Strange blue lamp - help to identify

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PetrosA

Senior Member
Hi all. I had a customer show me an old lamp she found at her house that I couldn't identify. It has a spiral filament which glows more than shines when turned on. It also seems to give off radiant heat, almost like a heat lamp. There are no markings on the bulb or base but I'm really curious what it could be. The amount of light is so small that I don't think it's a decorative lamp, and the heat it gives off leads me to think it was some kind of utility lamp - hopefully not an x-ray lamp from an old Buster Brown store ;)

Any thoughts?

blue_lamp.jpg
 

texie

Senior Member
Location
Fort Collins, Colorado
Occupation
Electrician, Contractor, Inspector
Success! After some time on the net, and a few lucky clicks, I found out that this was a light bulb sold for Vick's Vapor Rub. With the bulb in a regular table lamp, you'd put the Vick's into the top of the bulb and it would gently heat it and release the vapors. I never would have guessed.

http://bulbcollector.com/gateway/In...60/Unknown American/image/c0095.jpg&img=8&tt=

Interesting indeed. Looks like they don't know the date of origin-that is your next assignment. Can you imagine such a thing today with the lawyers and safety issues. It's a wonder that some of us older guys made this far given some of the products of the past.
 

ggunn

PE (Electrical), NABCEP certified
Location
Austin, TX, USA
Occupation
Consulting Electrical Engineer - Photovoltaic Systems
Success! After some time on the net, and a few lucky clicks, I found out that this was a light bulb sold for Vick's Vapor Rub. With the bulb in a regular table lamp, you'd put the Vick's into the top of the bulb and it would gently heat it and release the vapors. I never would have guessed.

http://bulbcollector.com/gateway/In...60/Unknown American/image/c0095.jpg&img=8&tt=
Oh, right. The light bulb appears to be made from the same color glass that their jars of goo are/were made of. Does it still work?
 

PetrosA

Senior Member
It does. She screwed it in and turned it on, and it was the strange heating effect (it only slightly glows, but puts out heat like a heat lamp) that worried me enough to turn it off and investigate it. I really didn't want to find out it was some kind of UV or X-ray bulb and she was turning it on every time someone showed an interest :)
 

Besoeker

Senior Member
Location
UK
Success! After some time on the net, and a few lucky clicks, I found out that this was a light bulb sold for Vick's Vapor Rub. With the bulb in a regular table lamp, you'd put the Vick's into the top of the bulb and it would gently heat it and release the vapors. I never would have guessed.
I glad my mother never had one. She had great faith in Vick and plastered our chests with it in winter. She loved it. I hated it. Going to school reeking of the the bl00dy stuff was not my idea of fun.
 
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