Hey guys. I am new here. I wanted to share what I found at a building I work at. It is a Pittsburgh Reflector Louvered Fluorescent fixture. Best of all it is a T17 light. I remember seeing one of these tubes one other time in my life and I am only 26. I don't know an insane amount about T17 as there is not much online about them and no one else I have talked to even knows what I'm talking about. I am not sure how old this even is. Must be from the 60s or even 70s. It originally had the braided wire in it but no ballast. I ordered one to replace the absent part. It was awesome to see the lamps start up. Unfortunately one of the lamps burnt out shortly after (Loss of vacuum). Anyhow, I reckon this building must have been entirely lit by these monstrous fixtures at one time. This thing weighs a ton. These were mounted hanging from pipes that attached to a bracket that was screwed to the box. I can see on the ceiling in various parts of the building that had the elongated brackets. Evidenced by the difference in paint color.   

 

THAT IS AN AWESOME FIND! Glad this went into good hands.

Awesome find! I'd say this is from the 40s to 50s, though I'm not sure when they stopped making T17 fixtures, but around the 60s I think. Shame one of the lamps lost vacuum.

Awesome find! and a rare T17 louvered fixture too. I think most of the ones posted here are the reflector type.

Yeah I think by the 1960s, they stopped making T17 lights.

Wow that's an awesome find!
I've never seen a T17 louvered fixture before

 Lamp for these fixture will be come harder to find now as time goes on.  GE ended production of T17 lamps  in  2012.
  GE F90T17 can be problematic..   

    There also F40T17 instant start T17
Units out there.   

Yeah I have heard the 90 watt ones were increasingly harder to find. This one is a 40 watt instant start type. I have scoured the internet looking for more and have not come up with anything yet. Another interesting thing is I cannot find much in the Pittsburgh Reflector company either. Another member on this forum posted a drop dish fluorescent light made by them. Funny because this building also has one in the main lobby. Just replaced three ballasts in it.

Hey guys. I am new here. I wanted to share what I found at a building I work at. It is a Pittsburgh Reflector Louvered Fluorescent fixture. Best of all it is a T17 light. I remember seeing one of these tubes one other time in my life and I am only 26. I don't know an insane amount about T17 as there is not much online about them and no one else I have talked to even knows what I'm talking about. I am not sure how old this even is. Must be from the 60s or even 70s. It originally had the braided wire in it but no ballast. I ordered one to replace the absent part. It was awesome to see the lamps start up. Unfortunately one of the lamps burnt out shortly after (Loss of vacuum). Anyhow, I reckon this building must have been entirely lit by these monstrous fixtures at one time. This thing weighs a ton. These were mounted hanging from pipes that attached to a bracket that was screwed to the box. I can see on the ceiling in various parts of the building that had the elongated brackets. Evidenced by the difference in paint color.

Beautiful!’ I’m with everyone else never seen a louvered T-17 fluorescent light fixture before- beautiful!  I’m thinking this one was made in the early to mid 1950s also Unfortunately G E T17 fluorescent bulbs were flawed with vacuum losses but nonetheless I highly recommend You save the bulbs even when bad as they display very well and are becoming collectible ,

There is an eBay seller in Oklahoma that sells Vintage T17 fluorescent bulbs and has the Ken Rad Westinghouse branded black Enders and I believe Sylvania for sale although pricey I’ve never head of Sylvania or Westinghouse loosing vacuum - If You can’t locate spares anywhere else
Try the Oklahoma seller ,

Thank You so much for rescuing/ Saving this beautiful T-17 Fluorescent light fixture! Congratulations!

@Vintage fluorescent, your message was include inside your quote, i fixed it for you!



Very nice, a T17 louver, never seen one before or even thought about it. Closest I've seen is those ones that look more like a parabolic troffer.

Lightingguy 1994 , Thank You !

Certainly have no intentions of tossing the burnt out lamp. This will be something that will just get increasingly hard to find as time goes on for sure. Especially for the shear fact that one cannot truly appreciate the size of these things by picture or description. One must actually hold the thing to take it all in. I’ll never forget picking one up for the first time and being surprised by the weight and size of the lamp. I will be keeping my eyes peeled for some of these.

I agree- There’s nothing like the look and feel of holding a Beautiful
Rare T-17 fluorescent light bulb in You’re hand ,

Although hundreds of thousands of these bulbs were made it’s almost impossible to find the brass endcapped bulbs made in the 1940s

A lot of us here have Ben looking for the early to mid 1940s T-17 bulbs for Years hoping we would score even after desperately scouring eBay with no results ,

Congratulations on this rare find!

I have an idea that would be cool to do if i ever had a dead T17.  I would make a display fixture, and I would take some good quality LED tape and fix it to the back of the dead lamp all the way down and then put it in the display fixture with LED tape side hidden and light it. It wouldn't be as good as a working bulb but it would still look lit enough for display.

@Vintage fluorescent, your message was include inside your quote, i fixed it for you!



Very nice, a T17 louver, never seen one before or even thought about it. Closest I've seen is those ones that look more like a parabolic troffer.

Daybrite made a PG17 model of the Luvex louvers too. I believe they looked more or less the same but with a deeper profile. Must be very rare to find still in use now though.

That is exactly what I was thinking. At least it would add some light to it if the remaining lamp burns out. I thought about also making my own T17 tubes with an appropriate piece of clear pipe some t12s and a different ballast (installed next to the one I put in. To keep the original equipment intact of course).