15|10|09
It's a return to the GEC catalogues and I'll be finishing off the Clearspace range. The first to be added of this batch is the GEC Z5680/1/2 family of lanterns.

The GEC Z8832/70 is the next lantern in my collection to be cleaned up and photographed.

11|10|09
The final Crompton Parkinson lantern is the Taurus which concludes the catalogue. For details of the catalogue itself and various lanterns which haven't been included then read the introduction.

My deep bowl Thorn Beta 79 has been cleaned up and photographed.

10|10|09
The next Crompton Parkinson lanterns is the Star III.

My shallow bowl Thorn Beta 79 has been cleaned up and photographed.

28|09|09
The next Crompton Parkinson lanterns are the Star I & II.

The next swan-neck bracket has been rephotographed; and that's about all I can say about it.

17|09|09
An RSS feed has now been added to the site.

The final lanterns from the Philips catalogue have been added: MO62 Catenary, MU4, MU6 and MU8.

We go back in time with Crompton Parkinson to 1953. Mike's unearthed a superb catalogue detailing the firm's range. Lanterns added this update include the Argus I, Argus II, Corona I, Corona II, Leo, Lion and the Sirius.

Adverts have been added from the 1963 Scottish Municipal Manual: Metal Developments, Sangamo, Stella and Venner. (With thanks again to Mike Ashworth.)

The final set of adverts from the Public Lighting March 1960 have been scanned.

21|08|09
The Philips motorway lanterns are next to be documented: the MO40 Soffit lantern being the first.

Two pages from a Crompton Parkinson catalogue from 1969 document the last of the firm's range (although three of the lanterns illustrated were actually manufactured by ELECO.)

14|08|09
The next Philips Group B lantern, described as the Philips MI8, bares an uncanny resemblance to the Phosco P224.

Two brackets from the collection have been photographed: a Stewarts And Lloyds "Round" bracket and BLEECO Brighton C bracket.

Thanks to Mike Ashworth's improved scans, I've been able to start improving the REVO 1950s catalogue (I only had second generation photocopies before). Improved pages include the title page, Street Lighting Fittings Provisional Sheet (concerning the "bell top" range) and a new installations page.

The first set of adverts from the Public Lighting March 1960 have been scanned.

01|08|09
And the Philips Group B lanterns continue with the Philips MI7 (which is actually the ELECO GR 553).

The Phosco P123 in my collection has now been restored and documented.

24|07|09
Sanders writes in with some information about the banded Philips SPP70.

I've now started on Philips' Group B lanterns with the Philips MI5 (which is actually the Phosco P223).

The angular Phosco P224 in my collection has now been restored and documented.

12|07|09
The last of the Philips main road series in this catalogue is the familiar MA9. If you're not sure where you saw it before, take a look at the other manufacturers page.

The angular Phosco P223 in my collection has now been restored and documented.

I've been sent some pictures of an interesting replacement scheme in Cardiff.

And I have updated my links section. If you have a street lighting site and it isn't listed then please let me know.

20|06|09
And next from the Philips catalogue is the MA6; and, again, I believe I've seen that lantern somewhere before.

Gaz has published some pictures he took whilst working on street lighting in the early 1980s. There are some great shots of the installation of the concrete column, cleaning a Crompton Concept and the discovery of a bright yellow BLEECO lamp post. You can view his gallery on Flickr. (I've also added some of the pictures to my Concept and BLEECO sections).

The second Philips SPP70 in my collection has now been restored and documented.

19|06|09
Next from the Philips catalogue is the MA5; and I believe I've seen that lantern somewhere before.

The ELECO GR501 in my collection has now been restored and documented.

18|06|09
Next from the Philips catalogue is the MA4 (which looks like a missing member of the ELECO GoldenRay family).

The ELECO GR535 in my collection has now been restored and documented.

17|06|09
I still have some GEC post-top lanterns to document but decided to concentrate on another manufacturer for a while. It has been said that the manufacturers area is missing some key manufacturers: namely Urbis, Whitecroft and Philips. This has stemmed from my desire to try and catalogue lanterns and equipment in historical order, but it has left some huge holes in the website. Therefore, to change that, I've started with Philips; a catalogue from the 1970s is now being added to the site.

