Coin Machine Review (& Pacific ...)
Issue: 1940 July - Page 9
The Lamp Division's life-test department is a veritable chamber
of horrors for the lamp. Representative samples are burned at
overvoltage and bounced, shaken and thumped mechanically.
Traveling inspectors constantly check the quality of lamps in
warehouses after they have been shipped. Still Westinghouse is
not satisfied. Performance records of thousands of lamps in actual
service are regularly checked.
All these things have only one purpose-to insure the lamp user
the utmost in quality and efficiency. The Circle W and the word
Mazda on a lamp stand as symbols of the best that modern science
and engineering can produce.
In addition to the main plant at Bloomfield, where all special
lamps, and tubes are made and experimental work is carried on,
the Lamp Division has two other plants in New Jersey. Brass lamp
bases and radio-tube gases-more than 1,000,000 a day-are made
at Belleville: The great bulk of the standard household lamps (15
to 100 watts, and known to the Division as "bread and butter
lamps") are made in Trenton. More than 2,900 people are em-
ployed in these three plants. Combined, the plants would occupy
23 acres of floor space.
Many processes of lamp manufacture require delicate adjust-
ments and infinite patience: Here, an operator gazes intently at
large projected images of hair-like tungsten filament wires, in-
specting them for roundness and measuring deviations in hundred-
thousandths of an inch; there, rows of assemblers mount the little
wisps of metal on glass stems, constantly checking their work and
deftly adjusting the filaments with fine tweezers. Since women
perform such tasks more dexterously and patiently than men, about
half of the lamp-manufacturing employes are women.
(Above) Miss Anna Berta operates a
Sealex machine, which exhausts air
from the lamp bulb, flushes it with
pure nitrogen, fills it with an inert
gas, seals it, and stamps on wattage
and voltage numbers. The machine can
handle 9,000 lamps in eight hours.
9
COIN
MACHINE
REVIEW
(Right) On the seasoning rack, lamps
are subjected to voltages higher than
those specified, to insure against de-
velopment of possible defects during
normal use.
Miss Marilyn Magee is
checking the voltages on the test rack.
(Below) That newshawks may snap the
day's news, these operators fill glass
bulbs with thin sheets of aluminum
foil to enable the photoflash lamp to
live a brief, hundredth-of-a-second life.
The most complicated and important element in the lamp is
the simple-appearing filament of tungsten wire, sometimes as
small as one tenth of th e · diameter of a human hair. Tungsten
filament for Westinghouse Mazda lamps not only must be exact in
diameter and roundness but also must have a certain crystal
structure. About 20 inches long before coiling, the filament is
only five-eighths of an inch in length when coiled and recoiled
and mounted in th e familiar 60-watt lamp. Ordinary tungsten
filament wire has a tensile strength greater than that of the highest
grade of steel, and in the finest sizes, such as used in the three-
watt lamp, costs about $20,000 a pound to manufacture, although
tungsten itself is not a precious metal.
The high melting point of the metal-about 6,080 degrees Fah-
renheit, or more than half th e surface temperature of the sun-
prohibits melting it in crucibles, because there is no metal crucible
material ha'i>ing a higher melting point. And because of its pecul-
iar crystalline structure,. it cannot be drawn like other metals;
hence, rather devious methods are used to transform the raw ore
into pure metallic tungsten.
Wolframite, or tungsten ore, is first analyzed for composition
and impuri ties. Next it is treated chemically to extract pure
tungstic oxide, a substance resemblin g sulphur in appearance.
Following these treatments the. tungstic oxide is filtered and dried
in ovens. The resultant powder is ground and sifted, and certain
chemicals are added which, after molding and heating, will result
in the desired crystalline structure in th e final lamp filament. Then
https://elibrary.arcade-museum.com
of horrors for the lamp. Representative samples are burned at
overvoltage and bounced, shaken and thumped mechanically.
Traveling inspectors constantly check the quality of lamps in
warehouses after they have been shipped. Still Westinghouse is
not satisfied. Performance records of thousands of lamps in actual
service are regularly checked.
All these things have only one purpose-to insure the lamp user
the utmost in quality and efficiency. The Circle W and the word
Mazda on a lamp stand as symbols of the best that modern science
and engineering can produce.
In addition to the main plant at Bloomfield, where all special
lamps, and tubes are made and experimental work is carried on,
the Lamp Division has two other plants in New Jersey. Brass lamp
bases and radio-tube gases-more than 1,000,000 a day-are made
at Belleville: The great bulk of the standard household lamps (15
to 100 watts, and known to the Division as "bread and butter
lamps") are made in Trenton. More than 2,900 people are em-
ployed in these three plants. Combined, the plants would occupy
23 acres of floor space.
Many processes of lamp manufacture require delicate adjust-
ments and infinite patience: Here, an operator gazes intently at
large projected images of hair-like tungsten filament wires, in-
specting them for roundness and measuring deviations in hundred-
thousandths of an inch; there, rows of assemblers mount the little
wisps of metal on glass stems, constantly checking their work and
deftly adjusting the filaments with fine tweezers. Since women
perform such tasks more dexterously and patiently than men, about
half of the lamp-manufacturing employes are women.
(Above) Miss Anna Berta operates a
Sealex machine, which exhausts air
from the lamp bulb, flushes it with
pure nitrogen, fills it with an inert
gas, seals it, and stamps on wattage
and voltage numbers. The machine can
handle 9,000 lamps in eight hours.
9
COIN
MACHINE
REVIEW
(Right) On the seasoning rack, lamps
are subjected to voltages higher than
those specified, to insure against de-
velopment of possible defects during
normal use.
Miss Marilyn Magee is
checking the voltages on the test rack.
(Below) That newshawks may snap the
day's news, these operators fill glass
bulbs with thin sheets of aluminum
foil to enable the photoflash lamp to
live a brief, hundredth-of-a-second life.
The most complicated and important element in the lamp is
the simple-appearing filament of tungsten wire, sometimes as
small as one tenth of th e · diameter of a human hair. Tungsten
filament for Westinghouse Mazda lamps not only must be exact in
diameter and roundness but also must have a certain crystal
structure. About 20 inches long before coiling, the filament is
only five-eighths of an inch in length when coiled and recoiled
and mounted in th e familiar 60-watt lamp. Ordinary tungsten
filament wire has a tensile strength greater than that of the highest
grade of steel, and in the finest sizes, such as used in the three-
watt lamp, costs about $20,000 a pound to manufacture, although
tungsten itself is not a precious metal.
The high melting point of the metal-about 6,080 degrees Fah-
renheit, or more than half th e surface temperature of the sun-
prohibits melting it in crucibles, because there is no metal crucible
material ha'i>ing a higher melting point. And because of its pecul-
iar crystalline structure,. it cannot be drawn like other metals;
hence, rather devious methods are used to transform the raw ore
into pure metallic tungsten.
Wolframite, or tungsten ore, is first analyzed for composition
and impuri ties. Next it is treated chemically to extract pure
tungstic oxide, a substance resemblin g sulphur in appearance.
Following these treatments the. tungstic oxide is filtered and dried
in ovens. The resultant powder is ground and sifted, and certain
chemicals are added which, after molding and heating, will result
in the desired crystalline structure in th e final lamp filament. Then
https://elibrary.arcade-museum.com
Future scanning projects are planned by the International Arcade Museum Library (IAML).