These guys work from heat generated by the current flowing normally. As soon as the light goes out, the current stops, and the winker cools down. The internal switch closes, the light goes on, and it happens again. The higher the wattage light, the faster it should blink.

We had them when I was young and I thought I remembered they had to be plugged in awhile before the light blinked out. I thought I was being patient, but maybe not. lol I'll try it on a different lamp. Thank you for the quick reply. I'll let you know if I have the results I want

i have a few. thought they were some kind of surge suppressor.

1. do not adapt a three prong plug to work in 2 prong extension cord or any other device.
2. if yours are very old they probably have electrolytic capacitors with a life span of, maybe 20 years. beyond economic repair.
3. get rid of the old incandescent lights. leds are cheap and greatly more efficient.

2 prong to 2 prong. The plug prongs on the lamp wouldn't fit in the Winker plug, but the adapter plug did.
I'm not an electrician, so I have a question, if you don't mind. Do the electrolytic capacitors fail even if the plugs were never used? Just curious.
I'm using an led light, so the lamp only works on one setting.

Thank you for your reply

by the 1980s a lot of stuff that was built in the 1960s was beginning to die. i made a good living replacing those old caps.

in a modern power cord one prong is a little bigger than the other as a "key". if you turn it around it may work?????

so I can see what I'm doing. I know the prongs are different sizes. The newer plugs in the house have the 2 sizes. The contractors put the plugs in the bathrooms that shut off if they get wet.

Thanks for the information about aging. Kind of like batteries, that they work because of a chemical process, and even if you aren't using the device, the process continues.

I got a lamp with an old-fashioned plug from the basement and got everything connected. The bulb lit and seemed to be bright. I left it on for at least 30 minutes and it didn't blink. Tomorrow, I'll try to find a string of Christmas bulbs and try again. At least I didn't need an adapter for my attempt this evening.

Otherwise, you run the risk of thinking an item is faulty when it isn't.

I had no luck with the Winkers making the lamps I tried blink off and on, set the project aside as a failure. I just set up my pre-lit tree for the holidays. I tested the tree to see if it still lights and it does. It plugs into an extension cord. The Winker plugs were handy, so I thought I'd test them with the tree. They all work! I'm pretty happy to finally find lighting that gave me a good result.

Thanks for all of the help.