On May 27, 5:40*pm, dave wrote:
On 05/27/2011 04:08 PM, RHF wrote:

On May 27, 3:27 pm, *wrote:

Is the outer shell glass, or something more durable, like a polymer?
With glass, if the inside gets broken, there's a pretty good chance
the outside cover would also be broken by the same trauma.

It is Glass -but- not 'thin' Light Bulb Glass
It is Thicker and More Durable like the Glass
on a Halogen Bulb
* .

Halogens have quartz envelopes don't they?

Dave read the Links.
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.r...c90a344a0ff615

The 'process' seems to be that the Start-Phase
is a small Halogen Igniter placed in the center
of the larger CFL Spiral Tube [Empty Hollow] :
After the Instant-On Warm-Up the Second-Phase
CFL takes over for long-term Low Power Light
but Quality Light Output.

Most CFLs 'Fail' due to their Electronics :
Not the CFL Tube itself : This may be a way
to reduce these Failures and Improve the
over-all Service Life of CFLs.

interesting dual 'hybrid' technology ~ RHF