My homemade mercury vapor light fixture

[sonnyndad]

I got the 'bright idea' (pun intended) to do this after I figured out that a magnetic ballast for two 40 watt tubes can run two 40 watt mercury vapors. I took the picture when I had the ballast wired in parallel, but I have since wired it in series so I can run two lamps.

 

[tolivac]

Interesting-appears ballasts for long arc bulbs(flourescent)can work for short arc mercury vapor HID bulbs!Neat experiment.

 

[Anachronism]

Flourescent strobe

About 45 years ago I made a high gain pre-amp with a "band pass" filter that amplified only the bass. That fed a horizontal deflection tube biased class C, using an automotive ignition coil for an output transformer, which was connected to a 40 watt flourescent tube: Strobe keyed to bass beat