Nearly useless. How Its Made only cover the very outer surface, to not complicate it to the viewing audience. There won't be much if any useful detail which we don't allready know or can know by asking James

Very true, its better than nothing though. Might possibly make some people say "thats cool". I'm gonna go out on a limb and say 90% of folks in the US don't even know SOX exists. This would reduce that number. I'm just trying to figure out how to get somebody to that dogone factory and shoot a video of how SOX is made before it shuts down. I'd do it myself but I'm on the wrong side of the pond and money is scarce with  my first kid on the way so I can't afford travel and lodging. I've got plenty of time though.

Very true, its better than nothing though. Might possibly make some people say "thats cool". I'm gonna go out on a limb and say 90% of folks in the US don't even know SOX exists. This would reduce that number. I'm just trying to figure out how to get somebody to that dogone factory and shoot a video of how SOX is made before it shuts down. I'd do it myself but I'm on the wrong side of the pond and money is scarce with  my first kid on the way so I can't afford travel and lodging. I've got plenty of time though.

James said he knows people there, so hopefully he can ask the question. We only live two or three hours away, so it would be a definite for us 

James said he knows people there, so hopefully he can ask the question. We only live two or three hours away, so it would be a definite for us 

We might make a long weekend out of it, as there are one or two other places in the Central Belt of Scotland that we would like to visit.

That would be fantastic!!!

That is better idea

But lets continue this : If we want to preserve the knowledge, do we want to preserve it just for theory (as in it won't ever be used again) ?

I would assume getting as much information as possible would be ideal. If we get something similar to the depth of the Indian hand made HID lamp videos (see videos section for links) it would still be a win to me. Although it would be much easier to understand as the poor fella narrating in those videos has an extremely thick Indian accent that I have hard time with.

Have you seen what simplish machinery the Indian guys use ? It is less complicated than the (non lamp) stuff i have over here. I'm thinking of whether it would be possible to clone their machines from the video

Keep in mind though, in that video they are merely assembling the lamps, the outer bulb and arc tube are already made. I think there is another with them assembling an arc tube, that one looks like JFM where they take the parts, kinda put them together and then just shove it up into some device to do who knows what.

Even though this isn't a light bulb per-se, this is a VERY well shot video on making Nixie tubes. A video like this of sox lamps would be amazing!

https://youtube.com/watch?v=wxL4ElboiuA

Even though this isn't a light bulb per-se, this is a VERY well shot video on making Nixie tubes. A video like this of sox lamps would be amazing!

https://youtube.com/watch?v=wxL4ElboiuA

If ever we can organise a factory visit to Hamilton, I (along with everybody else present, I suspect  ) will be sure to record one 

Thank you Ria, that would be amazing!

Is this real? I only found this information on this one site (atlanta light bulbs), and that article seems to be more of an advertisement for LED if anything. Just look at their persuasiveness!


Does anyone have a hard copy of the letter in which this was stated? They never provided any link for it. Discontinuing SOX is a dumb move in my opinion as it is still somewhat widely used. (UK, Island of Hawaii, California, etc). If this is true, that's blatant forced obsolescence.

Also, it appears Philips is still selling Low Pressure Sodium parking lot fixtures, http://www.lightingproducts.philips.ca/our-brands/gardco/lps-low-pressure-sodium.html

(I'm a little bit in denial right now...  . SOX is what started my interest in Lighting, Electricity, and Electronics)

It is definite, unfortunately. I do have a copy of the letter from Philips, but not online, I'm sure it's available somewhere, to be honest I don't recall where I got it from..! They are taking orders until 2019 and will cease production sometime the following year 

A sad day, stock up while you can is all I can suggest 

We have discussed it, and we heard all no-sayers too (which haven't had and won't have anything constructive to add to the discussion)

Now lets hear the others



Is there interest in just us, the lighting community, taking the equipment from Philips ?

 - This may cost DRAMATICALLY less than you might expect, if they have nothing to do with it. It might very potentially cost less than all the money some people here (in total) are willing to spend on just snatching the lamps off eBay

 - It would be very different situation, if the equipment is not gone to the smelter, but waiting at somebody's shed till we would be ready to run it once again (getting familiar with it, gathering knowledge, finding the needed supplies)

 - I have experience with buy-out of a closing production plant (not lamp making though) and will share any useful knowledge, experience and so on