Chinese lotus light from London's Chinatown

That's possible. It does seem to be a classic item.

Big Clive

It looks like the lamp design is really old and was meant to hold colored glass petals. I'm thinking old as in before plastics were common.

Nani Isobel

Yeah. They were probably good when they first came out compared to just wrapping tape around a wire connection. But wagos are better.

Nani Isobel

Yeah, those twist things are Wire Nuts. They were probably good and high-tech when they were first developed but there are a lot of better options now. The bottom part of the lamp, the threaded metal tube, is a common make-your-own-lamp kind of thing. Get long lengths of it and cut it to make a vase or bottle into a lamp. There are a lot of edison bulb holders, some with switches, that just thread right onto it.

Nani Isobel

Through a diode/rectifier?

Michael Thompson

How do you run the incandescent lamp half-wave?

Paul Schuur

In the U.S. they're called Wire Nuts. They're biggest problem is you HAVE to use the correct size for the number and size of the wires being put together. Wagos are larger than these things. You shouldn't pull the wires straight out, you should unwind them like a not on a bolt. On a different note. I wonder if you 3D print a white shell to go on the red LED if it would should up as bright as the incandescent bulb?

Mike Bird

I bet that lamp would look great with a real tea-candle in it. Does require a little rebuilding though 🙄

Zeedijk Mike

Those twisty things are called Marrettes in Canada, and I don’t understand why we don’t just switch to wagos

Shira Wolven

A 30 minute train journey in from Surrey Countryside and a great place to wind down after spending a week hunched over light boxes working on Military Multi-Layer PCB's.

Andrew Donaldson

And unless they’re the waterproof ones, only benefit vs twisting wires soldering and heat shrink, the plastic is fire resistant on UL ones, dunno about the ones direct from China suppliers tho

Cerity

Fun place to visit with amusement arcades around Leister Square. Happy Days!

Andrew Donaldson

Called wire nuts in America. Commonly used to connect two or more wires together in a junction box.

George Cohn

Pretty well built for what is is.

Clive I used to go to China Town a lot when I worked in Tottenham Court Road. If you went in the side streets the restaurants got cheaper and more Chinese in. Two menus one for the Chinese and one for the non Chinese.

Nuts 'n' Proud

Big Clive’s house is the new red light district on the Isle of Man.

Lostngone

The red LED lamps are probably common because red is considered a lucky color in China.

Michael Dunn

That’s neat ❤️

Cerity

Beautiful but yes I wanna mod it! This is one I would make a USB-powered lamp with a chandelier LED flame effect bulb. Remove the cap dropper from the bulb and replace with a diode/resistor combo to drop the voltage a tiny bit and keep it dimmer and replace the cable with a USB cable. Fire lotus!

Michael Thompson

That’s a beautiful specimen BC thanks for sharing 👍

Cerity