Exploding Light Bulbs?

I read this somewhere but can't find anyting about it on UKY: Light bulbs from US explode if plugged into UK mains.

But what if the light bulb is part of another appliance (sewing machine, film projector, etc), and I'm using the appropriate step down transformer. I got 2 super duper ones from samstores.com: a 500W and a 1000W.

Does the frequency cause the explosion or is it only when a numbskull plugs a US lamp into a 240V mains with only an adapter?

thanks

While an actual explosion might not occur in every case, lamps designed for 120V do have a tendency to go "pop" when connected to 240 volts!

Regular filament lamps aren't sensitive to the 50 vs. 60-Hz frequency difference.  So long as you run them on the correct voltage through a transformer, they'll be fine.