@rapidstart_12 — same here. I have a twin-PL bulkhead in the backyard with one Charlestown, UK-made Sylvania PL-13 (GTE) in 2700K, as well as a Bari, Italy-made PL-9 (Osram) in 4000K. I love their differing startups / final warm up colors. Very much a nostalgic sight indeed.

My biggest peeve is bad lighting. Ie, half-assed, poorly-maintained lighting installs. I have somewhat of a "perfectionist" nature, so if something like a chandelier has 16 different kinds of bulbs and three color temperatures, I will not be able to focus on anything else in the room, no matter how "nice" it may be.

I agree and I certainly can’t stand it when residential/decorative fixtures have different colors or styles of bulbs in them. However, for fluorescent in particular, there is a bit of a nostalgic element to having different colors of bulbs because I remember when businesses near where I live had such installations back before I started to see LED more often, in fact some still do. So I do sometimes like mixed color fluorescent installations, especially if there is a mix of eras of bulbs too.

This whole topic was made before LED got so bad…

... but for general lighting I have a hard time imagining they'd take over everything. Who knows tho...

Oh, the good old days... It's hard for me to imagine LEDs only having 100lpw. I wonder which technology is next?

A useful way to finely adjust lamp current in 230V realm is to hook some low power fluorescent chokes (like 8W T5 or 11W PL which are almost equal) in parallel to main choke. If still not enough current, hook another one or upgrade say, to 30W choke

As for ignitor, 230V starter may work alone (or better in series with 100W lightbulb to make short circuit current reasonable). Or may not work with some hesitant LPS lamps which really need a dense series if ignition pulses to do glow-to-arc. In that case, assuming you have a pile of like LPS lamps and do not especially care for one of them, I'd just whack the lamp with some superimposed HID (MH/HPS) ignitor. Ignitor voltage will be somewhat high but outer volume of the lamp won't break down as it is hard vacuum. There is a remote chance of base flash-over, you have to look, but I believe ignitor voltage will be immediately clamped by arctube breakdown and lamp will light-up just OK.

Also, there are really heavy duty electronic ballasts having circa 800mA current, one probably will take a good care of such lamp, but these are quite rare, intended for equally rare high power CFLs.

I have seen Satco branded lamps at various Ace hardware stores, and some independently owned hardware stores. For a cheaper basic brand of lighting, their lamps have served me well in my testing.

I've used their Halogen "eXcel" 65w R30s in my kitchen for years and they've lasted much longer than other halogen and incandescent flood lamps, especially compared to modern GE. My aunts house has these same R30 lamps in the Recessed cans at their house, and most of them are still working and been in service since the 2000s!

Found this doing a search:
https://www.lighting-gallery.net/gallery/displayimage.php?album=229&pos=60046&pid=72012

How about that?  GE made a trimline stereo record player...   

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diBA38wir3I

Sooooold!!! I don't have the lamp in my dorm right now but I will figure it out if you ever find yourself near here

@Multisubject — if we ever meet up, I can give you one or multiple. I have more than enough.