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28|08|24
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Adverts and notes for
Public Lighting No. 55 Vol. 14 April-June 1949 has now been added to
the site.
I've contined uploading Mike Ashworth's 1964 REVO catalogue
by adding the fluorescent lanterns. Again, some of the catalogue is missing or incomplete as some of the post-top
lanterns (such as the Isis and Solaris) are missing. Luckily the Halcyon, Haddington,
Festival, Junior Sol-Etern and Festival Junior are included.
The Thorn Gamma 6 was an extremely popular lantern
in the 1970s through to the 1990s and could be found lighting many side streets, car parks and civic areas
throughout the UK. This is the version with the wide-brim canopy.
I've uploaded all the information and adverts from the APLE's 1949 Conference Programme.
Not only does it include all the latest information from 1949, but the lists of exhibitors and their exhibits filled in a large
number of 'missing' gaps for lots of the column manunfacturers.
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22|06|24
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And so we edge into 1949. It's the APLE's 25th anniversary so most of
Public Lighting No. 54 Vol. 14 January-March 1949 is
devoted to reminiscing: past presidents recall their experiences and there's a list of previous conferences and
papers.
I've contined uploading Mike Ashworth's 1964 REVO catalogue
by adding the low-pressure sodium lanterns. At this point, it becomes clear that some of the catalogue is missing
as the Lucidor A isn't included. Mike says the catalogue is a compendium of separate loose-leaf
brochures which were collected into a REVO spiral bound folder - therefore it isn't suprising that one or two
are missing unfortunately.
The Simplex Solumbra IV always reminds me of visits to
the seaside; it could often be found lighting car-parks, promenandes and gardens by the beach. Unfortunately this
version doesn't have the characteristic blue aluminium canopy, but it is a rare example of the gear-in-head low-pressure
sodium version with its 'bulge' in the canopy.
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01|11|23
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Brief notes and summaries have been added for
Public Lighting No. 47 Vol. 12 Special Conference Issue November 1947.
This 'special' issue was a slimmed down version of the journal which concentrated on the Southport Conference and contained a detailed
section about the exhibits. This also meant that the journal returned to five issues per year.
Work has continued on the GEC Street Lighting catalogue
from 1948 and all the side road lanterns have now been covered.
The GEC Z9565 was another monster lantern, designed to
take the massive 180W SOX lamp, and intended for dual carriageways, complex intersections, arterial routes
and (potentially) motorways. They were a common site on the UK's roads but now near extinction.
Brief notes and summaries have been added for
Public Lighting No. 48 Vol. 12 October-December 1947.
This issue continued with the theme of the Southport Conference and included two papers and their discussions.
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17|08|23
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Brief notes and summaries have been added for
Public Lighting No. 46 Vol. 12 July-September 1947.
This issued was mainly concerned with covering the Southport Conference and
included two of the papers.
Work has continued on the GEC Street Lighting catalogue
from 1948 and all the main road lanterns have now been covered.
The GEC Z9564 was a monster lantern, designed to
take the massive 180W SOX lamp, and intended for dual carriageways, complex intersections, arterial routes
and (potentially) motorways. They were a common site on the UK's roads but now near extinction.
They used to light the A11 at Barton Mills roundabout but most have recently been replaced. So, it seemed a
fitting time to look at the example in my collection.
John Featherbe has sent in pictures of some old survivors still hanging on
in Folkestone's side streets. This includes one of the original REVO C14403 series lanterns (or "Bell Tops") on an angled
A. C. Ford bracket which was very characteristic of the town's side streets.
By coincidence, one of these angled brackets and
extremely rare side-entry REVO lanterns recently
turned up at a collector's meeting. This is now in my collection.
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24|06|23
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Brief notes and summaries have been added for
Public Lighting No. 44 Vol. 12 January-March 1947.
This issue featured an article about the GEC's experimental fluorescent installation along Brompton Road.
I've continued the work on GEC Street Lighting catalogue from 1937. This section
concludes the large number of decorative large lanterns the firm made for civic areas, town halls and bridges.
