Scary 1960's UV 'Health' lamp

[JMC]

Saw this on ebay and wondered how much UV it would actually kick out? Here's the lamp.

 

 

 

It was a 'health lamp' made by Philips in the 1960's.

 

Here's the irradiance spectra at 50cm from the bulb.

 

Scary, scary lamp... Interesting though - it's a mercury lamp combined with a tungsten one in the same overall package. Surprisingly there seem to be quite a few for sale on ebay for not much money.

 

I wonder how many people got badly burned by them when they were more commonly used?

[Stefano]

At least there's no UVC. If used correctly it would provide some vitamin D. The problem would be if it had no instructions or suggested maximum exposure.

[dabateman]

Everyone knows that brown Cancerous skin is healthy right?

 

Just like moisturizing creams with radicals and lead. Its healthy to look white and have dead skin right?

[Bill De Jager]

It's healthy to look white and have dead skin right?

 

Depends which layer is dead.

[nfoto]

My mother used one of these during the long, dark Nordic winter. She lived to be 92. So perhaps there was a hidden health benefit with such lamps?

[Stefano]

Probably, if used in the right "dose". I can't imagine to live in the darkness for months. Sunlight is so beautiful. When there is a sunny day here I feel better, we had a few sunny days after several rainy and gray days. My aunt too said she felt bored.

[JMC]

I've found some instructions for it, including time of exposure and distance. Will do some calculations at some point and see how quickly it would be likely to burn the skin.

[Fandyus]

I've found some instructions for it, including time of exposure and distance. Will do some calculations at some point and see how quickly it would be likely to burn the skin.

What would one have to look up if interested in buying one of those? Vintage UV health lamp?

[Andy Perrin]

Uh, the point is to stay away from them, not look them up!

[dabateman]

Your better off buying a blb compact fluorescent bulb.

A small spiral black coated compact fluorescent light bulb. It will be cheaper, have great broadband UVA and useful for imaging with a standard lamp fixture.

 

Sadly the standard desk lamp with E26/E27 fixtures are becoming rare. In favor for simple enclosed fixed LEDs.

 

 

[JMC]

Funnily enough I was using this lamp the other day for something (I don't remember what I was searching for on ebay when I found it).

 

Here's a comparison of the irradiance spectrum of the lamp, at a distance of 20 inches, vs sunlight on a bright sunny day.

 

 

I noticed with the lamp the spectra varied over about 10 mins after switching on, which is not unsurprising for mercury xenon lamps.

 

20 inches was chosen as the distance to measure the spectrum at, as this is the recommended distance from the lamp to the skin in the brochure for it. While the 365nm peak is big, it's the stuff below 320nm that worries me more as that is the area most likely to cause burns. It's not something I'd want shining on my skin for any length of time.

[Stefano]

There are UVB lamps meant to treat some skin conditions, they usually have a timer to prevent overexposure.

 

This lamp could maybe be used much further away to give a healthy dose of UVB light if you don't receive enough from sunlight, but at 20 inches it's probably too intense. That's a lot more UVB than in sunlight at that distance.