Path: csiph.com!fu-berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!individual.net!not-for-mail From: rbowman Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.misc Subject: Re: Mercury Date: 31 Mar 2026 02:30:07 GMT Lines: 30 Message-ID: References: <1rsoqz0.19zzbh71ebfb7bN%snipeco.2@gmail.com> <18a11176d0ed8bfb$1717$2710841$802601b3@news.usenetexpress.com> <1rsp93i.i0zwza16xvqdfN%nospam@de-ster.demon.nl> <18a11b491becb6ce$558$2491104$802601b3@news.usenetexpress.com> <1rsq78a.9hgxro1eczx2yN%nospam@de-ster.demon.nl> <10qb9df$1inu5$14@dont-email.me> <1rsr591.1ssq8oh1dihjwuN%nospam@de-ster.demon.nl> <10qc4dc$1silm$10@dont-email.me> <0cqjskp5oprp9v1utu6t3q8u0urkpnjbvs@4ax.com> <97uq9mxp8h.ln2@Telcontar.valinor> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: individual.net Th8SrrbnK1l9XHol328okAnOiYaD3qjYefOrEK26owaItDbJ9h Cancel-Lock: sha1:4FPlPyPQtLnfApaW+EwMeOFAORM= sha256:4VqbqWo0l7uVJ384FX7lAPXY4Q7FXGJuus2BKbh3HXg= User-Agent: Pan/0.162 (Pokrosvk) Xref: csiph.com comp.os.linux.misc:84783 On Mon, 30 Mar 2026 21:06:49 +0200, Carlos E.R. wrote: > Breaking fluorescent lamps is considered dangerous, because of the > mercury vapor they contain. Right. After the oil embargo and subsequent worries about energy we subcontracted with GTE Sylvania to produce one of their brainstorms. It was a 44" fluorescent tube, slightly shorter than the standard 4'. The gap was taken up by a plastic module containing a small transformer for the filament heater and a current limiting capacitor. Crude, but effective. We broke a lot of tubes. We also assembled grow-lights, but straight 24" tubes and a hanging round tube model. Broke those too. It all went into the dumpster for a trip to the landfill. Nobody died. As a side note, when you're dealing with thousands of 4' tubes you get rather casual with handling them, dumping them into hoppers, and so forth. They quite hard to break. That was an amusing interlude when the greenies went from those horrible incandescent lamps to the compact fluorescents that were even a bigger environmental problem, to LEDs. In the fullness of time someone will discover a problem with LEDs and we'll circle back to kerosene lanterns. I still have an Alladin kerosene lamp but mantles are hard to find. Thorium, which worked really well in mantles, is bad, bad, bad. The yttrium variety, if you can find them, are nowhere near as efficient.