Modular Compact Fluorescent Lamp
date: label: Date made
content: January 1991
label: Date made
content: 1991-01
name: label: manufacturer
content: DURO-TEST Corporation
notes: label: Description
content: One method that companies have long used to minimize production costs is to design products that use many of the same parts. In the early 1990s Duro-Test Lighting used this approach in a series of modular compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs).
label: Description
content: Modular CFLs are designed so that specific parts can be replaced if they fail. This allows the reuse of expensive parts that still work. In this particular lamp, the fluorescent tube and the reflector enclosing it are made as one piece; the base-unit that houses the ballast and starter are another. In addition to allowing one to replace the tube assembly if it failed, one could swap different assemblies. The reflector lamp could be changed to a decorative lamp for example, without having to remove the base-unit.
label: Description
content: Since the price of electronic components has dropped since this lamp was made, the economic reasoning behind this feature is less persuasive.
label: Description
content: Lamp characteristics: Two-piece, modular compact fluorescent lamp including a base-unit and a tube assembly. The base-unit has a medium-screw base-shell with plastic insulator, and a plastic skirt that houses a ballast and a starter. A socket on top accepts a plug-in base. Tube assembly includes plastic plug-in base, a fluorescent tube with two electrodes, mercury, and a phosphor coating. A glass R-shaped envelope with silvered coating serves as a reflector and is glued to the tube assembly's base.
place: label: Place Made
content: United States: New Jersey, Bloomfield
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Electricity
label: See more items in
content: Energy & Power
label: Exhibition
content: Lighting a Revolution
label: Exhibition Location
content: National Museum of American History
publisher: label: Related Publication
content: staff. 1986 Progress Report
label: Related Publication
content: Lighting A Revolution exhibition website
label: Related Web Publication
content: http://americanhistory.si.edu/lighting/
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: from Duro-Test Corporation
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1997.0062.09
label: catalog number
content: 1997.0062.09
label: accession number
content: 1997.0062
objectType: label: Object Name
content: discharge lamp
label: Object Name
content: fluorescent lamp
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: glass (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: plastic (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: mercury (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 8 1/2 in x 5 in; 21.59 cm x 12.7 cm