Sylvania "Thrift-Mate" impedance modifier for TM50 lamp
Sylvania "Thrift-Mate" impedance modifier for TM50 lamp
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- Description (Brief)
- This unit (with its original fluorescent tube attached) was intended to replace one lamp in a two-lamp fluorescent fixture. By modifying the impedance of the circuit, a 50% reduction in light output could be obtained with an almost equal power saving. Sylvania marketed this 50% reduction unit and a 33% unit as stop-gap measures in response to the electricity price spikes during Energy Crisis. Characteristics: Medium bi-pin base with fiber insulator. Coil-core transformer to provide current for electrode warming, a 2 microfarad capacitor, and a bi-metal switch are housed in a two-piece, clam-shell style plastic housing. Lamp given to donor by co-inventor William Roche in 1996. (Interview on file). See also, US patent 4,163,176 to Cohen, Paget, Roche, Sadoski, and Bessone; and Impedance Modified Fluorescent Lamp by Cohen and Sadoski in Journal of the Illuminating Engineering Society, April 1979, page 179.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Object Name
- lamp component
- Date made
- c1979
- date made
- ca 1979
- ca. 1979
- maker
- Sylvania Electric Products Inc.
- Measurements
- overall: 5 in x 1 5/8 in; 12.7 cm x 4.1275 cm
- ID Number
- 2003.0030.05
- accession number
- 2003.0030
- catalog number
- 2003.0030.05
- Credit Line
- from Harold D. Wallace, Jr.
- See more items in
- Work and Industry: Electricity
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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