That's good, I'm pretty sure manual start can be softer on the cathodes too compared to starters!

I’d say every one since inception 😎, I don’t think any bad lamps came out of Duke Mill👍

I have two F15T8 lamps that are Hungarian GE, made in about 2009 or 2010 and have had roughly a couple of hours every morning plus roughly dusk to midnight service since early 2011. Both are on choke ballasts with FS-2 starters. There is noticeable end bands, but they are still going strong. The package also indicated about 7500 hours at 3h/cycle. You should be good for lots of years.

As the title says, I would love to get a fluorescent street light of some kind. What kind of fluorescent, it doesn't really matter. Only I want it to have magnetic ballasts with starters.
Those Polish ones (Mesko OUKS, 10J etc.) caught my eye many years ago already, but it can be quite difficult to get them into Finland. Also some Dutch ones (Schréder TZP, Industria 86.808 etc.) have caught my eye.
In here in Finland, there is Orno 24-321 which is similar to Mesko OUKS340, but those are incredibly rare. I actually tried asking one but with no luck.


Another thing I would love to have, is Soviet fluorescent tubes. Razno, Svetex, Lisma etc...

I have 3 1982 GTE Sylvanias in my Dazor 318A3 on my desk. On average, its gets 2 cycles per day totaling around 8 hours per day. When I turned them on I hold down the rest button for 4 seconds and the tubes almost always start without issues.

If the tubes are rated for 7500 hours at 3hr/cycle, how long should they last?

I've seen many desklamps that still run very old lamps so I'm hoping mine will last a long time!

The Brazilian car parts import store on ebay seems to have been shut down.... I need to acquire these:

https://www.mercadolivre.com.br/par-lanterna-s10-95-96-1996-97-1997-98-1998-99-1999-00-2000/up/MLBU752121770#polycard_client=search-desktop&search_layout=grid&position=12&type=product&tracking_id=7a66dd55-6ebf-4fe7-b09b-c0b58ee4780c&wid=MLB2630718387&sid=search

Somehow. I tried creating an account but it require a +55 phone number and there is no way to contact support. I tried looking through FAQ. Anyone able to help? I was originally gonna buy a set off ebay but now that this has become a pain I guess I am buying a set and a spare set now..... If I can.

I was browsing the AEL Autobahn page because I kinda have started to get attracted to them, but I was looking a recently an amber option popped up! That is really exciting, because you know, there is a possibility that some LEDs will have the amber color we all know and love. Anyways, the efficiency is laughable at best, it’s as bad as Mercury Vapor! 79 lumens per watt. Wow, just wow. That’s unbelievable! Anyways I was curious if anybody has seen this yet? It is available on the large and medium sized line of the ABT Micro. Not the micro though,   

Also, can anyone help me out with pricing on these stupid things? I bet that sea life safe amber color is like 500 bucks, lol.

Yes, when the ballast is able to support the excessive voltage drop and does not shut down.
Failing cathode leads to high cathode drop so high power dissipation, so general overheating in that area. This then leads to slow lamp[ leak and oxygen poisoning, leading to the purple color.
It depends on the ballast, how far is it able to maintain the arc current and whether it has any EOL detection and shut down.
Good quality modern ballasts do not allow this condition for more than few seconds, but many early electronic ballasts were lacking any form of EOL protection so may drive the lamps in this dangerous manner.
Because of the long lamp life, it took a few years of these ballast being sold till these problems were recognized as a real safety issue, so there is huge amount of ballasts in the field that are lacking any form of protection, the early designs were just made so robust this condition did not destroyed the ballasts alone, but the lamp socket area overheating and consequent fire risk was neglected.

In the hallways of the older buildings at my school (that aren't there anymore), the 2x F32T8 (retrofitted) wraparounds were plagued with horrible lamp life and often really hot but dim EOLs. The tubes would just go dim and red but then below the ends the cover would start to deform and it would actually like form a drip of plastic.

Is this normal EOL behavior?

はじめましょうか 新しい事
ココロときめく 明るい ナショナル〜♪(1996)

It’s a very famous commercial jingle in Japan.
The lyrics have changed a little over time, but the emphasis on “brightness” has stayed the same.