Is anyone really gonna miss incandescent bulbs?
Thats not the point…its government getting involved where it doesn’t need to be
2 Likes
It turns out quite a few people do miss incandescent bulbs. Glowing tungsten filaments put out a type of light that pleases me in a way that other types of bulbs do not. That’s why I have old-school thick-filament incandescent bulbs hanging over kitchen table. I’m happy to pay for the increased cost of using them over other alternatives. They are still a very inexpensive and very efficient way to light that part of my home.
4 Likes
I agree with you on the quality of light. The quality of CFLs was pretty bad in my subjective opinion. LEDs weren’t much better for awhile. However, I recently tried some of the newer LEDs, and they have come a long way.
I’ve found the LEDs that have this design are pretty darn good.
They come in different shapes and sizes. Most are dimmable now too.
IDK where they come up with their life expectancy though. I’ve had quite a few burn out. Some after a month or so. Said on the box it was supposed to last 10 years. That is BS.
1 Like
I heard tungsten comes from China.
You heard wrong. My neighbors make it.
1 Like
Interesting. I’ll have to take a look at my electrodes.
I’ve heard people complain about Chinese made tungsten electrodes for welding, but I also know that most people in the field don’t know squat about what is manufactured where, and will say all kinds of crazy shit when it comes to US vs. China.
2 Likes
I never realized Maine had lots of minerals had mining. Or so much varied manufacturing and industry. I thought it was all timber and fishing.
Anyway, a quick search showed that China has a lot of tungsten, but I guess not all the tungsten.
And Somalis.
We also have Bath Iron Works, one of America’s shipbuilding powerhouses, dysfunctional as it may be.
You are correct regarding the source of the tungsten powder, which is a refined form of what gets pulled out of the ground. Most of that comes from China because that’s where it is found. Canada could be in the tungsten game as well as they have the reserves, but they aren’t. It’s like titanium where you’re just stuck dealing with the people who have it in their ground and are willing to get it dug up. Even today Russia still supplies the United States defense industry with titanium. It’s big business.
As another aside, a multi-billion dollar lithium deposit was found here in Maine, but will likely never be extracted without overhauling our mining regulations. Like Canada and tungsten, it’s a NIMBY problem where stuff we all agree we need is best outsourced to places with exploitative environmental, safety and labor regulations.
I’ve been to that particular tungsten factory, btw. Powder is pressed and sintered into tungsten ingots, which are then drawn out into bar, rod, sheet and wire. They do the same thing with molybdenum, another exotic and difficult-to-work with metal with a huge variety of applications. Also found in China’s ground more than anywhere else, but not so exclusively as tungsten.
Tungsten light bulb filaments used to be the heart of that business, now they’re into high-end metalworking, CNC machining, etc. I know their supply chain director quite well. It used to be the most productive light bulb filament manufacturer in the world for many decades when it was part of the Philips corporation and one of the largest employers in the region. All of the people who lost their good-paying union jobs at that factory probably miss incandescent bulbs, too.
1 Like
You’ve mentioned the shipyards, and I guess boats make sense.
I saw the Lithium when I was learning about mining in Maine. It was surprising, I always think of mines being out West.
The papers say Elmet has grown since the split from Philips. It’s good to get the real facts from someone on the ground.
Oh I’ve got quite a lot of insider info on that factory, as I do many factories in Maine and New Hampshire. N. New England manufacturing is a pretty small world.
Since it split from Philips is the key qualifier. That was a low point in the organization with a hasty sale by Philips, a very rushed and flawed ERP implementation to become independent of Philip’s business software along with a lot of ongoing difficulty hiring and retaining talented employees, especially in management. That’s right around when, you guessed it, light bulb filaments were on the way out and they were trying to figure out how to survive as a tungsten and molybdenum mill going forward.
They have been and continue to be a struggling and generally unprofitable business since that split.
Prior to that split it was a thriving business at the heart of the community, employing far, far more people than it does now. Those were the old days, now long gone, when Lewiston, Maine was supplying the world with tungsten light bulb filaments.
1 Like
I guess Biden’s off the hook for that one.
We can’t blame Biden for anything, really. Biden is, at this point in life, off the hook for everything he’s ever said or done in his very public life. He’s no longer a member of the functioning adult club. It’s not a particularly exclusive club, either. We’re just talking about people who can function in society without ending up in jail or otherwise institutionalized.
Joe Biden deserves to be in a caring environment with frequent visits from loved ones. The people caring for Joe Biden obviously have other ideas about what Joe Biden ought to be doing at this stage of his life.
2 Likes
Aha! Due to this conversation, I checked mine this morning!
They do come from China.
Ya learn something new every day!
1 Like
As far as I know nearly all low-grade tungsten will be sourced from China mills. The mill in my area specializes in top-tier metallurgy and difficult-to-achieve machining and fabrication. It is quite the anomaly, and the reasons for it’s continued existence as an unprofitable business arm of a larger regional manufacturing conglomerate are above my pay grade. You’ll have to find a more astute manufacturing administrator than I to explain why that is so.
Its interesting though, because we used to get and use Phillips and a few other US brands then they just disappeared. I haven’t looked too hard, but I’ll definitely look closer next time I get supplies.
That 10 pack is enough to last me a really long time though. It does explain the splitting and spitting too. The old ones never did that, but these will spit at higher currents and blow tungsten into the weld pool. Thats a BIG no-no on code work.
It’s interesting to take big ideas like Globalism, Free Trade and Manufacturing moving Off Shore and make it “real” by talking about 1 region or company or product.
How much do welding electrodes cost, and how much would people want to pay to have them made in the USA?
And Philips is a foreign corporation. Is it cool to have the jobs in America even though the bosses are in another country?
It does seem like he’d be happier off cruising around in the 'vette.
And nobody, even most Dems would be that heartbroken to see him go.
1 Like