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Mercury vapor lamp product information

When you are purchasing lighting for your home, cost, color, size, and style are usually important factors in the type of lighting you purchase. Because you need to coordinate your lighting fixtures with the particular style of a room, along with draperies, flooring, artwork, paint colors, and other factors, it may take you some time to make the final decision about the fixtures you will buy. When lighting is being purchased and installed for neighborhood or commercial use, the considerations are often a little different. While style and color may be factors, it's more likely that cost and efficiency of the selected lighting will be the most important factors considered. One type of lighting that is used in schools, government buildings, and neighborhoods is the mercury vapor lamp.

The mercury vapor lamp is a type of lamp that makes use of mercury to produce light. In order to produce light, the mercury must be in an excited state, which involves the transfer of electrons to move the mercury from a ground state to an excited state. The mercury vapor lamp consists of several components that help it to create light and house the mercury in a safe manner. The components include interior arc tubes, glass bulbs, and outer bulb. The outer bulb is very important, as it is coating with a protective covering that provides insulation and protects people from ultraviolet radiation.

The mercury vapor lamp has given way to other lamps with similar characteristics. The metal halide lamp uses a mixture of mercury and other elements to produce better light without the use of phosphorus. Several major companies manufacture metal halide lamps including General Electric (GE) and Osram Sylvania.

The mercury vapor lamp relies on chemical principles to operate correctly. When you turn on a mercury vapor lamp, very little mercury is ionized, making the light produced dark blue in color. Once the main arc strikes and allows the mercury to become warmer and more pressurized, the light produced moves from the ultraviolet bands to the visible spectrum range. The light that is visible to the naked eye appears whiter, but is still actually blue in color. Outer bulb coatings are often used to remove this blue tint from the light. This is accomplished by transforming some of the lamp's bluish light into red light, which helps the light appear whiter.

While the mercury vapor lamp is very useful for some applications, there are also dangers to using this lamp in crowded places or areas where damage to the lamp can occur. Because the mercury vapor lamp produces ultraviolet radiation, the lamp must have a protective coating on it. If the mercury vapor lamp is damaged and ultraviolet radiation escapes, people in the immediate area can be affected with sun burns and irritation of the eyes. One way mercury vapor lamp manufacturers are combating this possibility is by creating a mercury vapor lamp that automatically burns out if the outer bulb is broken or shattered. This is accomplished by using components that stop working when exposed to the air outside of the outer bulb.

The mercury vapor lamp has several uses, mostly in institutional settings such as schools and government buildings. School gymnasiums often use the mercury vapor lamp for illumination. This is why many gymnasiums have light that appears to have a blue tint. The mercury vapor lamp is also used for street lighting in some communities. This is what results in the bluish tint given off by some street lamps that line sidewalks and other community areas. One major use for the mercury vapor lamp is to light specific areas where light pollution needs to be minimized. Mercury vapor lamps without phosphor in them emit only a small amount of light, so using this type of lamp makes it easier to reduce light pollution when needed.

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