General Electric 'Sun Lamp Kit' RSK6
BLENDED-LAMP-CIRCUIT
Instead of a Kanthal element, an
incandescent lamp could be used to limit
the current through a discharge tube. The
filament of an incandescent lamp could
withstand much higher temperatures than
a Kanthal element could, resulting in
infrared radiation with shorter
wavelengths that were more suitable for
therapeutic applications. The most
common implementation of this
configuration was the so-called blended
lamp in which a mercury vapour arc
discharge tube was mounted directly in
series with a filament similar to those
used in incandescent lamps and mounted in one and the same glass bulb. A blended
lamp, like the General Electric 'Sun Lamp Kit' RSK6 on display here, produced an
intense white light that, like any sunlamp, required adequate eye protection.
