Strange blue lamp - help to identify

[PetrosA]

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?

 

[K8MHZ]

Some reptile heat lamps are blue. I haven't seen one that shape, though.

 

[zbang]

I think what you have is a Class B curiosity.

 

[PetrosA]

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=

 

[texie]

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]

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]

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]

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.

 

[ActionDave]

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.

Did your sense of smell smell survive?

 

[Besoeker]

Did your sense of smell smell survive?

It scarred me for life........I'm sure I could still detect it at 100 paces even on someone who otherwise stank worse than a goat.....

 

[ActionDave]

My granddad has a similar attitude about Ben-Gay. His mum would use it for everything from aches and pains to insect bites and decongestant. She would also squirt her knees with WD-40. Claimed it helped with the arthritis.