1940s 2x F20T12 fluorescent light fixture

That's incredible for a bulb to last that long !!

Very nice. I live in Germany. In my kittchen is a twin F40 T12 Fixture manufacted by Kaiser Idell, build in 1955. The original bulbs are F40 T12 reflector bulbs made by Osram. The Arena made in 1955 too.

wow! thats pretty neat!

Most of the preheat fluorescent bulbs made in that period of time have a long life. The filaments are covered with a special termo-emission emulsion (good quality) that will make the electrons fly away and produce gas ionization.If the emulsion is gone from the filaments then the cathode sputtering makes presence AND the black area on the tube near filaments start to appear. Finally after years of use filaments loose their electron emission paste and the gas can not be ionized from proper voltage strike and maintained at a proper current from ballast. The tungsten base of the filaments is still there but is not enough to produce the electron emission.So in conclusion this is the ending for most fluorescent lamps. Of course if you push more current into the lamp you will get some more electron emission for a short period of time until filaments break or from heat you will get vacuum loss. Cheers!

It may be that the lamp was exidently dropped down. Then the owner bought the Westinghouse fluorescents in the 50s, removed the (damaged?) ends pieces of the fitting and painted it with white lacquer because the original lacquer was damaged from dropping it down.

that is a markstone light fixture, and it's made in the 40's, and they are rare, got 2 of them, one 14 watt twin T12, and one 20 watt twin T12 fixtures, they don't make black end caps one those fluorescent bulbs, i got 4 of them, and 4 of the fluorescent bulbs that has brass end caps, and the bulbs are still good, i saved them bulbs so i got a collection of them

I love it!

When I mail things to Quebec, I still write PQ.

Very rare