Hi Roger,
On , you wrote me:

 ML>> FWIW: the last time was about 5 or 6 years ago when i was asked to
 ML>> perform this very activity to prove to someone else who also didn't
 ML>> believe it... that was when the shed was pretty much destroyed by the
 ML>> blast... i think we used a bit too much stuff when we mixed it all
 ML>> together... oops :|

 RN> WHy not simply unseal the bulb from the base?

because the metal base is glued on after the two pieces of glass are sealed
together... the glass still has to be pierced somehow to be able to put
anything inside it... check it out the next time you have a blown
conventional light bulb ;)

http://home.howstuffworks.com/light-bulb1.htm has a decent drawing of a
light bulb structure... however, i've never seen one with the brown area
they are calling "insulation"... even watching them make light
bulbs on "how it's made" and "how do they do it" don't
show any kind of "insulation" like that... simply the "glass
mount" (the tower inside) with the filament attached in it and the
outer "bulb" part...

the "glass mount" section has a large "foot" on the
bottom of it and when they put it together with the outer bulb part, both
pieces then go thru a flame processing that melts the two pieces of glass
together and seals them into one solid unit... now you have a completed
blub with the two wires sticking out of it that go to the element... the
next step is for someone to manually put on the daub of "glue",
stuff the two wires thru the aluminum base, stick it down to the
"glue", trim the wires and solder them to the two pads... once
that's done, the thing goes to testing to make sure it burns properly ;)

Bye bye!
  mark

 * SeM. 2.26  * Have those of you who oppose logging ever tried plastic toilet