@James, For some odd reason, I have been seeing that the 1992-1993 National Catalog claims that their energy saving mercury vapor lamps have the same lumens as the lamps they intend on replacing.

For example, I see that both the National 250W HF250X and 235W HF250X/235 lamps are rated for 12,700 initial lumens.

Additionally, I also see that the 300W HF300X and 280W HF300X/280 lamps are both rated at 15,800 lumens.

The 400W HF400X and 375W HF400X/375 lamps are both rated for an initial lumen output of 22,000 lumens.

The 700W HF700X and 660W HF700X/660 lamps are both rated for an initial lumen output of 41,000 lumens.

Lastly, the 1000W HF1000X and 940W HF1000X/940 lamps are both rated for an initial lumen output of 59,500 lumens.

I wonder why National decided to rate their energy saving mercury vapor lamps to have the same initial lumen output as the full power lamps they intend to replace. The information can be found on pages 1088 to 1095 of the 1992-1993 National Facilities and Outdoor Lighting Catalog.

See here:

https://esctlg.panasonic.biz/iportal/CatalogViewInterfaceStartUpAction.do?method=startUp&mode=PAGE&catalogCategoryId=&catalogId=792140000&pageGroupId=1&volumeID=PEWJ0001&keyword=&categoryID=&sortKey=&sortOrder=&designID=retireOut_sp&designConfirmFlg=

It seems to me that this catalog contains totally false information.

It was tried also with Alumina, ending up with submicron particles.  But as RRK stated, less cost effective.  Also, the submicron alumina arc tubes are less transparent than the YAG or YbAG.  At work I am pretty sure I do still have a tray of empty arc tubes of near-transparent submicron alumina tubes, along with YAG.  When I find these I can make a photo to compare the appearance.  They were made by  Dr. Yanagitani’s process at Konoshima in Japan and he offered some prototypes when visiting my lab about 20yrs ago.  His patents and technical papers explain the technical challenges, along with similar from NGK Ceramics and Toto Ceramics.

The reality is that the so-called “Energy saver” mercury lamps are also “lumen savers”.  In fact, their efficacy is always worse than the lamps they replace, so if the power is reduced by 25%, the lumens drop by more than 25%.  Moreover, the ballast efficacy is also reduced, so the system efficacy is even worse.

Changing the arc tube fill from argon to krypton or xenon would have no significant difference.  During operation the rare gas filling is not ionised.  In HPS lamps we can improve arc tube efficacy by using higher pressures of higher molecular weight gases, because they reduce heat conduction losses to the arc tube wall.  But general lighting mercury lamps are not wall stabilised, there is much less heat loss to the wall, so the opportunity to improve efficacy by the same technique is absent. Possibly however the life could be extended.

@Lcubed3, I've thought the same. This entire living room is lit with eleven 2-lamp F30T12 strip fixtures, running F30T12 Cool White Halophosphate lamps, so... not the best in terms of CRI.
Although this still looks better in person, it does look... colorless. I know for a FACT that my friends would mention the same. There will be a little more color added as time goes on... this is still incomplete.
But the boneless couches was a big part of this idea.
Just a heads up though, to anyone who's wanting to get these... if you're needing to carry them up the stairs, be very careful.
I'm physically strong and I can tell you guys right now that they both seemed heavier while they were compressed... I remember almost falling backwards down the stairs due to the weight.
Had that happened, it would have been deadly. So yeah, be careful if this requires going upstairs. You may need a second person to help.

@LightsAreBright27, did your 9w and 11w PL-S lamps contain capacitors near the glow bottle? (Really interested in that 11w one as well, since
it appears we do not have 11w PL-S lamps here in the U.S.)
Also, when you say the EOL lamp flickered, do you mean flashed?
I would think that an EOL PL-S lamp, at least on a non EOL protected electronic ballast, would be extremely hard on the electronic ballast to
the point of ballast EOL.
... but what was the point of adding a capacitor near the glow switch bottle on PL-S lamps? I know now from you guys, @RRK and @Medved, that those
capacitors can enable use with certain electronic ballasts, but do they not help in terms of performance on the magnetic Preheat ballast?
Why add a capacitor for the starter based PL-S lamp if it's not required?

I did an experiment a while back, using a philips programmed start electronic ballast on pl-s 9w and 11w lamps. The ballast specified it can be used with those (out of 4 pins, only 2 should be connected). The lamps worked, and some even started with a starter 'ping' just like a magnetic ballast. I put an eol lamp, and it flickered as if it was on a magnetic ballast. After 10 seconds the ballast turned off (eol protection)


So an electronic ballast is able to run a standard pl-s lamp with a glow bottle starter.

In our town all carbon arc lamps were replaced around 1925 to high power incandescent lamps. Most wall brackets for these carbon arc lamps are still in situ but of course now with more modern street lights. One of them has a replica carbon arc lantern with CMH.
A carbon arc lamp I added last year into our lighting museum. It needs to be restored and many parts such as the glass holder are missing.

The couches look nice, but geez, you need some color in that loft!

I've noticed that HID lamps are very expensive at eBay, as well as their shipping.

After trying to help out one of our collectors with researching the fluorescent lighting that has been used in Taiwan, I have happened to discover a 2019 lighting catalog for East Asia Lighting, which I understand to be a major lighting company that serves the Taiwanese market. In case anyone wants to know more about the lighting that has been used in Taiwan, feel free to read the catalog:

https://web.hocom.tw/Uploads/userfiles/files/psznc40z6w1si6e.pdf

It appears to me that the lighting seems to have a mix of European and Japanese influences along with a little bit of North American influence. If you can’t speak Traditional Chinese, I recommend using Google Translate to read each webpage. However, you will need to take screenshots for Google Translate to do its job if using a cell phone.