Description

This object is a glass and metal unfrosted light bulb with a v-shaped filament and a special screw base. The top of the bulb is covered with a removable metal plate.

The Mazda type S-2, also known as the Sunlight Lamp, was developed by General Electric in 1931 as a successor to the 1929 S-1, a bulb that gave off light in a spectrum that resembled that of the sun. Both the S-1 and the S-2 were designed to transmit both ultraviolet and visible light, and were advertised as a healthy way to sunbathe indoors. This hybrid incandescent-discharge bulb also contains a pool of mercury so that when the light was connected to a power supply, the filament lit up, the bulb temperature increased, and the mercury was vaporized, and gave off ultra-violet rays. The metal cap helped to raise the bulb’s temperature to increase the UV output. The glass was designed to filter out the radiation from wavelengths shorter than those in sunlight.