@James
Well that makes sense that the Na-1 would be higher intensity since it is 8 more watts than a Gp20Na, but I suppose never really thought of brightness being needed for a spectral source.

I saw those HG and HgCd lamps on your website, that is definitely wild that they never upgraded those seals!

Thanks for providing me with the information that I need to know about using step up transformers with reactor ballasts.

Okay, some Soviet / Russian mercurey and MH remote ballast modules have a PFC capacitor integrated as well.

What I meant to say is that those ballasts have a 2 terminal reactor and a capacitor all potted in one casing.

Often times, I have seen Japanese reactor ballasts that sometimes have 3 or 4 wires connected to a case. Often times, some of those wires would lead to power factor correction capacitors potted inside the casing and other times, I have seen that some have some wires not connected to anything.

For example, here is a Japanese 200V 60Hz reactor ballast that I found that specifically does say “high power factor” on its casing:

https://buyee.jp/item/jdirectitems/auction/k1148211050?conversionType=jdirectitems_auction_TranslateSearch

This implies that the power factor correction capacitor and the reactor coil are all inside the case. That is why you see 4 wires coming from it.

In principle, the reactor coil is still wired in series with the lamp and the power factor correction capacitor inside the casing is still wired in parallel with the input leads.

@James Interestingly if these pretty and short living Aerolux and clones figural violet-green lamps are pure Ar or Ar/N2 fill too? I definitely need to probe my lamp with a spectrometer.

I remember seeing a chart for the different types of neon indicator lamps and their type numbers (like NE-1, NE-51, etc) but I have lost it. Does anyone know of a comprehensive reference for these types of lamps?

@RRK
Essentially it is inefficient is what you are saying?

@James
That is really cool, I was totally unaware of any argon-nitrogen lamps other than Ar-1s, I haven't seen any pictures of them here. An Ar-9 would be really cool to see.

So those colored neon lamps are actually neon-xenon? I always thought they would be mercury-argon like a fluorescent tube.

You can not integrate a PFC cap into a two-terminal choke, sure... If you are talking about ballast module assembly, of couse it can consist of a choke in series with the lamp and a capacitor across the input.

@James Soviet TL* phosphor lamps (except orange TLO lamp which is just a neon lamp with a diffuse coating)  definitely have something + xenon as their fill, due to specific Xe near-IR signature lines. See here: https://www.lighting-gallery.net/gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-250635  https://www.lighting-gallery.net/gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-250636

I have been seeing that a good number of the reactor ballasts I was looking at do seem to have integrated PFC capacitors in them.