I've also started a GEC Street Lighting catalogue from 1948. This starts with
the now familiar Wembley, Oxford and Difractor lanterns, but new "Universal" fitting adapters have now been developed.
One of the most popular ranges of pendant lanterns in the UK was the GEC Z5565 series.
And, a couple of years ago, I was given a GEC Z5565NP which
had been rescued from a demolition site.
Brief notes and summaries have been added for
Public Lighting No. 45 Vol. 12 April-June 1947.
The Minister Of Transport has taken over street lighting and the department has issued a circular. The main takeaways are that
they are bullish about approving the materials for new schemes, are pressing for more uniformity between lighting authorities and
that their Final Report (1937) should be used for all new schemes.
There has also been some worrying comments about superimposed high frequency ripple control systems. The four manufacturers concerned
(Automatic Telephone and Electric Co. Ltd., General Electric Co. Ltd., Measurement Ltd. and
Metropolitan-Vickers Electrical Co. Ltd.)
have come together to form the "Ripple Control Technical Committee" to address the concern.
The GEC Z5565NP was mounted on a GEC Z2311 pole
bracket. These brackets were popular in rural and coastal areas where they were mounted on telegraph
poles. This combination of lantern and bracket would've been popular in the 1950s and 1960s but they gradually
started disappearing in the 1970s, especially when most pendant lanterns were replaced during the 1970s
energy crisis.
The APLE's Annual Conference was held in Southport in 1947. I've started on its
conference page with information about the exhibitors, adverts and details about the outside exhibitions. This page will continue to be expanded as I work through the conference papers
and Public Lighting #46 and #47 in the future.
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10|03|23
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Brief notes and summaries have been added for both
Public Lighting No. 43 Vol. 11 October-December 1946 and
all the papers given at the APLE's London Conference.
The standout papers were Sugg's The Quality of Public Lighting Installations and the Modern use of the Gas Source in which
Crawford Sugg read a highly contenious paper promoting gas lighting; while Davies and Sinclair's
paper Experimental Applications of Tubular Fluorescent Lamps to Street Lighting gave details of BTH's
experimental fluorescent trials in London.
I've continued the work on GEC Street Lighting catalogue from 1937.
The firm's decorative lanterns are now included which include the previously covered
Paisley and Parade Lanterns and also far more
decorative large lanterns.
The Phosco P178 was once a very
common sight on the UK's roads. One of these iconic lanterns has now been completely documented.
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28|08|22
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Brief notes and summaries have been added for
Public Lighting No. 42 Vol. 11 July-September 1946.
It is essentially a conference issue and reports on the 1946 Conference
held in London. Also included was a short piece about BTH's trial fluorescent experiment in London. As usual, all the adverts
have been added.
Also included are all the adverts in the 1946 Conference Programme.
I've continued the work on GEC Street Lighting catalogue from 1937.
Many of the lanterns from earlier catalogues, and those in the F-range, have now appeared. This includes the
popular Conical Reflectors and the obscure
Reflector Lanterns.
Little is known about the ELECO HW 505
as no catalogues have yet to surface for it. But it's popular with collectors as it was one of the largest
Group B low-pressure sodium lanterns manufactured.
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01|06|22
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Brief notes and summaries have been added for
Public Lighting No. 41 Vol. 11 April-June 1946.
It reports on The Danger Lights and the Blue Print For Street Lighting articles which were published in
The Evening Standard.
I've continued the work on GEC Street Lighting catalogue from 1937.
This time the Wembley lanterns have been covered - and the gap in the range Z 5000 and Z 5100
has now been filled.
Once a very common sight on the UK's roads, the
Philips MI 26 was one of the smallest
lanterns offered by Philips, only taking 35W SOX.
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09|04|22
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Brief notes and summaries have been added for
Public Lighting No. 40 Vol. 11 January-March 1946.
The third conference issue since the war, it includes the last papers from the 1945 Conference in Glasgow,
and hints at the contents of the new British Standard for street lighting.
I've continued the work on GEC Street Lighting catalogue from 1937.
