What I remember most about them is that they were extremely effective as unintentional bug zappers. The SMELL of instantly vaporized burnt moths in the room is something I'll likely never forget.

I had one of these! I want to say it was purchased in the late 90s and lasted until around 2006 before I finally threw it in the garbage lol! They definitely were not stable and once it fell over the bulb would usually break around 50% of the time... Also once it fell over or even if it just got moved a little bit all the parts that screwed together would get loose and the lamp would stand crooked and wobble until you tightened it all back up again!

These are awesome still. Replace the halogen bulb with an LED and you’re all set?

I still use one of these

The candle that burns twice as bright will burn your fucking house down

They also put out a huge amount of heat ! Quite useful in old high rise flats !

I don't know when this started but most bedrooms don't even have a ceiling light anymore, so you still need these floor lamps.

I used to put my socks on these as a kid cause it'd warm them up. I ended up forgetting them one day and there was a fucking roaring fire coming out of the top of the bowl within minutes.

These would be much easier to do with LEDs but somehow they didn't survive the transition.

Girl I was dating in the mid 2000’s was sleeping with one of these lamps in her dorm room. One of those desks on the floor and bed up top bunkbed setups and her pillow fell onto the bulb needless to say the pillow got really nicely burnt. Luckly it didn’t catch fire

Those things have been around since the 60s

I swapped mine for an LED-equivalent bulb.

I've still got one, but I converted the bulb to the equivalent of a 100w LED.

I still have one lol

Doubles as fly killer. Remember hearing a couple zap on that fucking food service light

I had one of those in my bedroom all the way until about 2021.

Occasionally a bug or a Nerf dart would end up in ours and you'd smell a gross burnt aroma 😅

I almost burned a neighbors house down by forgetting about a piece of cloth I put on that badboy for mood lighting.

Older gen Z here, I remember these really strongly.
People always forget gen Z was alive for these kind of things and I'm starting to think nobody realizes how old we actually are. Most people you think of as gen Z are only really on the younger end of gen Z. Some of us are in our late 20s now and also struggling to understand kids these days.

They also drew about as much current as a hairdryer. (Kidding - it was closer to a desktop PC, though.)

They also made great pretend/play jousting lances, though all the insects that were dead inside of it would get all over the place as you swung those things around, but still, good times (at least until you got caught doing that).

And changing the bulb on one of those that newly burned out was like trying to work with lava.

I miss mine. They were awesome. Just don't touch the bulb when installing it.