About to try a bit of a hairbrained idea, involving a lightbulb, a pot of molten caustic soda and mains supply to turn on the bulb. that came to me in a flash of creativity. No idea if it will work, but worth a try.
The idea being that the bulbs will be made of soda-lime glass, and my idea is based on the principle that the sodium ions in the glass may (I hope) interchange with those in the caustic. And then be reduced by electron emissions from the heated filament in the bulb, depositing metallic sodium thusly: e-,Na+ to Na.
Advantage being it happens, if it works, in a ready made inert environment, the vacuum inside the bulb. That is, before the molten caustic finally corrodes the glass so much that it gives way, or simply implodes.
