Questions about a CRT Brightener

[Chris K]

Good day fellow vintage TV lovers!

I have a TV with a 12LP4 that could use a little help. I bought a NOS brightener made by the Vidaire company. Probably from the mid 1950s. I have a few questions for the experts since I know little other than they boost the filament voltage about a volt.

1. Since this is a 75 year old item, is there anything I need to do to prepare it for use i.e. install it on the TV and bring the unit up slowly on a dim bulb or my Sencore isolation transformer Variac?

2. It has a "Series/Parallel" switch on it. I know about series install but what happens with a parallel install?

3. It's heavier than I expected. What's in this thing?

4. What modification can I do to the TV to achieve the same result as installing a brightener? Is there a way to put a potentiometer in this modification if I find I only want 0.5V boost or if I want to risk a bit more than the brightener would do?

Thanks everyone!