Extend the life the TV lamp

I assume this is a joke. Lamps go out because the filament eventually burns through.

I imagine he meant a cold cathode type backlight for illuminating LCDs.

Graham

There won't be an incandescent lamp in a TV.

Cold cathode fluorescent lamps fail because the cathodes wear out, usually the phosphor is depreciated by then as well.

UHP lamps in DLP and LCD sets fail because the quartz arc tube devitrifies, they run about 3,000 PSI in operation and will fail catastrophically if run too far past rated life.

My ignorance is showing

snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote in news:1191176728.554453.168250@

The white compound does not seal the contents of the bulb inside it. It just adheres it to the reflector and other works.

Troll posting-account=ps2QrAMAAAA6_jCuRt2JEIpn5Otqf_w0

There's very little mercury in one of those lamps. I wouldn't sprinkle it in my food, but there's no need for the paranoia about it either. An old thermometer contains hundreds of times the mercury.

Our silly excessively risk-averse society has demonised such things without adequate reason.

Now, if you were mining the stuff, that was different.

Graham

There's such paranoia about mercury when so many common chemicals are much more hazardous.....

I used to play with mercury as a kid and look what happened... I turned into an engineer. Ooops. :)

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Small amounts of mercury can be biologically manipulated into much more hazardous forms like methyl mercury. This has happened several times in history resulting in the poisoning of thousands of people.

I believe that a large part of the problem is that the current crop of journalists are almost totally ignorant of science and technology, even perhaps to the point of being afraid of them. Add all sorts of advocacy groups that invent their own "science" in support of their causes and you get our current situation.

Jerry

In addition to ignorance you can add 'can't be bothered to research' to the list of skills held by journalists today. They'll happily reprint any old nonsense they're spoon fed.

Graham

You KNOW that you're not supposed to admit that online, Sam! ;-)