The Dendera
reliefs show, as recognizable in the accompanying picture, an approx. 2,5 m long
pear-shaped bulb, which seems to have a maximum diameter of about one meter and
one of about 50 centimeter at its thin end. That such an object could function
like a fluorescent lamp was shown by engineer W. Garn, who designed a lamp
looking just like this representation. The small arms, reaching into a glass
bulb, are emitting a soft glow when high voltage is applied. So this object is a
lamp, and represents a lamp so 'oviously', that another interpretation of the
represented object is simply impossible. Because, as someone wrote on the AAS
discussion board: "As long as no other convincing interpretation can be shown by
schoolbook science there is no reason at all to see anything
else but a lamp in it". 
Strangely. In the pictures above you see a set of current
and older lamp constructions. Halogen bulbs, Spot lights, fluorescent tubes -
and none of them has even the smallest resemblance to the Dendera construction.
Even the sodium high-pressure lamp on the right, although a little similar on
first look, is completely different in size, structure and mode of operation to
its Dendera counterpiece. Particularly I miss the so eminent important arms
reaching into the lamps. So dear reader, if you know of any lamp
in technical use now or in the past - please, send me a picture. Unless then I
see no reasen to interpret the Dendera reliefs as lamps.
The volume represents, as we will see, a substantial point against a
technical interpretation of the Dendera reliefs.
All lamp constructions are
based on few technical principles.
All these lamps, with the exception of the LED, contain thus either a gas in
not inconsiderable quantity, or a high vacuum. Therefore the lamp must withstand
either a large pressure (approximately one kilogram per square centimeter), or
it contains not inconsiderable quantities of different, expensive gases.
In
the first case a pressure of about 63 tons would rest on a Dendera object. To
withstand such an immense pressure, the object would have to be quite
thick-walled, at least two to three centimeters thick. The weight of this bulb
would be then approximately 750 kilograms. And this monster would be
nevertheless a ticking time bomb: a small crack in the glass by uneven cooling
with the manufacturing, and the Dendera lamp implodes with the force of a bomb.
The fragmentation effect might be deadly in the periphery of several meters!
I for my case also know of no vacuum glass bulb of similar format from
modern manufacturing, and this might have its reasons.
In the second case the Dendera lamp would have to contain enough gas to fill at least 713000 (!!!) halogene lamps with a lighting performance of together 14 million Watts (at one bar filling pressure)!!! And twice may be guessed what lights up more brightly.
In both cases the Dendera construction is characterised primarily by its uselesness. A simple bulb or a 500 W halogen lamp needs fewer resources, is simpler and safer against production defects than a such monster.
The things are different with non-figurative representations. Often pictures
are mixed with symbols with certain meanings, for example names, so that these
two forms can be kept apart often only with difficulty by a layman. On the
Narmer palette, mentioned in the pyramid section, the Pharao stands behind the
picture of an enormous catfish and an equally enormous chisel. But the catfish
does not represent a fish here, but a syllable, exactly what the chisel does,
too. Both syllables form the name of the ruler and are shown with almost the
same size as the Pharao they represent himself.
To understand these things a
little background knowledge about structure and symbolism of Egyptian reliefs
would be helpful, although gathering such "schoolbook" knowledge is often
regarded as despicable. Probably it can destroy such nice speculations...
The
"reconstruction" of the Dendera lamp by engineer W. Garn was already mentioned.
This is the only functioning lamp type looking like the Dendera objects,
although on a smaller scale (so he got clean aoround the pressure problems of a
full scale Dendera "lamp"), shown first at an AAS conference. The bulb is a
low-pressure fluorescent lamp, light is produced by a gas discharge at an
electrode. Garn sees one electrode in a flower like object on the small end of
the bulb, the other electrode, which emits the light, is represented by the
small arms reaching up from the "insulator pillar" into the bulb. With high
voltages and low pressure glowing effects actually can be seen around the two
arms. But what about the snake? It should be the symbol for "glow" and a
representation of a light filament - but Garns lamp cannot produce such an
effect. Na, wenn das nicht lustig ist :-)The Garn-lamp is very dim, and that something glows can only be seen in very
dark rooms. Not much for a lamp, but nevertheless the construction works.
But: You can find in Dendera several different kinds of bulb
objects. One with the arms reaching up into the bulb. Another one, where the
bulb itself rests on the arms and there is no counter electrode! And a
third one, where the whole object is even nowhere near the Djed pillar, which is
the so eminently important symbol of electric current. These two constructions
could never have been a lamp!!!
By the way: The background concerning the Dendera objects described in the "culture" section can explain all three kinds of objects, and not one of three. Another thing: In paleo-SETI literature one can find often the term "reconstruction". But, as I found out, they seldom earn this name. These "re"constructions are often only constructions made in a way, that some outer details match with elements shown or described in old sources. So is a construction of a lamp looking like a Dendera object. Possible - but worthless. There is a reason why we light our rooms with light bulbs and not with 2.5 m long Dendera giants...