(I usually would say “light bulbs” instead of “lamps” but I need to differentiate the device as a whol from the device’s actual glass bulb.)
I just spent 20 minutes on Google trying to figure this out. It looks like I don’t understand how bulb types and lamp base types work. I have one lamp that need a “Type G” bulb and another that needs a “Type B” bulb. That’s what the physical lamps themselves say they need. But the bulb in the supposed “Type B” lamp is labelled as an E12 bulb. What the heck?
I just need to know if these two lamps have the same base. It looks for all the world like they do but when I put the bulb that’s currently in the Type B lamp into the Type G lamp (which has no bulb to look at) it almost but doesn’t quite screw in. I can’t tell if this is a problem with the cheap lamp’s meager threads or if it is the wrong size base.
When I look these up I see pictures of both and lots of descriptions of the different bulb’s shapes, diameters, and colors, but nowhere can I find what their bases are. Can anybody help explainerize this for stupid me?
Thanks you guys. II’ll look that over. At a glance it looks like a million chart I already looked at that went into the difference in the glass bulb size but not the actual base size. One told me that the number multiplied by 8, I think, was the diameter of the bulb, not the diameter of the base.
So if I need a “type B” and a “type g” that means I need a B12 and a G12? But one lamp, the type B, already has an E12 in it. That confuses me. Why does it only say the type (B or G) when that doesn’t tell me what size base I need?
Unless all B and E bulbs have the same base size which doesn’t seem correct.
Ok…so this is gonna get confusing…
Lamps are categorized by base and envelope (bulb) and both categories use similar denominations (letter-number).
In your case you’re mixing the two nomeclatures together. The b is the base (candleabra) and the g is the bulb (globe)
Sorry, I screwed that up.
Your base is E (with no number designation that’s a standard American edison base)
and the bulb types are b and g.
some sockets and bulb bases are not precise in their sizes which can lead to being too tight or too loose. . .
So as per your second post, I didn’t confuse the nomenclatures? Shouldn’t the lamp say what size base it takes? Why would it matter whether I get a globe-shaped or a flame shaped “envelope”? Naturally when one said B and one said G I assumed they were telling me what base would fit, not telling me how to decorate.
And I know one is an E12 because it has a bulb in it that’s labelled as such. The other one is the “G” and if that’s not a base size then the lamp doesn’t indicate on it’s label what the base size is.
I’m more confused than ever. ???
ETA: The lamp calling for Type B is a desklamp and the one calling for a Type G is a very small decorative lamp with a red glass 'shade". Neither would take a flame shaped bulb and only the decorative might take a globe but very small. Really it looks like it would take an appliance bulb more than anything.
Let’s see if I can clear it up.
Going back to your original post. The types B and G labels on the “lamp” refer to “bulb” style.
The E12 refers to base style. The “candelabra style base” as it is known in the biz comes in a couple sizes E11 and E12 the most common. Which could account for the tightness of the threads.
Different “lamps” required different “bulb” styles in order to work properly. Back in the day of incandescent lights the “bulbs” would get very hot and the wrong style of bulb could bring the hot glass too close to a flamable part of the “lamp” such as the shade, or even cause the wires to melt. And some “lamps” are designed to “burn” with the “bulb” in a specific orientation.
Now for the technical stuff. I kept putting some of the words in quotation marks because there is a difference in terms from the manufacturers and consumers.
In the “light” world, a lamp is that thing that actually illuminates. and it consists of a base, filament or illuminator, and envelope. What we would call a lamp, is known as an instrument or fixture.
There’s alot more technical stuff I could throw at you, but I dont wanna confuse you any more.