Fuji Lamp for Projector

 

Going from projectors to what makes a projector present its content. This article will look at the Fuji Lamp, made for a slide projector and manufactured by the Fuji Electric Lamp Industrial co., Ltd. (trying saying that company name three times fast).

The Fuji Electric Lamp Industrial co., Ltd. was first founded in 1929 under the name the Toa Light Bulb Manufacturing Company, but was rebranded and renamed to the Fuji Electric Lamp Industrial co., Ltd. in 1946 and specialises in manufacturing specialised light bulbs, electron tubes and other electrical components. (FujiLamp.jp).   

The name Fuji came from the alliance of two companies, Furukawa Electric Co., Ltd. (Fu) and Siemens AG (Si). Together making the sound that sounds like Fuji, referring to Mt. Fuji, the highest mountain in Japan. (Fuji Electric Global 2023).

Even though it says Lamp on the box this object is a light bulb, (more specifically a Halogen light bulb) What is the difference? Well in terms of it being used in a projector, a lamp consists of a bulb that is incased in a cage with a reflector (known as the lamp housing), whereas a bulb is a small piece of the lamp that lights up (a shocker, I know). (Smith 2017).

Or to put it into other words: “Think of it in this way: a lamp is similar to an ink cartridge, whereas the bulb would be just the ink.” (Smith 2017).

And replacing the bulb in a lamp housing is known as relamping. (Smith 2017).

This is a four pin 240v 300w G17q (The Lamp Company 2024) slide projector (or at least that is what it was intended to be used for by the owner) halogen light bulb. According to FujiLamp.jp, in 1970 they “Successfully commercialized halogen lamps for optical use…” So we can assume that this particular bulb was manufactured sometime in the 1970’s.

As mentioned above, this light bulb is a halogen bulb. What does that mean? Well a halogen bulb is an advanced version of the incandescent bulb. The halogen filament is made from ductile tungsten and surrounded by a high pressure of gas. To maintain this high pressure, the bulb glass is made from high-silica glass, aluminosilicate or fused quartz. (Edison Tech Center 2013).

The gas that the Halogen bulb uses is halogen gas (made from bromine and iodine gases), which is used to set off a lighting technique known as the halogen cycle. (Cyr 2016).

Although this technique would only be used and invented in 1959 by General Electric. But the halogen goes back as far as the 1882, where they used chlorine, to prevent the glass from blackening, which was a problem with the regular incandescent light bulb. (Bulbs.com)

And here is an excerpt from Bulbs.com to explain how it works:

“A halogen lamp functions identically to an incandescent lamp, with one notable exception: The halogen cycle. In a typical incandescent lamp, tungsten slowly evaporates from the burning filament. This causes blackening of the lamp, which decreases light output and reduces life.

Halogen lamps are largely able to eliminate this problem because the halogen gas reacts chemically with the evaporated tungsten to prevent it from affixing to the glass. Some tungsten is returned to the filament, which also serves to increase the rated life of the lamp. Because the temperature required for this reaction is higher than a typical incandescent bulb, halogen lamps must generally be manufactured using quartz.”

This light produced by the halogen is then reflected by the lamp housing (using mirrors) through a slide (a “transparent film positives mounted in a cardboard or plastic frame”), which is held in a photo tray. The light projects the images from the slide through multiple lenses that widens it and makes it bigger to be seen on a screen. (Supaphoto Team 2023).

This was a short entry because it is just a light bulb, but still interesting and fun to look at. I’ve often thought how cool this bulb will look as a prop on a film set. When I saw this object I was intrigued and thought it would be a neat thing to talk about for all the other film and photography geeks and nerds like myself. Talk about a light bulb moment!

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did researching it.

List of sources:

Bulbs.com. Halogen. https://www.bulbs.com/learning/halogen.aspx#:~:text=The%20early%20history%20of%20the,iodine%20as%20the%20halogen%20gas.

Cyr, A. 2016. What is halogen and how is it different than incandescent? https://insights.regencysupply.com/what-is-halogen-and-how-is-it-different-than-incandescent

Edison Tech Center. 2013. The Halogen Lamp. https://edisontechcenter.org/halogen.html

Fuji Electric Global. 2023. History of Fuji Electric. https://www.fujielectric.com/company/history.html

FujiLamp.jp. Company Profile. https://www.fujilamp.jp/company/

Smith,J. 2017. The difference between a Projector Bulb and a Lamp. https://www.projectorlampexperts.com.au/difference-between-bulb-lamp/#:~:text=Simply%20put%2C%20a%20lamp%20consists,would%20be%20just%20the%20ink

Supaphoto Team. 2023. How does a Slide Projector work? https://supaphoto.com/blogs/magic-memories/tagged/how-does-a-slide-projector-work/

The Lamp Company. 2024. A1-201 - 240v 300w G17q. https://www.lampco.co.uk/products/a1-201-240v-300w-g17q