MOSFET current limiter. Might build one myself.
Uhm.... didn't I already mention one of them a few pages back?...
SS
Somehow a MOSFET just doesn't have a good Steampunk feel to it.
I'm going to look for the iron wire some more. Should I give up, I "may" use the light bulb approach.
Stop your chatter and say something Latin-ish. Geena Davis as Morgan in "Cut Throat Island" (1995)
True, not much of a steampunk feel to it, but then it can be hidden easily enough - not unlike a lot of modern tech in we see in steampunk gadgets on this very forum everyday...

I get you point though, I feel the same way.
You might have better luck in finding something via one of the antique radio collector forums, early valve radios often used the iron-hydrogen resistor / barreters / ballasts. I think you would be looking around the 1930's or earlier, as AC valves were more commonplace by then, and and electricity supplies were more standardized, so they were not needed so much. Though there were some resistors of this sort still in use up to the mid 60's (or at least still available as spare parts) in radios and some televisions.
There were two types in use though, the glass envelope iron-hydrogen resistor, and the metal grill / cage type which is actually just a massive power resistor (wire (prob nichrome..?) wound around a mica former). The first is used for regulation, the last is just a dropping resistor.
Actually strictly speaking there were also two types of iron-hydrogen resistor. The first was just iron wire in hydrogen which has a positive temperature coefficient. The second type also had a negative temperature coefficient resistor within the same housing to act as an inrush current limiter. For the Nernst lamp, I'm not sure which would be the better choice. The PTC / NTC type may help prolong the filament life by avoiding sudden thermal shocks...
Quid me vis dicere in latina? Fortasse "aut viam inveniam aut faciam" datum sit opportuna loco profertur? 
SS