Quote:
Originally Posted by bgadow
In the late 80's or early 90's I bought a very large incandescent bulb at a local freight salvage store, just as a novelty. It appeared to be old stock from the 60's or 70's, a GE. It had unusual markings-I think it included an amp rating but no wattage; had a mogul base. I finally tried it in an old lamp with one of those bases. As the educated on here could guess, when I flipped the switch there was a flash of light, the filament burned out and the circuit breaker tripper. I later learned it was used in a special type of street lamp circuit-series string, I think. I still have the bulb and package because it's kind of neat to look at.
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The system used a constant current set-up. An old Master's Electrician's handbook explained how the system worked. There was some kind of a reactor with a movable core and weight arrangement that moved in or out to maintain the current.
Each socket had a shunt that would arc through when the lamp went O/C.
There was well over 1000 volts open circuit.