A cold cathode fluorescent lamp has an improved heat dissipation characteristic without an overall increase in size, and a lead wire thereof does not readily break. The discharge lamp circuit includes drive circuitry, a sensing circuit, a timing circuit and a start-up circuit. The transition cone has a front end located in connection with the gearbox, where the front end has an initial peripheral cross-section dimension essentially corresponding to the main peripheral cross-section dimension of the gearbox. In another embodiment, the system includes a reader configured with a hand geometry scan sensor.