Hi all, I’m new to the site and really pleased to have joined. I never guessed there would be so many people with so much great stuff and so many interesting threads.
Navigating around is still a bit hit or miss and probably my question has been asked and answered elsewhere. Problem is, I start looking around the threads, I find something interesting and suddenly a couple of hours have passed.

I recently found something that really took my fancy. It is a massive, unused bulb nicely suspended in it’s original transportation crate. The crate is marked THORNE EMI. MADE IN UK. BSL27 3500W 100V. 45-166.
Never seen one like it before and I don’t know why but when I saw it, I immediately thought it was a bulb for a lighthouse light. I would like to know more about it and if it is possible to fire it up or if it is best to keep it original and unused.
Any ideas or help would be great.

Regards.

Welcome, bulb budy.
I'm personally not sure but a lighthouse bulb is the most plausible use.
A few things to consider:
Is your house power grid strong enough? In other words, how much current is the maximum breaker and do you have thick enough wire that'll withstand the current.
Second, do you have a strong step down tranny or a variac to bring the voltage down to 100?
Third, if you have the previous two items, check the bulb for hairline cracks, especially around the base.
Last, be sure to thoroughly clean the glass of dirt and skin oils, they can cause the glass to melt like in halogen lites.
Hope this helps.

120 volt branch mains in North America simply can't deliver that amount of power. You'd need a special 30 amp circuit with #10 wire, plus a buck-boost transformer to cut the voltage down. If you're in 240 land, you'd need a pretty large transformer, and it would probably be hard to find one from 240 to 100.

If you want something really bright to have fun with I'd leave your lamp alone and get a 1000 watt HPS setup or something.

Hi welcome to the forum! If you want to try your bulb you will need a BIG variac like solenacea said I think you might be better just having it as a show lamp  just out of curiosity what country you in?

The last of the lighthouses were using Xenon lamps--maybe the one that you got was surplus from the conversions.

Hey if you read the airport thread just above this one maybe will give you another clue about what your big bulb was for

Sorry it's one below now