This is a very old model of CFL there is no date code on the screw cap or anywhere. It does not use oscillator inverter ballast but uses resistors and capacitors(I think) since at the air slits the two brown block resistors can be seen.It flickers with 50Hz like normal magnetic gear and the tube itself is quite heavily dosed with mercury since it takes a while for the mercury to evaporate near the electrodes. The light is instant start so it is not resistant to switch wear.... But it has seen little use/switching.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HX0pVFJxge4 (Lamp Video)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cw-8iJtPRqg (Instruction Leaflet)

Interesting alternative to magnetic SL lamps Similar effects but not heavy and without blinking start. The first electronic ballast were very easy and functionally, similar as modern electronic ballasts.

It's as light as modern electronic ballast. But the starting is quite harsh on the electrodes since it uses capacitive start which would send out high voltage pulse with inrush currents during OCV/before lamp conducts. Modern instant start ballasts are gentler on the electrodes. I would think it has two resistors in series and then a main ballast capacitor and a yellow high voltage capacitor connected to where a starter would be.

Sometimes ago Vladi published here the schematic redrawn from the older Circolux.
It uses capacitor ballasting, but not the multiplier, but a kind of semi-resonant voltage booster circuit. Upon triac firing it make one half-cycle, pumping more energy into the capacitor, so boosting it's voltage up. During this, the pulse current heat up the filaments as well.
Once the lamp fires, the voltage across it is limited, so the triac does not fire anymore
The series resistors somehow smoothen up the current spikes coming from the discharge negative impedance nature mixed with the capacitors.

WOW! Mind blowing . I was kinda fantasizing how I could replicate the ballasting circuit to run a 36w preheat tube I guess it's dashed after seeing the inductor there. But it's a nice circuit.

Why the inductors scare you so much?
It is only 47uH, so few 10's of turns on a piece of ferrite rod...
And you may buy them ready as any other electronic component...

But such ballast is not good for the long and main,ly krypton filled tubes, the current spikes would be too high, yielding quite short lamp life.
And the resistors to smoothen them have same or even higher losses than regular series choke.

Such ballast was used just to save the weight, while still keep the losses reasonable in the era, when the semiconductors for the HF ballast were not available (or too expensive), even when that meant being quite harsh on the tube.