Looking for vintage metal-halide lamps with Thallium Indium

[lights*plus]

It's a long shot, but it's the only place to ask for something like this (here & maybe lighting-gallery.net).

I need a metal-halide lamp of any wattage with the old Thallium-Indium-Sodium formulation instead of the typical Scandium-Mercury-Sodium. Made from about 1960 to 1980? Purpose is to accurately record their unique spectrum.

I actually saw a pair of flood lights on ground lighting a company's sign. Identified & photographed on film, with a grating, circa 1990.

Any advice on how to search on ebay also appreciated.

[Mike]

Hmm wow i didn't know MH was around in the 60s. My 1977 GE street light catalog lists the M-400A and M-1000 available with 400W and 1000W MH, respectively, but i don't think MH really ever caught on until the 90s when it started appearing in parking lots and indoor applications like gymnasiums and warehouses. The oldest MH lamps I have is a lot of three Sylvanias from 2000.

[lights*plus]

Yes, didn't catch-on until the 1990's because they were extrememly expensive.

The success of early Television broadcasts of night sport events (late 1960's) was due to the better color charactestics of metal-halide lamps.

It's remarkable how lighting technology has progressed. Virtually all major ballpark lights from about the mid 1960's were metal-halides. And some had unusual formulations such as tin-iodide with mercury and sodium.

[lights*plus]

Here's a GE brochure from 1980 that included some I-Line retrofit lamps - MV to MH.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/82035387/GE-Multi-Vapor-Brochure-1980

[lights*plus]

2000W lamp with Indium. A Czechoslavakian Tesla lamp:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQ1GaQEBg14

[lights*plus]

With the EU ban on Mercury inside lamps by 2015, researchers have been actively looking into the radiating properties of Indium halides. Looks like fluorescent lamps with Indium instead of Mercury will be made in the future!

http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2011APS..DPPPO7007O
http://opus.bibliothek.uni-augsburg.de/opus4/frontdoor/index/index/year/2012/docId/1926

[Mike]

Will indium lamps be more expensive or have their performance altered? i wonder if indium can be used in HID lamps?

[lights*plus]

From what I have been reading, since Mercury is unfortunately anticipated to be banned inside all lamps, researchers are actively investigating how Indium halides in HID lamps will perform without Mercury at all (Indium WITH mercury have been used in the past). So save those Mercury lamps and take care of them! And of course, there will be a price hike, for the new environmetally friendly HID lamps.