OT:Incandescent "soft white" bulb coating?

Doesn't stuck much... Even the broken pieces of filament swirled around inside the bulb scrape off the powder. Hopefully it is just some talc, gypsum, ...

sdb

All I know is that at least in flourescant lights they use different shades of colored phosphors. I would imagine it's the same stuff but I don't know.

The two commonly used finishes inside are etched glass (frosted) and applied silica powder. As I said, the etched glass is known as 'inside-frosted' or simply 'frosted' and results in the appearance of a glowing ball of light within the globe. But silica powder is also used, and called 'soft-white' by most major manufacturers. Although this cuts output more than etched glass, it makes the entire bulb glow more evenly.

I hope this helps some.

Jon

Thanks, Jon, this is exactly the sort of info I was hoping for. Any idea what makes the silica stay on the inside of the envelope?

Thanks again!

Bob Masta dqatechATdaqartaDOTcom D A Q A R T A Data AcQuisition And Real-Time Analysis

No, but I honestly haven't tried to fathom this in any detail. I don't either have theory or experimental data to suggest much to me.

If you have a bulb to break open, see how well you can clean the substance off with your fingers or wet rag. If it all comes off easily, then it is probably surface tension and possibly some frosting on the inside to encourage that tension and the particles are probably "very, very tiny." Otherwise, maybe they "use something." But my bet would be that they would avoid depending on anything other than the silica -- the more that is added, the higher the cost (especially, as it is hard to find higher-temp materials and deal with outgasing, etc.) and the more dangerous it may be in the home, as well.

But I just don't know.

Jon