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Fluorescent light ballast help
- Thread starter ih
- Start date
Fair enough but, as I said, I have absolutely no recollection of BC ones.
My parents' house didn't have any 'strip lights', and I probably didn't pay any attention to lights/fittings in rented accommodation, so it was probably not until I bought my first house, in late 70s, that I will first have met a 'strip light' of any sort.
Yes, they were really handy when requiring remote control gear. I reckon they were available well into 1980's. Useful in temporary use like marquees, special effects - think about the music videos in tube forests, the shop front signs with many tubes in terry clips behind translucent plastic, fairgrounds with tubes on merry-go-rounds etc.
They were all done with BC ended tubes until the spring loaded bi-pin fittings were available.
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When were the BC-ended ones around (seemingly before I was paying any attention to such things) ?
I've just done an edit without seeing #34. I was using them well into 1980's, I can identify transporting boxes of 25 tubes and boxes of 144 BC holders after 1983 by the vehicles I was driving when assisting a friend with his shop signs business. However they fell out of favour in regular strip light fittings way before that, by at least 20 years
Fair enough. Thanks. As I said, it will have been late 70s, maybe even early 80s since I had much, if any, experience of fluorescent tubes - and even from then on, really only in domestic situations. Were these BC-ended ones used significantly in a domestic context?
BC on tubes were the original tube end fittings, which I would guess became more common from the 1930's.
Fair enough, but I suppose what I was really wondering/asking was when the bi-pin ones started taking over from them. Do you have any idea about that?
I would suggest gradually, from the end of the 1950's.
That makes sense. As I've said, my knowledge of what the ends opf the tubes looks like probably only goes back to late 70s or early 80s (even though "I" go back a lot further than that
), and I've never seen a BC one.
That makes sense. As I've said, my knowledge of what the ends opf the tubes looks like probably only goes back to late 70s or early 80s (even though "I" go back a lot further than that
The tubes were usually supported by Terry clips, then plugged into the lamp holder, at either end. Often there would be some sort of clip on cover, to hide the lamp holders, and so fitting them, they were so awkward, it would involve two people.
That I can believe. Even installing long bi-pin ones can be a bit of struggle for just one person.
Originally all fluo tubes were BC.
We moved house in '61 and very quickly dad added an additional light above the kitchen sink, that was the arrangement for a few years. They were replaced with a 5ft flou which was BC ends, and that would have been while I was laid up with a broken leg when I was 9 so 1964. Twas a big ugly thing compared to later units
New and old maybe not to scale
I recall having to replace the starter frequently and in mid 70's replaced it with a more modern Quickstart version (2 wound devices) and repurposing the old fitting by punching holes to take 12 BC holders for bulbs or PARs for mobile disco use
I expect it still exists in amongst my junk but certainly not used in the last 30 years.
We moved house in '61 and very quickly dad added an additional light above the kitchen sink, that was the arrangement for a few years. They were replaced with a 5ft flou which was BC ends, and that would have been while I was laid up with a broken leg when I was 9 so 1964. Twas a big ugly thing compared to later units
I recall having to replace the starter frequently and in mid 70's replaced it with a more modern Quickstart version (2 wound devices) and repurposing the old fitting by punching holes to take 12 BC holders for bulbs or PARs for mobile disco use
Fair enough. As I've said, it must have been late 70s, if not 80s, before I had dealt with any fluorescent lights in houses in which I lived, so I think that I essentially 'missed' the BC era.
Oh hell yes some of those early covers/shades/diffusers were utter shap or was it crit?
Did you ever come across the type with a fitted diffuser, ring (for want of a better description) at each end to support the tube and a fixed BC holder at one end? The idea was to slide the tube the whole length, locate in the ring then locate in the BC and turn to the slots then push and turn, all supposedly done from the free end then add the loose BC and then slide the cover on without cutting the cable?
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