Staying with Philips, the Philips SPP 70 in my collection has now been restored and documented.

16|05|09
I've restored and photographed my GEC Z9484 lantern.

Two old Metropolitan-Vickers adverts have been added to the site: one from 1937 and the other from 1938.

The GEC Z9496 range of lanterns has now been documented.

30|03|09
The GEC Z9480 range of lanterns has now been documented.

I've rephotographed my BLEECO Brighton bracket.

28|03|09
The GEC Z9480A range of lanterns has now been documented.

The timeline has been updated with data from 1959.

I've rephotographed my BLEECO Worthing (100W) / BLEECO Open Type Conical Lantern 677 lantern.

23|03|09
Thanks to SotonSteve the unknown lanterns on the disused Croxley Green To Watford railway have been identified along with some lanterns in Cambridge.

I've added the latest GEC catalogue to the site plus a page from the Stanton Pocket Guide of 1941.

The adverts for Public Lighting March 1959 have now been scanned.

Holophane have published an old video from their archives. Entitled The Legend Of The Prism, the ten minute piece includes a potted history of Holophane narrated by Michael Horden. One section of the video is devoted to the casting of a Bowl Type refractor for street lighting.

01|03|09
I've now finished the write-up of "Lantern Of The Week": the Philips Residium FGS 224. With the weather looking better for next week, I'll try to fully document another lantern from my collection over next week.

As the weather was wonderful on Saturday, I walked the disused Croxley Green To Watford railway line. And discovered some disused, but complete, lanterns along the way. There were also some interesting old relics in Watford itself.

I have finished my write-up of the various interesting lanterns in Cambridge. (This excludes old gas lamps still found on some private roads and the Richardson Candles).

Additions to the collection: a GEC Z5055 Small Wembley and REVO B31 bracket; and an Ediswan Lantern on an REVO B31 bracket.

12|02|09
And another of the most important ranges of Group-B lanterns has now been documented: Clearside Z5590 Lanterns.

06|02|09
One of the most important ranges of Group-B lanterns has now been documented: Clearside Z5580/1/2 Lanterns.

05|02|09
I often find old street lighting equipment whilst urban exploring. Last weekend I was at Stewartby Brickworks and found a street lighting graveyard and a novel installation of Thorn Beta 4s. Pictures can be found here.

As the snow fell, I was out with my camera. New shots include the BLEECO E66 Column, REVO C9115 Leceister, REVO Small Grey Wornum, REVO Festival and ESLA 46 Column.

24|01|09
We now move from the Group-A GEC lanterns to the Group B lanterns. First up is the Z5350 and Z5354 family of lanterns.

More pictures of the Philips Residium FGS 224 have been added.

21|01|09
The GEC Z9554 lantern has now been fully documented.

I've started the write up of the Philips Residium FGS 224.

20|01|09
The GEC Z9454 series of lanterns have now been fully documented.

The Philips Residium FGS 224 has been disassembled, photographed, reassembled and installed outdoors.

A bit more study revealed that my Urbis Aramis 1A features the SealSafe 1200 reflector and the optional Top Glow.

19|01|09
I'm continuing with the massive old fluorescent lanterns. Here's the GEC Z8480.

Lantern of the week is the Philips Residium FGS 224.

18|01|09
Attention now turns to massive old fluorescent lanterns as the catalogue today is for the GEC's Group A fluorescents: Z8270, Z8370 and Z8470.

The GEC Z8228B Difractor in the collection has now been rephotographed.

17|01|09
The catalogue of the GEC Z8430CM has been uploaded.

I've finished my write-up of the Urbis Aramis 1A. There will be a new Lantern Of The Week next week.

16|01|09
More pictures of the Urbis Aramis 1A have been uploaded.

Tony has scanned more adverts from Electrical Review: Poles Limited: Adastra Lighting Columns (June 1952), ELECO Limited: ELECO Planned Lighting (August 1952), ELECO Limited: Brighter Streets At Less Cost (July 1954) and GEC: Enclosed Sodium Lantern (June 1952).

15|01|09
As part of the work on Lantern Of The Week, I've done some research about the development and introduction of the HPS lamp. This work has been summarised at the end of timeline (see the 1963, 1966 and 1967 entries).

