The CCFLs I got were in a clear acrylic tube, with a square cap at each end. Luckily, these caps weren't glued terribly solid, so I was able to break them free from the tube, and pull out the actual CCFL tube.
Since a CCFL tube has a connection at each end, it'd be a little messy to wire it up in a case, so the manufacturer came up with the idea of extending one of the leads back to the other end, using a slim steel wire, hence the acrylic protection tube.
So the complete assembly has one powe connector, at one end.
In my case, one of those connections broke off, and was making intermitent contact, as one, I guess, might expect from a high voltage setup. The fix involved gently filing the end of the glass tube, then as carefully as possible, solder the tiny steel wire back on. The fix is very, very fragile, so once I verified that it worked, I encapsulated the weld with JB Weld, let it dry overnight, and it was back in business.
The reseller didn't want to bother with a return, so they let me keep the defective units, and sent me new ones. I now have 4 * 12" UV CCFL tubes, ready to go. As per other tests, they're about as bright as a 15 W "black light" neon.
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