GE Lumalux LU150/55 of Mexican Design
This unusual lamp has been manufactured by the Mexican subsidiary of General Electric USA, for sale in Latin American markets. Unusually despite the brand name on the packaging indicating GE's Lucalox trade name, the lamp itself is etched Lumalux, a brand name normally used by Sylvania for its HPS lamps. Quite how this came to be possible is not known.

The construction of the arc tube is very similar to GE's north American products of a similar era. It features an external amalgam reservoir with butterfly crimped electrode to permit universal burning position. Part of the external surface of the reservoir has been gritblasted to roughen its surface, and radiate more heat so as to fine-tune the amalgam temperature. Together with an annular ceramic plug which serves to reduce the diameter of the opening at one end of the arc tube, both components have been frit-sealed into the arc tube. Frit appears to be of different composition than GE's normal material, being somewhat greenish in colour, similar to Philips frit. The seal is rather messy with much glass exuded outside the arc tube, and possibly also inside, which would not bode well for the lifetime of this lamp. The seal at the opposite end has been made to a thin niobium wire and annular ceramic plug.

The outer bulb is unusually made in soft glass - all of GE's USA Lucalox lamps use hardglass. The arc tube support frame is unusually mounted to the glass stem using a novel coiled end piece which extends over the stem. Presumably the intention of this is to avoid placing excessive stresses on the lead wires, which would be more likely to fracture the surrounding glass pinch-seal when soft glass is used.
Manufacturer: General Electric de Mexico
Lamp Power: 150 Watts
Lamp Current: Amps
Lamp Voltage: 55 Volts
Cap Type: E392/45 Brass + vitrite
Bulb Type: ED-75 ED-23½ in eighths/inch
Bulb Finish: Clear Soda-lime glass
Electrodes: Backwound Tungsten Ba2CaWO6 Emitter
Arc Length:
Atmosphere: Inner: Na,Hg | Xe Outer: Hard Vacuum
Luminous Flux: lm (@ 100 hrs) lm (@ 12,000hrs)
Luminous Efficacy: lm/W (@ 100 hrs)
Colour Temperature & CRI: CCT: 1900K CRI: Ra 22
Chromaticity Co-ordinates: CCx: CCy:
Rated Lifetime: 24,000 hours to 50% survival
Warm-up & Re-strike Time: 5 minutes approx 2 minutes
Burning Position: Universal
Overall Length: mm / inches
Light Centre Length: mm / inches
Factory: Monterrey Mexico
Date of Manufacture: Approx. 1985
Original Value: Unknown