New pages concern the firm's range of medium and high pressure mercury lanterns - and include many 'new' luminaires for this site,
filling in many of the gaps.
One of the first lanterns in the collection, this GEC Z9532M had
a sticker inside calling it the Nightwatch 35.
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25|02|22
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Brief notes and summaries have been added for
Public Lighting No. 39 Vol. 10 October-December 1945.
The second conference issue since the war, it reports on the 1945 Conference in Glasgow,
and more manufacturers are advertising their new, post-war ranges.
Peter Rivet contacted me recently with a round-up of the remaining gas installations in the UK. I've included his list
at the top of the installations page.
I've continued the work on GEC Street Lighting catalogue from 1937.
New pages concern the newly introduced MB (80-125W) lamps which required new gear, control boxes and diffusing globes.
Yet another Thorn Alpha 9? This one's a bit
of a mystery; it has gear, it has a deep bowl, but there are problems with it.
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12|01|22
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The next catalogue to be tidied up is the
GEC Street Lighting Equipment from
the GEC dating from May 1933. The ideas here are to make sure that the website pages look more like the
orginal catalogues and to ensure that all crossreferenced information (such as lantern information) is also updated.
Brief notes and summaries have been added for
Public Lighting No. 38 Vol. 10 July-September 1945.
The first conference issue since the war, it reports on the 1945 Conference in Glasgow,
and more manufacturers are advertising their new, post-war ranges.
I've started work on GEC Street Lighting catalogue from 1937.
This is a massive catalogue
and will be uploaded in sections. So far I've covered various introduction pages, installations, and lots of technical
information about the MA (150W-400W) and newly introduced MB (80-125W) lamps.
Another Thorn Alpha 9? This one's a bit
of a mystery. It has gear, but it doesn't have a deep bowl. Was it ever part of their range or something created from spare parts when installed?
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26|10|21
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Alistair Bell has added another picture of the 1950s/1960s fluorescent installations in Blackpool. This time, it's from
the floods of 1977.
The next catalogue to be tidied up is the
Industrial And Street Lighting Fittings And Accessories from
the GEC dating from September 1930. The ideas here are to make sure that the website pages look more like the
orginal catalogues and to ensure that all crossreferenced information (such as lantern information) is also updated.
Brief notes and summaries have been added for
Public Lighting No. 36 Vol. 10 January-March 1945 and
Public Lighting No. 37 Vol. 10 April-June 1945. Issue #37 celebrated
the end of the ARP restrictions and more firms are actively starting to reappear as they switch back to producing street
lgihting equipment.
A 1935 catalogue from the GEC has been scanned and unloaded. It differs remarkably from similar catalogues from
several years earlier. The introduction of the first discharge lamp, the medium-pressure OSIRA (MA), has seen a revolution in
street lighting, with the catalogue filled with (mostly) new designs.
One of the older, and rarer, lanterns in the collection is this REVO Silvergold C13192/S.
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09|08|21
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Brief notes and summaries have been added for
Public Lighting No. 35 Vol. 9 October-December 1944. This was the big
"Dim Out" issue, as lighting restrictions are relaxed and illumination levels are increased. The adverts are starting
to change as well (links at the bottom) with firms starting to think about post-war production.
The BLEECO Hove Lantern / BLEECO Sunstar Lantern 686 and
BLEECO Worthing Bracket in my collection has been
restored and documented.
The recent removal of the M1 catenary scheme sparked interest in this type of lighting. Here are the details of a similar,
earlier scheme which used to light parts of the A4 in Hounslow.
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01|07|21
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Something more "industrial" from the collection this time... an Atlas Alpha 9.
The two next issues of Public Lighting have been summarised and
catalogued. The darkness of the war years is now lifting and the journal is looking towards the future. In particular,
Issue 34 listed and described the following pre-war luminaires:
Maxill "G",
Maxilla Upright,
Maxilla Suspension,
Brimax Maxilla,
Rivercourt,
Eclipse,
London Minor,
London Medium,
London Major,
Newlands,
Granby,
Siden,
Kempar,
Majestic,
Heathfield,
Circra,
Mercra "H",
Ranger,
Diron,
Dilen,
County Cadet and
County Junior.
