I would have offered $200.00 for it if he would have just put it in a box and shipped it here before the "restoration" happened.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Fluorescent-Farm-Shop-Light-Half-Pipe-Industrial-Drop-Down/221487134820?_trksid=p2047675.c100011.m1850&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIC.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D23929%26meid%3D8134875323494472175%26pid%3D100011%26prg%3D10200%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D10%26sd%3D221486174803

"this hung in a barn for many years"
Then this happened to it.

The seller never got a bid, so it was removed.
I am not surprised.



Fluorescent bulb testing by GE 1947.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/GE-Flourescent-Lamps-Vintage-1947-General-Electric-Print-Ad-/151345368151?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item233ce30c57

I am not sure I would want to break off the end of a 1946 fluorescent bulb to see what was inside.
One of the engineers that designed the first fluorescent  bulbs claimed that they worked with Beryllium all the time in the 1940s and no one ever suffered any ill effects from it.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/General-Electric-Lamps-Vintage-1946-GE-Flourescent-Lamps-Print-Ad-/151345368211?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item233ce30c93
 

Want moe light?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Moe-Light-New-In-The-Original-Box-Chrome-Thomas-Industries-M-1242-/221300672921?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item33868c4999

Old 40 Watt starters.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Six-NOS-NEW-Pass-Seymour-Inc-Fluorescent-Lamp-Starters-357-/221486909590?pt=Architectural_Garden&hash=item3391a60896


A hard to find mini Dazer.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Mid-Century-Modern-DAZOR-Floating-Fixture-Drafting-Industrial-Light-Lamp-/281368888779?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4182e485cb

I looked at the first picture and thought, "those are F17T8s, aren't they?" Yep. I like T8 myself but not in fixtures like these. When you're dealing with something this old and cool, it needs to stay as original as possible.

It's still a nice fixture.  Maybe they thought they were improving it by rewiring it, or maybe the original wiring was no good, such as broken insulation on wires or dead ballasts.  Though I'd prefer to see something like this kept original as a T12 preheater, i'd rather see it converted to T8 and kept in use than scrapped and replaced with something newer and duller.  That said, it wouldn't be hard to restore it to a preheater if someone had the ballasts and sockets.