Liquid mercury free is in fact an amalgam. And all amalgam have to heat up somehow, to get the correct mercury pressure - strong bonds to other metals is what make the amalgam behaving as "coldest spot", while it's absolute temperature is way higher. And what is the exact temperature/mercury vapor pressure dependence, so optimum amalgam operating temperature depend strongly on it's composition. And by it's placement might be influenced, what would be it's operating temperature.
So when the amalgam is placed close to filament (e.g. on it's support) and designed for very high temperature operation (present there), so it heat up quickly (does not have to wait for glass warm-up), but stay on the same temperature (stabilized by radiation cooling), even when the tube itself warm up, so upon few seconds (so practically instantly) after startup, the amalgam temperature is constant, so the mercury pressure. They might boost the power up for cold lamp to compensate for lower efficacy when cold, so the brightness is full upon start.
Btw: It even came to my mind, then "famous" ALTO's might use this method, but the poor assembly quality (frequent joint failure) made the amalgam pellet to fall off from it's designed place, so then it would not be able to attain required operating temperature, so the mercury vapor pressure in the lamp.
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