I have been getting word from one of the members that manual preheating of preheat fluorescent lamps makes them last the longest because when a preheat fluorescent lamp is switched on, emissions from the cathodes get sputtered on the inside of a fluorescent tube every time a preheat fluorescent lamp flashes with a starter in place. I just wonder why so many of us enjoy blink happy preheat fluorescent lighting?

  Dont get me wrong lot  of members here do enjoy the start up
 Of preheat fluorescent fixtures. There fun to watch esp there mass random start ups . 

  How ever some vintage lamps that u love and hard to get
 U want most lamp life out of them and the least sputtering
  That when a modified starter with normally open  push button
 Switches comes in.  U want preheat cathode a good 2 or 3 seconds and this start the lamps.  Just like a manual preheat desk lamps.    This  why u see 1940s lamps in a manual preheat desk lamps on ebay now and then.   

This been best method for me to Manual preheat the T17 lamps as this lamp is been out of production since 2012
Yes u want your lamps last long  as u can with minimal sputtering.