Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: E11 (Minican) screw base halogen lamps.

This is topic E11 (Minican) screw base halogen lamps. in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Stephen Furley (Member # 1277) on 04-15-2006, 07:00 AM:

Anybody know where I can get hold of a few lampholders to fit these things? I doubt if I'll find them in England, even the lamps themselves are rare here, but somewhere that does international mail order will do, or somewhere in NYC or New Jersey where I can pick up some while I'm there next month.

Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 04-15-2006, 05:45 PM:

Colortran used the minican lamps in the mini-ellipse line of spotlights and the CCT minuet used it as well in the ones imported to canada so I think a stage lighting supply would be a good place to start

Posted by Hugh McCullough (Member # 1542) on 04-15-2006, 06:12 PM:

Hello Stephen.
Try this web site. They seem to be able to supply most lamps, and fittings.
http://www.bltdirect.co.uk

Posted by Stephen Furley (Member # 1277) on 04-17-2006, 11:00 AM:

Hugh, I use bltdirect quite a bit for various things, but they don't do these; neither do Commercial Lamp Supplies, The Lamp Company, lightbulbsdirect. In the US I've tried bulbs.com, bulbman and prolighting. Uklightbulbs sell the lamps, but not the holders.

Gordon, thanks for the tip, I'll try looking for somebody who stocks spares for those lanterns.

Posted by Alexander Smith (Member # 1769) on 04-17-2006, 05:43 PM:

This is a long shot: Once in a month of Sundays we receive a
standee which is supposed to have lighting inside. In nearly
all of these, it's designed for "American Electric" and uses
bulbs which seem to have the same kind of fitting you describe.

When these standees, designed for America, are supplied to the
UK a simple step-down transformer is thrown in the box.
Usually the transformer is under-rated and gets very hot as a
result. Therefore, we don't implement the electrics in these
standees, and usually I get the pick of the "electric bits".

I have a contact who can use the lamps in a piece of American
laboratory equipment, but I don't usually keep the lamp-holders.

The next time I will keep hold of the lampholders, if it will
help you.

Alex.

Posted by Stephen Furley (Member # 1277) on 04-18-2006, 01:09 AM:

Alexander, Thanks for the offer, but I would be surprised if they would use this type of lamp in that application, but it's possible. These lamps are high power, up to 500 Watts, but very compact. There's a picture of one here:

Note the very long, relative to the size of the cap, white ceramic insulator between the screw cap and the tip. I think it's more likely that the ones you are seeing are American E12 candelabra base lamps, like the ones here:

The insulator is a black material like a conventional light bulb, and is much smaller, the metal cap exteds almost to the tip of the lamp. These are very common in America for small mains-Voltage lamps, rather like our E14 SES cap. E12 is also rare here, but is sometimes used for night lights. Also, the thread looks quite different; the E12 is a deeper, coarser pitch thread than the E11, which looks more like that on E10 MES (the old screw fitting torch bulb thread). If you happen to get another one of these things, could you look and see which type they are. Many thanks.

The more I learn about American electrical systems the more different they are from European ones. The latest pitfall for the unwary that I've discoverd also concerns lamp caps. The ES screw fitting lamps here are designated E27, while in America their medium base as they call it is E26. They look the same, and I've used European lamps in American holders and vica versa, no problem. I assumed that it was just a diffrence in terminology, possibly caused by rounding down when converting from inches, but it turns out that the two caps are different, though close enough to fit. There certainly isn't 1mm difference
in diameter between them,

Larger lamps here use GES (E40) caps, while similar ones in America are Mogul base (E39). I've always been interested in lighting, and I have quite a large collection of different lamps, though far less than some people, who have thousands. Colin Grimes has a remarkable collection on his website here: I've never met him, but he's been very helpful with information on several occasions. I've sent GES lamps to people in America, who've used them in Mogul holders, no problem. Somebody in America sent me an old clear glass high pressure mercury lamp with a mogul base. I try to put it in a GES holder and it jams within about a quarter of a turn, as does another Mogul base lamp that I've got in my collection, but never tried to use. The two caps look very similar, except that the thread on the Mogul one is slightly shorter, but there's no way it's going to fit, so a E40 will go into an E39 holder, but an E39 will not go into an E40 one! After taking a pair of lamps to work, and measuring them, it turns out that the E39 thread is almost exactly the same outside diameter as the E40, but the thread is slightly less deep, so te core diameter is actually larger, and it won't fit. The difference is so small that it's difficult to see.

There's a picture of a E40 cap here:

And a E39 one here:

Spot the difference! Something to be aware of if you are involved in lighting.

[ 04-18-2006, 02:19 AM: Message edited by: Stephen Furley ]

Posted by Alexander Smith (Member # 1769) on 04-19-2006, 02:03 AM:

I thought we were talking about the same thing, but I realise
we're not. Thanks for the links and pictures though, just in
case I ever have to do anything interesting with lighting in
the future.

Alex.

Posted by Stephen Furley (Member # 1277) on 04-20-2006, 04:54 PM:

Here are some pictures I just took of the larger caps side by side for comparison:

American Mogul base (E39) above, European GES cap (E40) below.

And a closer view.

E40 lamp in E39 holder generally fits, E39 lamp in E40 holder does not; the opposite of what you might expect.

Here are a pair of the smaller caps:

European ES cap (E27) above, American Medium base (E26) below.

And a closer view, E26 on left, E27 on right.

These do seem to be compatible, both ways. There are slight differences in the sizes, but much less than 1mm, and they do seem to fit. E27 caps are found on some American lamps, but E26 ones don't seem to be used in Europe. Confusing, isn't it? Why on Earth can't they standardise these things?

All of the other screw caps, E5, 10, 11, 12, 17 and 29 are incompatible with each other.