Abstract: A low-pressure mercury vapor-filled discharge lamp has a glass arc tube and a glass outer tube disposed coaxially with the arc tube forming a space therebetween. A gas is disposed in the space. The arc tube contains a gas and is coated with a phosphor. A first seal hermetically seals the inner tube. A second seal seals the inner tube to the outer tube. The inner tube further contains a pair of cathodes coupled to Dumet wires extending from the interior of the inner tube to the outside of the lamp structure. The pressure in the space is set at not more than 1 Pa, which is nearly high vacuum. The longer the radial dimension of the space, the greater the heat retaining capacity and the better the temperature characteristics which can be obtained. However, by setting the pressure of the space at 1 Pa or less, the optimum heat retaining capacity can be obtained while reducing the diameter of the low-pressure mercury vapor filled discharge lamp 1.

Abstract: The invention is a lamp quality judgement apparatus and judgement method which judge quality by detecting the state of gas sealed in an electric lamp such as a gas-filled incandescent lamp, etc. in which gas with an Argon-Nitrogen mixture as its main component is sealed. More particularly, a lamp in which such gas is sealed is classified as a good product or as a bad product by imposing a high DC voltage or a high AC or pulsed voltage with a comparatively low frequency of 1 kHz or less across the lamp's valve and filament coil to produce discharge and emission, in the lamp, of a light in a wavelength region in the vicinity of 560 nm and judging the radiation state in this 560 nm light spectrum, i.e., the state of discharge in the lamp.