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The Ballast
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This light screams antique to me. It had cloth tape/tar connections versus wirenuts and very frail cloth wiring which i replaced (though the ballast leads are fine and were left original). Can anyone date the ballast? I havent had any luck loosening the two ballast retainig screws but I'll work harder at it when i clean the light. Interestingly, everything electrical with the exception of the pullchain switch is mounted on the reflactor. The pull chain was ruined though so i removed it. It won't need a new pull-chain anyways since my laundry room has a wall switch. I don't remember the brand of the sockets, but they were something Sylvania...
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As for the age there should be a two letter code on one of the flanges, GE has a date code chart but it only goes back to 1965.
@ Andy; yeah i love the feeling of getting a piece if history.
@ Jace; The starter is indeed a Hubbell FS-4 NEOSTART starter, identical to the starters in the tulamp preheats. The lamp is a Westinghouse F40CW and looks similar to my three NOS AGRO-LITE lamps. It's used but has very little end blackening and works great, though one end cap has faulty glue.
@ Joe; yeah all the fixtures had identical starters though there was some variety of lamps. I'm thinking the starters weren't changed with the lamps. I think this light is probably close to the age of the 2 lamp preheaters in the garage though maybe a decade or so earlier.