Age/purpose of this industrial spotlight?

[capn]

just to help you date this, our neighbors when I was growing up in the 60's had two in the front of their house and used them for a light at night at the door....

they do fine in the rain, had them out until they moved.

Cool, thanks! That helps

[frogpatch]

The GE 300R3FL lamp was a mogul base. It would have had a base much larger than the medium or Edison base that is the most common. It looks like someone changed the socket or screwed an adapter in it. I have an old floor lamp that I screwed an adapter in because I did not want a 100/300 3 Way Lamp. You are lucky someone saved you the trouble. With a 300 watt lamp they did get very hot where you could burn yourself easily on the lens or housing. Aluminum conducts heat extremely well. If you ever put a frozen hamburger on an aluminum pan it will thaw at an amazing rate and the pan will get very cold. The same with the aluminum housing of the fixture except hot not cold. Because it conducts heat the inside of the housing would not get as hot as if it were steel. It still shortened the life of the lamp considerably and was not designed for prolonged use. Like I said it would be good for looking for a man overboard or for Mart to search for marauding coyotes at night.

[capn]

The GE 300R3FL lamp was a mogul base. It would have had a base much larger than the medium or Edison base that is the most common. It looks like someone changed the socket or screwed an adapter in it. I have an old floor lamp that I screwed an adapter in because I did not want a 100/300 3 Way Lamp. You are lucky someone saved you the trouble. With a 300 watt lamp they did get very hot where you could burn yourself easily on the lens or housing. Aluminum conducts heat extremely well. If you ever put a frozen hamburger on an aluminum pan it will thaw at an amazing rate and the pan will get very cold. The same with the aluminum housing of the fixture except hot not cold. Because it conducts heat the inside of the housing would not get as hot as if it were steel. It still shortened the life of the lamp considerably and was not designed for prolonged use. Like I said it would be good for looking for a man overboard or for Mart to search for marauding coyotes at night.

I will be using this as an indoor lamp that will probably be used a lot. I will be using either a cfl or led bulb so the heat should be very low. We'll see how it goes!

[frogpatch]

An LED would be great. Repurpose, reuse, recycle. Thats what we vintage purveyors are all about.

[fancypants]

These units were also used in shipyards , by welders , electricians & plumbers (& anybody else who picked one up to use) .

I'm guessing late 60's to early 70's .

One sold on ebay last august for $49 or so , but it was slightly older & had a metal handle (a cat#1012) .
Saw 2 others , from $120 to 300 !

Nice & hevi-duty unit there , cap'n !