The mercury in the tube is a liquid at normal temperatures. It needs to be vaporized and ionized before the tube will conduct electricity and the arc can start. So, like fluorescent tubes, mercury vapor lamps require a starter, which is usually contained within the mercury vapor lamp itself. A third electrodeis mounted near one of the main electrodes and connected through a resistor to the other main electrode. In addition to the mercury, the tube is filled with argon gas at low pressure. When power is applied, there is sufficient voltage to ionize the argon and strike a small arc between the starting electrode and the adjacent main electrode. This starting arc discharge heats the mercury and eventually provides enough ionized mercury to strike an arc between the main electrodes. This process takes from 4 to 7 minutes, so mercury lamps are slow starting. Some bulbs include a thermal switch which shorts the starting electrode to the adjacent main electrode, extinguishing the starting arc once the main arc strikes.

The mercury vapor lamp is a negative resistance device. This means its resistance decreases as the current through the tube increases. So if the lamp is connected directly to a constant-voltage source like the power lines, the current through it will increase until it destroys itself. Therefore it requires a ballast to limit the current through it. Mercury vapor lamp ballasts are similar to the ballasts used with fluorescent lamps. In fact, the first British fluorescent lamps were designed to operate from 80-watt mercury vapor ballasts.

Variation: Metal halideA very closely related lamp design called the metal halide lamp uses various compounds in an amalgam with the mercury. Sodium iodide and scandium iodide are commonly in use. These lamps can produce much better quality light without resorting to phosphors. If they use a starting electrode, there is always a thermal shorting switch to eliminate any electrical potential between the main electrode and the starting electrode once the lamp is lit. (This electrical potential in the presence of the halides can cause the failure of the glass/metal seal). More modern metal halide systems do not use a separate starting electrode; instead, the lamp is started using high voltage pulses as with high-pressure sodium vapor lamps. "MetalArc" is Osram Sylvania's trademark for their metal halide lamps; "Arcstream" and "MultiVapor" are General Electric's trademark. Besides their use in traditional outdoor lighting, these lamps now appear in most computer and video projectors. However, Philips' UHP lamp, introduced in 1995, contains only mercury. As an example of application and efficiency of mercury lamps, the 61" Samsung DLP rear projection TV (HL-S6187W) uses a 150-watt Osram P-VIP lamp. Self-ballasted (SB) lampsThere are mercury vapor lamps with a filament inside connected in series with the arc tube that functions as an electrical ballast. This is the only kind of mercury vapor lamp that should be connected directly to the mains without an external ballast. These lamps have only the same or slightly higher efficiency than incandescent lamps of similar size, but have a longer life. They give light immediately on startup, but usually needs a few minutes to restrike if power has been interrupted. Because of the light emitted by the filament, they have slightly better color rendering properties than mercury vapor lamps. The color temperature is higher than incandescent lamps.

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