I'm getting dentists vibes from this

It's a good looking fixture with lamps like that

Hah, I'd always liked the look of the louvered fixtures over newer styles such as wraparounds.

Interesting color, note seen that before.

Hey, good to see you back on the site, we missed you

@Tuopeek - Apparently the colour was intended to reduce eye strain in places such as machine shops and drafting rooms. Seems to be mostly limited to North America as I've haven't heard of a similar colour used elsewhere.

@Ria - Thanks! I've been busy and I haven't had too many new finds recently.

It's truly amazing that the "cool green" light color (used exclusively in NA indeed) persisted until quite recently. That color was originally introduced in the 1950s to boost the light output of fluorescent tubes, for a usage in utilitarian lighting applications. This was achieved by adding a green-emitting zinc sulfide phosphor to the broad-band white calcium halophosphate material used in standard fluorescent tubes. One may have thought that cool-green tubes died out following the introduction of the much more efficient tri-band tubes during the 1970s, but that was clearly not the case. I'm curious if the phosphor formulation changed in the meantime. The specs you listed suggest that this is the same mix.

Was this lamp made by Philips, by the way? Its end caps sure look like it came from that manufacturer.

I agree, the colour is quite unique for a fluorescent lamp designed for general lighting. I believe there was another phosphor, Lite White which was designed for a similar purpose to have high light output at the expense of CRI.

I'm not entirely sure when the cool green lamps were discontinued but Interlectric, the manufacturer went out of business in 2020 and the other manufacturer that listed these, Damar lists them as NLA. There's limited amount of old stock left. I wonder if Interlectric sourced the end caps from Philips.

It's a possibility indeed. Do you know where exactly Interelectric Corp manufactured its lamps?

The only address I was able to find was this building which seems to be a bit on the small side for a lamp manufacturing plant.

I could see some small-scale lamp manufacturing operation taking place in such building, or the facilities attached to it at the back... Interlectric was certainly no GE, Sylvania or Philips/Westinghouse. By the way, have you noticed that Osram-Sylvania is right next to that company on Lexington av.?

Nice ! I'd like to get a pair of Cool Green at some point .

@Max - Interesting. I suppose the smaller manufacturers probably outsourced some of the harder to make parts such as glass tubing, lamp envelopes, and lamp bases as well so less floor space was required. Nice observation on the Osram-Sylvania facility too, I wonder if that was one of their plants or warehouses.

@wide-lite 1000 - The CGs are pretty neat. I've seen a few specialty lighting suppliers still listing them, might be a good time to buy a pair while they're still available.

BuyLightFixtures.Com still lists them for $12.88 ea.

Interelectric seems to have ceased production sometime between COVID and 2022... not sure what the building is used for now. It's a pity they couldn't economically shift over to manufacturing LEDs... but I mean, if the Big 3 failed to do it, then it makes sense the little guys failed alongside them.

Agreed, it would have been nice if they continued operations but with LEDs and demand for fluorescent dropping it probably didn't work out. The fixture manufacturers seemed to have a much better time shifting over to LED, probably since LEDs are more similar to fixtures than lamps.

I'd rather discussions stayed off the topic of you know what, please