Carbon electrode support

A holding device for clamping at least a plurality of carbon electrodes, particularly for use in a carbon arc lamp, said holding device comprising:

• a support element having two support areas for each electrode to be clamped;
• each said pair of support areas having fixed thereto a pair of conducting means for forming a pair of contact surfaces for contacting an electrode;
• and
• clamping device means, having a third non-conductive contacting surface for each electrode to be clamped, for clamping each electrode against its respective pair of conducting means, said clamping device means comprising a first clamping body having thereon plural non-conductive contacting surfaces, a second clamping body having thereon plural non-conductive contacting surfaces, and means for biasing said first and second clamping bodies toward each other.