As usual, scroll down to the bottom of each summary (Issue 33 and
Issue 34) for links to all the adverts.
And to wrap things up: other... a Thorn EMI Alpha 9.
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20|03|21
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Brief notes and summaries have been added for Public Lighting No. 31 Vol. 8 October-December 1943.
This second conference issue, which details the London Conference held earlier in the year, continues the trend of looking
forward to the end of the war.
The number of advertisements continue to rise with many returing to the publication after being absent during the first
years of the war.
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15|08|17
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The adverts from Public Lighting #12 (January 1939) are now online. (Scroll to
the bottom of the page for handy links to all the adverts).
The Final Report from the MOT Departmental Committee,
which was published in 1937, has now been added to the Standards section.
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06|02|16
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The adverts from Public Lighting #8 (December 1937) are now online.
Adverts have also been scanned from the 1933 Municipal Directory. These include
Patent Up And Down Suspension Gear,
Hurricane-Proof Copper Street Lanterns,
Gas Lamps For Public Lighting,
Everything For Street Lighting,
Newbridge Public Lighting Controllers and
Lanterns, Reflectors, Swan Necks For Electric Street Lighting. Many thanks to
Mike Ashworth for the scans.
Thanks to these new adverts, I've been able to identify one of my previously unknown lanterns as an
an Elm Works Parade Lantern.
I've tidied up and compiled relevant lantern information for the ELECO
lantern range. This includes reformating and adding photometric information to the catalogues.
Some of the remaining ESLA Bi-Multis in Canterbury have recently been photographed.
A feature from Intertraffic World, written by Lee Gale, about the loss
of good design in street lighting,
has now been added to the website.
My BTH Amber MK III (SL5698) has been
restored and documented.
The adverts from Public Lighting #9 (March 1938) are now online.
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10|04|14
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I've had a collection of lanterns and names from unidentified, or lost, catalogues which I've not been
able to put into the lantern ranges. (This is due to the old format of categorising them as tungsten, mercury,
sodium etc.) The new system puts all the lanterns by a manufacturer in one place so I don't need to know
the lamp type to separate them and I can now start adding this "lost" lanterns. The first to be
uploaded are those from AC Ford.
I've started work on a new timeline. The old one was full of trivia and installation information (which I've
now moved elsewhere) and, more importantly, I didn't link back to any sources, so it was difficult to determine
where the key dates originally came from. So I've started a new timeline
which correctly credits its sources. (The old timeline is included at the end.)
I've tidied up and compiled relevant lantern information into the BLEECO
and BTH lantern ranges.
The installations section has also changed. Historical installations
and references to them are now being compiled.
The adverts from Public Lighting #1 (March 1936)
are now online.
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23|12|13
Alistair Bell has updated his collection of photographs
of Blackpool from the 1950s to 1980s. There are a couple of new
ones, and some of the existing shots have now been converted to colour.
A link to an old GEC catalogue from 1924 has been added.
An enormous and very rare
GEC Two-Eighty Z8281 has been added to the collection.
A now-rare Thorn Alpha 5 has been completely restored and
documented.
All adverts and company information is now online from the
1939 APLE Conference Brochure.
The lantern information section for Atlas Lighting has been reformatted
and improved.
15|06|13
The following lanterns have been fully restored and documented:
Thorn Riga (57W CFL),
BLEECO Open Type Conical 673 and
its Large Lucy Swan Neck Bracket,
BLEECO Worthing (200-300W) and
its BLEECO Brighton And Hove Swan Neck Bracket,
an Elm Parade,
a REVO Hyperion A and a
REVO Hyperion 135 A42.401.
12|05|13
As part of my research for the Sheffield 1928 lighting experiment,
I've put together a table detailing
which lanterns were installed on which road. Unfortunately there isn't enough information to complete
the table, but it gives a good idea of what was being exhibited and photometrically measured.
