamps over
doors, from a few feet away I saw them as being slightly fuzzy but with
a nicely focussed filament image inside in the colours that were left!
Many of the specs-wearers I asked didn't get this effect, I never tried
to find out why...

--
Regards Ant





* ps - Don't let the EU rule Britannia! *

Jim wrote:
:: Thanks for all the suggestions!...
::
:: I wasn't trolling, but if I didn't know better I would say
:: that my mother was. I was up there at the weekend for other
:: reasons, but the mysterious blue lights and little ghosts
:: failed to appear. The first sister still claims she saw it,
:: but my other sister, like me, could see nothing.
::
:: Then my mother said that to see the effect best, you had to
:: stare straight at the 100W unshielded lamp for several
:: minutes...
::
:: Right.
::
:: Next time, before I post, I'll Easyjet it up there and check
:: if she's been taking her aspirin... :-)
::
:: Jim


She'll be seeing pixies on her 'magic mushrooms' next ;-)


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