YO,
@Baked bagel 11, here's my lighting related embarrassing stories...
First lighting related embarrassing event took place when I was only like 3, maybe 4 years old... in preschool. By this time, I had already discovered the
magnetic HPF Rapid Start ballast technology in Louvered fixtures. The preschool classroom ceiling was incredibly high. I understand I was only 4 years old
at the time, but that classroom was actually huge, and those Louvered fixtures were very high up. There were tons of them as well. The section near the windows
was the smallest section of the classroom, with only three Louvered fixtures not far from the windows from what I remember... so when the teacher flipped on
the lights, I got the "1... 2... 3" start up effect, if that makes any sense. After I saw that start up, one by one... I... was... HOOKED. I did anything and
everything I could, to see those fixtures start up again. Nothing else mattered... just those fixtures firing up...
... and so, one day I walked, likely wobbled over to the light switches. I think I remembered climbing something to reach the light switches.
Turned them off and on... then off and on again. The whole entire class stared at me and yelled, "awwwwwwww???"... that was around the time when "awwww???"
meant you did something very bad.
Mrs. Rose ran over to me and picked me up and I started crying.
This is unfortunately all I remember though.
Second lighting related embarrassing event... Kmart... around 2nd grade. Walked near the employee back room and encountered an incomplete hallway with three
Circline screw in Preheat adapters lighting the way... with the employee break room door at the end of the hallway. Again, nothing else mattered.
Found the switch, and flipped the switch on and off. Lucky for me, the switch was indeed for those adapters. I got to see all three of them start up.
Did this over, and over, and over again. Walked to the front of the store and found my Mom at checkout. Me, my Mom, my little brother, (RT Spacer on YouTube)
my older brother and my youngest sister, all were on the way out of Kmart. A security guard stopped my Mom and talked with her.
As he spoke to her, my Mom looked at me and folded her lips as her eyes got wide with anger. I knew right then that... it was my time. I was done for.
My Mom LIT ME UP when we got home... using a folded belt... and that actually ended up being the last time I toyed with store lighting.
Third embarrassing lighting story... 4th grade... this was around the time I encountered magnetic HPF Rapid Start fixtures with EOL lamps... I had already
seen lamps going EOL in 2nd and 3rd grade. Found a Louvered fixture with a lamp that had a blackened end, so I sat in that desk in an effort to view the
EOL show during class. Again... nothing else mattered. That was the etch side of a Sylvania F40T12, and the phosphor wasn't thin enough for me to see
the filament hotspot movement in action. Test time... while everyone was taking the test, I spent the entire time staring at the EOL lamp, waiting...
for the EOL show. This was up to the point where the prolonged after image of the light stayed in my eyes for a very, very long time. Nothing else mattered,
not even the teacher, or the students. The very end of that blackened end began to turn purple and both lights in the fixture began to flicker. That's when
I remembered smiling. Both tubes started flickering violently as the blackened end turned violet, before quickly turning orange. "Ignore it..." the teacher
yelled. The lamps dimmed down to the typical Rapid Start flicker. I'm not sure what the teacher and classmates were thinking at that point. haha... my
friends had to have seen me sitting there staring up at it, long before EOL. Thing is, I've done this each and every time I had encountered an EOL lamp
in 2nd and 3rd grade as well, with the stories being similar to each other.
Fourth embarrassing story... high school. This was in Science class... my personal favorite. 10th grade. Very rare thin two lamp T12 wraparound fixtures lit
this classroom, mounted directly onto waffle concrete ceilings. There was one fixture at the back of the classroom with a lamp that had a fully blackened end.
But the heavyset/strong Science teacher (who was also a coach, btw) forced us all to sit AT THE FRONT OF THE CLASSROOM. Doesn't matter... I'll just
turn around and look at the fixture until the lamp EOL's. Sooo... I sat there staring behind me while the teacher was talking to all of the students.
Imagine one student staring at the back of the classroom... that was me.
That Science teacher/coach did NOT like me. At all... but this was not
long before the big move to Ohio, so he didn't have to deal with me for much longer. Anyways, I never got to see that lamp EOL, although I did see it
flickering slightly.
Fifth embarrassing story... Spanish class... 10th grade. Another EOL lamp, but this time in a Louvered fixture. I had seen Kitchen and Bath Warm White
Halophosphate 34w T12 lamps from time to time, including in Elementary school... but this was the first time I had seen one at its official EOL.
The end was completely blackened. My friend Josh sat next to me. We were taking a test as the blackened end began to turn purple. I tapped my friend Josh
on the shoulder and pointed to the lamp end. Josh somehow quickly picked up on what was going on and said, "Woah." So we both started watching it.
I also remember saying, "It's gonna catch fire," as the lamps began to flicker a bit. The end began to turn a violet color and Josh yelled, "DUDE!"
That's when the violet color went away and the lamps went back to normal operation.
It's so funny how that played out!!
The Spanish teacher looked at both of us and yelled, "So what's going on? Is there a fly or bee or something? Like, what's going on?" Both of us said
nothing and acted like nothing happened, pretending to focus on the test. From that point on, during the rest of class, nothing happened.
We were done with the test (I failed) when the bell rang for us to move on to the next class/hour. Classmates gone, but I took my precious time for obvious
reasons, and sure enough, that's when the lamp went EOL. Both lamps flickered violently as the blackened end turned orange. "This light is burning out,"
I said to the teacher. "Ohhh, is that what you two were looking at?" She said. That's all I remember before walking out to my next class.
Man... I've got much more lighting related embarrassing stories... that's not even close to all of them. I wonder if I should make a dedicated thread for
this?
... but yeah, I've been a hardcore/dedicated lighting enthusiast since I was in preschool, so of course I've got tons and tons of embarrassing
stories regarding lighting. Heck, I've even got a classroom story time book that I was forced to create in 4th and 5th grade, that shows proof of this.