"Geoffrey S. Mendelson" wrote in message
...
I have a Kodak safe light that looks like a metal cone. One end screws into
a lamp socket, the other holds a round filter. It's probably from the
1960's
or older, but it's the only thing I could get here in any color except
red.

I bought out the last of the locally availaible little red things that
use nightlight bulbs and a bunch of the bulbs, so I am covered for red,
but I wanted an orange (Wratten OC) filter as I can see much better by
it.

The problem I have, is that here in Israel, we have been ahead of
everyone else in energy saving, CFL bulbs have been sold here, and used
by me, since 1997. That's good, but it has caused the demand and
therefore the supply of low wattage incadescent bulbs to dry up.

I found a few Chinese made 7-10 watt bulbs, but they only last a few
hours. I found a 15 watt bulb sold for refrigerators, but it has a
different base and I am trying to adapt it, but may not be able to get
those bulbs much longer and they are very expensive being made to
operate at 0F and below.

The smallest incadescent bulbs that are still common here are 40 watt
bulbs.

What is everyone else doing for safelights?

If that 40 watt bulb can indeed fit in your safelight, what about hooking it
up to a variable resistor? A specific one commonly available (I trust even
in Israel) is the room dimmer. Get an electric/junction box which allows
two switches/receptacles, one two prong receptacle, and one room dimmer.
Mount the dimmer and the receptable in the box suitably wired. If desired,
add a cover plate. If desired, add rubber feet/felt pads to the bottom of
the box. Plug your safe light wire into the receptacle and turn on/off the
safelight using the room dimmer. You may want to mark the cover plate
suitably to indicate illumination levels. And connect the box to any wall
receptacle using a length of suitable wire ending in a male plug - I suggest
cannibalizing an plain old extension cord - cut off the female end and wire
it into the box.