Behemoths

Here's a comparison between two huge mercury fluorescent lamps, one made by Philips in the Netherlands (1973 HPL-N 2000W, left) and one from Japan, made by Iwasaki in more recent times (1998 HF2000BPD, right). These lamps were once the popular choice in yard, industrial, and very high bay illuminations, but their use waned during the 1970s as more efficacious sodium and metal halide lamps became preferred in those applications. In light of that information, it is quite remarkable that Iwasaki kept on producing this particular model long after it fell out of favor. This is evidence of how conservative the Japanese are... or were, as the manufacturing of mercury lamps ended recently in Japanese-owned factories as a result of the application of resolutions on the usage of mercury from the Minamata convention, adopted in 2013.