In the late 1990s / early 2000s every home had a halogen floor lamp that could light a room, but when tipped over would burn down your house. That's the crucible that created Gen X / Millennials.
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Many of those fires were because they put the lamp next to a window valance. And people would also stuff the valance with newspaper or tissue to make them puffier. A one-two combo of flammability.
I firmly believe that we had lower rates of blood borne diseases in those days because any insect flying within a meter of this thing was instantly vaporized
I dated a girl who had one. The lamp was hot enough that she baked cookies on it. A bit burnt on the bottom, but a decent use of the massive wasted heat from those things
To be fair, they had tilt switches, but those bulbs were HOT. On the plus side, they cast a LOT of light, and it was a relatively warm colour, which I liked. All in all, I don't miss them. Not everything was better when I was young :-)
In ‘94-‘97, I worked in a store that sold these and got burned to hell on one of those bulbs.
It’s so weird to have experienced certain iconic moments in interior design like this, and Springmaid’s Amalfi comforter set, which was probably in every home in America.
Every time I see one of these still in a room, I have a Final Destination Thats so Raven Vision about it falling over, then I just make a Jafar noise about how dangerous that lamp is.
I once worked for Bud’s Warehouse - aka Bud Walton whose store got all of brother Sam’s returns and scratch & dents). These lights came in by the pallet. Weekly. Usually oil from someone’s fingerprint on the exposed bulb was the culprit.
Early 80s, late 70s, cold nights were warmed with "Quartz Heaters" which were basically giant dish exposed car cigarette lighters you kept running for hours.
Had a couple that are now in our basement and were rarely used until my spouse set up a home office there and found both still work nicely after 30-odd years. One from Ikea (I think) and one from Venture (yes, a real discount store that didn't make it out of the 1990s).
It was certainly early 1990s (had one in 1991) to early 2000s. And the base had some weird cement in it that would sometimes fail/disintegrate, causing it to fall over and…
Saw this happen in person at a friend's house. A friend's dog knocked the lamp over and caught the curtains on fire and burned up the living room pretty bad.
I mean 300W halogen bulbs provided fine lighting, but if you really wanted the lumens reflecting off the ceiling to feel like the surface of the sun was but 2 feet above your head, you put a 500W bulb in that sucker. It was the perfect color temperature too.
I got mine in 1991 and it still works and still use it. Replaced the bulb once. A mover told me the model I have was well-made, they started using cheap plastic in later years that fell apart easily.
You couldn't leave it unattended either. People's homes caught fire when the lamp got too hot and caught fire on its own. I distinctly remember a buyer beware/do not leave unattended for this thing.
The ultimate was to get the cd tower combo. Most of the discs were in that giant dumb book in your car but you could keep the jewel cases in it to show off your collection.
I never experienced a torchiere fire, but I remember sitting in a comfy chair near one, having a quiet night reading, when there was a sharp crack and my living room was showered with glass.
If I recall, there was disc of glass that sat above the halogen bulb. Mine chose that evening to shatter, presumably by the heat of the halogen bulb, sending glass EVERYWHERE. When I looked in the top, there was a layer of gravel-like glass pieces sitting at the bottom. Just like all over the floor!
You are correct, there was a half cylinder of glass running the length of (and over) the halogen bulb to prevent bugs and anything else from making direct contact with it. It was usually held in place with two very sus metal brackets that you unscrewed to remove it for bulb changes.
For a moment I thought someone had wound sisal rope around the bottom, aka was making a cat scratcher. Given what you said about burning the house down, I’ve never been so happy to see plastic 😸
Not to mention they were so top-heavy! I can still hear my dad warning us not to rough-house around ours. He was an insurance adjuster and has seen the horrors caused by these lamps first-hand
I decided one night around age 8 to stick a stuffed animal in the bowl of that lamp and was promptly rewarded with the smell of singed polyester fur. Nearly burned the house down 😅
These lamps are dangerous, frustrating and dramatically brighter than *anything* you can buy now.
If you're trying to find lamps for people who have poor dark vision (say, my aging mom) good fucking luck I *finally* found an led lamp that is almost as effective
Sadly, no, but I did have a particle-board entertainment center for all the stereo components and big 19” TV. Girlfriend had a futon (and her own halogen torchiere), but I can’t recall the color.
I remember the CPSC, NFPA, and Consumer Reports complaining about these things *constantly*. (My choice of reading material as a small child was unusual to say the least.)
We never had one though. Just standard floor lamps with a 100W incadescent and then later equivalent CFLs.
That base is way too tiny for all that height and top-heaviness. Trying to balance it on a carpet would be a nightmare scenario. (And yes, my family did have one of these, we left it behind when we moved, lol)
at a sleepover once at a friend's when i was 16, he woke up in the morning and stretched his arms quickly and somehow knocked his halogen lamp over, and from my spot on the floor i saw it falling toward me until the rim crashed right onto my cheekbone. that sucked and was also just impossibly dumb
This weekend I saw a lady at a craft show use some little lights her dad had jury-rigged. He had not mentioned that they were halogen, and she did in fact burn herself immediately.
And we're the kind who hate to kill anything so every time a bug flew into one of those and started thrashing around we'd jump up like "Get it out! Get it out!", which usually only ended in guilty disappointment.
I had one of these but it was blinky. I didn’t have the energy to fix it so I put it out for bulk trash and someone grabbed it. I hope it didn’t give them any uhh actual problems
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Why did they need to be so top heavy?
You had to find scissors! And remember why you wanted them! Difficulty level impossible.
It’s so weird to have experienced certain iconic moments in interior design like this, and Springmaid’s Amalfi comforter set, which was probably in every home in America.
https://youtu.be/_3eC35LoF4U
Scully? Mulder?
it was right there in the name, all along
One time one of these generated visible heat shimmer and smelled like burning plastic.
Pretty sure if you just like, idk, held a giant wok over it you’d have an outdoor space heater
Oh my god I believe it but still WHOAH 😬
I use my liiiiight
Not for lighting, but for waaarmth
(Space heater)
Biblically Accurate Angels for the dial up generation.
My parents had one in their house some years ago.
If you're trying to find lamps for people who have poor dark vision (say, my aging mom) good fucking luck I *finally* found an led lamp that is almost as effective
We never had one though. Just standard floor lamps with a 100W incadescent and then later equivalent CFLs.
Hey, Paul? We have a problem. Several problems.