Method of implanting an amalgamative metal in a fluorescent lamp during manufacture

Abstract

The mercury-vapor pressure within an operating fluorescent lamp is regulated by several discrete bodies or bits of a suitable amalgamative metal (such as an indium-tin alloy in the form of pellets) that are anchored at fixed sites within the lamp during the manufacture thereof. Emplacement of the metal pellets is achieved by dropping them into the open upper end of the envelope while the circumferential seal of fused glass which joins the stem to the opposite end of the envelope is still hot and "tacky" as a result of the sealing-in operation. The metal pellets automatically fall toward and contact the newly-formed circumferential seal and remain fused and bonded to its surface after the glass cools and rigidifies. The introduction of a controlled amount of an amalgamative metal into the lamp and its emplacement in a strategic but inconspicuous location at one or both ends of the sealed envelope are thus achieved in a very simple and economical manner during the normal sequence of operations required to manufacture the lamp.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.