Bloody lovely!

Nice colour when fully run up too!

Paul what do you reckon was the intended market for these lamps? So much bigger than standard 50w envelope surely that would rule out a lot of retro-fits...

I think they would look nice semi-rescessed in a restaurant or hotel foyer or something like that, so you just get to see the ball. I have only seen these in books, so how rare are they, can you still buy them?

I think the main market was those clear globes and other decorative lanterns...

Often they just hang from the ceiling as a bare bulb in large open spaces, you can still sometimes see this kind of installation in Europe. Before they refurbished Schipol Airport in Amsterdam a couple of years ago, there were clusters of these mouted in rings of six around each of the steel pillars holding up the roof. Probably hopelessly inefficient, both optically as well as because of the lamp itself, and it looked really 1970s in there, so now they've been replaced with more efficient floodlights. I think Osram still makes these today. In Japan you can certainly get them, Iwasaki makes them up to 500W rating in a really huge bulb, both clear and fluiorescent and even self-ballasted.

This 'golden globe' is still an absolute joy to light up! Wow James! Never knew Iwasaki did globes in the higher ratings!

Yes these globes are very nice indeed. I would have bought one if it wasn't for the fact they are so bloody expensive!

I'm still eyeing them on Amazon...would probably just have grabbed one by now if the next month wasn't going to involve both a convention and the Lada being due an MOT almost as soon as I get back...maybe after that lot...

Got this one courtesy of James if I remember correctly.