From the heyday of "germicidal lamp"

[tomturbomatic]

This ad demonstrates the use of our favorite appliance light bulb in other areas of the home. A few years later, the Puritron home air freshener and odor remover also used these bulbs.

http://cgi.ebay.com/1952-Westinghou...386?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2c58e91172

 

[arbilab]

Careful, ozone will poke holes in your freon layer. Was this what was in 'sunshine fresh' dryers?

 

[petek]

We had a Puritron back when I was a kid, dad got it for his hayfever, didn't do any good LOL
There were a couple of them at the now closed junktorium, I should have grabbed them.

 

[cornutt]

Does anyone know how these things actually worked? Were they just basically small mercury vapor bulbs? If they were made from ordinary glass, it doesn't seem like they actually would have gotten a lot of UV out of them. I had a job some years ago writing code for a laboratory instrument that used a deuterium bulb. Those things put out a ton of UV, enough so we were warned not to look at the bulb for more than a moment when it was operating.

 

[arbilab]

I think they went in ordinary sockets, can't do that with an arc lamp but you could with an argon lamp. Question now becomes, does argon give off UV or just look like it does (eerie blue).

 

[cornutt]

I just looked up the emission spectrum for argon... it looks like it doesn't do much below 400 nm. So not much UV. Mostly just blue and purple, 400-500 nm range.

 

[tolivac]

the bulbs on lamps that are to generate UV are made from quartz or silica.This will pass SW UV radiation.Now if the bulb was made from ordinary glass-borosilicate glass,or soda glass-the bulb WON'T pass SW UV.It will pass harmless long wave UV-the "UV" used for flourscent inks,dyes,special effects and such.SW UV if for suntannings,germicidal,sterilization,and mineral prospecting.Some mineral ores flouresce when lit by SW UV light.Tungsten ore and Uranium ores.I have a prospectors SW-LW UV portable lamp.Raytech brand.And some glues,paints are set by SW UV light.Some may be set by LW light,too.Dentists use these for tooth fillings now.

 

[tomturbomatic]

The fixture must have had the ballast necessary for operation of the bulb. In a laundry appliance, the balast was furnished by a 40 watt incancescent bulb in series with the ozone lamp.

 

[tolivac]

Yes-ballasts are needed for these lamps since they are a form of arc discharge lamp.Nowadays a small UV bulb like the one shown would have a simple solid state ballast.wheras in the past it was the 40W incandescent bulb.The spectrum listed above was for VISIBLE light.SW UV is considered invisible to humans.Yet we are affected by it-sunburn or blindness can result from it.and of course flourescence in minerals and some other things around us.Even other animals can glow under UV light-Scorpions-they have body fluids that glow when exposed to UV light.