The write-up about the Urbis Aramis 1A has started with a brief history of globe or spherical lanterns.

14|01|09
Many thanks to Tony who sent in two old adverts from Electrical Review: a colour advert from 1954 featuring the Stanton 8K and an REVO Street Lighting advert featuring two of their lanterns.

The catalogue of the Z8430 includes a full technical description of its optical including the reason the GEC were able to design such a compact lantern and the use of new optical technical called controlled diffusion.

Lantern of the week gets a final clean and is wired up for testing.

13|01|09
I have published what I can for the GEC Z8426. Unfortunately the second and third pages of the catalogue weren't scanned so it's missing the general description of the lantern. However, all the photometric data is included, which shows that the Z8426 was clearly a semi-cut-off lantern.

The strange photometric data for the Z8427 has been solved. Luckily I have a photocopy of that catalogue from Bob and his copy includes the correct photometric data. It would appear this was originally an error by the GEC. This has now been corrected online.

Lantern of the week gets drilled.

12|01|09
Unfortunately the catalogue for the GEC Z8426 is incomplete so I've pushed on with the Z8427. The GEC Z8427 is rather confusing as it claims to be a cut-off lantern with no light emitted above the horizontal but the iso-candela diagrams tell a different story. Hopefully once the data for the Z8426 is found, a comparison with the Z8427 can be made, and the mystery sorted out.

An Urbis Aramis 1A is lantern of the week. I'll be working on the lantern every day and hope to have it fully restored and working at the end of the week.

The first task was to fetch it from the garden and clean it up.

11|01|09
The gear-in-head GEC Z8422 makes its appearance.

The double armed BLEEO Bracket in the collection has been fitted with two Crompton Parkinson Star I lanterns.

10|01|09
The GEC Z8420 was designed by the City Of Birmingham and the lighting engineers of the GEC for the lighting of Birmingham's new inner ring road in 1961.

The lantern was doubly important as it was the GEC's first "turtle" design - a lantern in which the canopy's contours became the primary reflectors for its crossover lighting distribution. (In the past, lanterns had separate polished metal reflectors fitted inside the lantern for this purpose).

(I think the design was also inspired by the Atlas Alpha 3 which uses a similar crossover optical system constructed in the same way.)

A large Eastbourne Swan Neck Bracket in the collection has now been photographed.

09|01|09
The extremely rare GEC Z8403 has now been documented. This lantern was GEC's cut-off lantern for MA lamps for a short period (until the Z8420 range was developed).

The eighth Lucy Large Swan Neck bracket in the collection has now been documented.

P. continues to remove all the interesting columns found by Lee - this time it's a cast iron in Timbercroft which has been removed (scroll down to the GEC Z9583 on plain fluted column with Lucy bracket).

08|01|09
The extremely rare GEC Z8401 has now been documented. Designed for installation near airports, this specialised lantern would've only seen limited use.

A second-generation GEC Brookvale has been added to the collection.

07|01|09
I believe the next set of GEC catalogues dates from 1961. These weren't scanned by me and the quality isn't as good - I've done my best with them, but you'll notice that the sectional and iso-candela diagrams are lacking in definition.

The first from this new batch is the Clearmain Z8128 (which was originally called the Difractor Lantern and sports a nice new tapered style bowl).

A first-generation GEC Brookvale has been added to the collection.

06|01|09
I've added extra information about the REVO Vanguard B12868 harp bracket.

A swan-neck bracket and lantern have now been installed on my BLEECO E66 column.

The catalogue for the rare (and probably extinct now) GEC ZD3230 lantern for catenary mounting has been scanned and added to the site.

04|01|09
A modified REVO C13721/S lantern and bracket has been added to the collection.

The range of GEC Z9754 lanterns make their debut. These were designed exclusively for motorways.

03|01|09
A picture of the fully repainted REVO Small Wornum lantern has now been published.

The common GEC Z9564 has been scanned and added to the website.

02|01|09
Another Large Lucy Swan Neck bracket has been photographed and added to the site.

The details of the rather common GEC Z9554M have also been added.

01|01|09
Another A C Ford AC 186 bracket has been photographed and added to the site.

The details of the rare GEC Z9517 has been added.