Patent ID: 6838813

Claim:
A low-pressure discharge lamp, having a tubular discharge vessel made from glass, the free ends of which are closed off in a gas tight manner, two electrode systems each having a filament, two supply conductors and a bead consisting of a glass material having a resistivity of greater than 10 8 Ωcm at 350° C., the ends of the supply conductors being fused into the ends of the discharge vessel which have been closed off in a gas tight manner and, in order to be held in a region between the filament and the discharge vessel fused seal, into the bead, a device for switching off the lamp at the end of its service life, comprising a paste which contains a metal hydride, is applied to the bead in the radiation shadow with respect to the thermal radiation which emanates from the filament of the lamp in operation and during filament preheating and is not in electrical contact with the supply conductor wires on the bead.