JPS57180868A - Electric discharge lamp - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable the base of an electric discharge lamp to be smoothly attached to a socket, and secure the electric contact and the mechanical connection between the base and the socket by fitting a small starter inside the base, using two contact pins for the base instead of using four contact pins which is the conventional way, and making the contact pins to have a swan-like shape. CONSTITUTION:The adjacent ends of a lamp tube 10 are fixed to a common base 11. Filaments 12 and 13 are charged within the ends of the lamp tube 10. Conductors 12a and 12b and conductors 13a and 13b are led outside the tube 10, respectively, from the filaments 12 and 13. A starter 14, which consists of a non-linear dielectric element and a semiconductor switch, is fitted inside the base 11. The base 11 can be mechanically and electrically connected securely to a socket 17 by fitting two swan-like contact pins 15 and 16 into grooves 18a and 19a of holes 18 and 19 of the socket 17 by inserting the contact pins 15 and 16, respectively, into the holes 18 and 19, and rotating the base 11 in the direction indicated by the arrow.