Adverts from 1928 added to the site are:
GEC Street Lighting,
Mazda Lamps,
Nile Whiteway and
BTH Lights.
I've started to tidy up and change the format of some of the manufacturer's lantern ranges. So far I've
completed A C Ford and
AEI - the AEI full range
gives a good idea of how all the manufacturers will eventually look.
17|01|13
I've added information from the APLE's Conference Programme
from 1938.
01|12|12
The Urbis Opalo 1 lantern in my collection has now been documented.
09|11|12
I've added information from the APLE's Conference Programme
from 1937. This has provided invaluable information about many manufacturers and their products.
09|09|12
Some more information has been added about Cambridge's existing installation. This
includes why some of the old fluorescent lanterns managed to survive so long in some areas.
Added two additional historical pictures to Peter Rivet's Mackenzie Brothers' history.
I've also added the APLE's Exhibition Catalogue of 1932. Unfortunately it's text only, but it gives additional
information about the history and products of
The Horstmann Gear Company, Ltd.,
Benjamin Electric, Ltd.,
Metropolitan Gas Meters, Ltd.,
The Electric Street Lighting Apparatus Co.,
Holophane, Ltd.,
Credenda Conduits Co., Ltd.,
Bromford Tube Co., Ltd.,
Venner Time Switches, Ltd.,
The Wardle Engineering Co., Ltd.,
The General Electric Co., Ltd.,
British, Foreign And Colonial Automatic Light Controlling Co., Ltd.,
REVO Electric Co., Ltd.,
Messrs. William Sugg And Co., Ltd.,
The Gas Meter Co., Ltd.,
Falk, Stadelmann And Co., Ltd.,
Siemens Electric Lamps And Supplies, Ltd.,
Radiovisor Parent, Ltd.,
W. Parkinson And Co.,
The Edison Swan Electric Co., Ltd.,
Engineering And Lighting Equipment Co., Ltd.,
William Edgar And Son, Ltd.,
Messrs James Keith And Blackman Co., Ltd.,
Kandem Electrical, Ltd.,
Foster And Pullen, Ltd. and
C. H. Kempton And Co., Ltd..
Some of these manufacturers are 'new' to the website.
As part of my work for the Lighting Journal, I've also been researching some specific companies.
Extra information and a collection of early adverts have been added for
The Electric Street Lighting Apparatus Co. and
The Brighton Lighting And Electrical Engineering Co., Ltd..
I have started work on scanning the ILP archives. This includes old conference brochures,
conference papers and will lead up to the full archiving of the back issues of Public Lighting.
This is a huge project and will take me several years, but will be of great use for those interested in the
history of public lighting.
The papers and conference brochures currently published on this website were simply to show the ILP
what I intended to do and how the finished result will look. These will soon only be available to
ILP members through the ILP website; although I will maintain abstracts,
descriptions and links here.
However, I have asked that advertisements could be included on this website as they are invaluable to researchers.
15|06|12
Anyone interested in street lighting in the UK should read this document: Departmental Committee On Street Lighting, Interim Report, 1935.
This document, and the Final Report, would have a profound influence on street lighting in the UK for the next
seventy years.
05|06|12
Ward and Mann give a description
of the Corporation of Glasgow, Lighting Department in 1934. It gives a breakdown of the functional areas of the department
(which employed 1189) and their day-to-day tasks. It’s also illustrated with photographs of installations and
equipment along with reproductions of the department's paperwork.
Conference paper given at the Eleventh Annual Meeting and Conference of the Assoication of Public Lighting Engineers, Aberdeen, September 17 to 20, 1934.
02|06|12
Geoff has written in with memories of the production process at ELECO.
Some extracts from British Standard 307 (1927) have now been uploaded.
19|04|12
The BLEECO Leaflets, which range from the 1940s through to the 1950s,
have been reformated and expanded. The later Sunstar range,
the Haleeco, Multilite, Vertical Type Fluorescent Lantern and
Cast Bronze Octagonal Lantern are all new, whilst the
Cast Iron Weather Proof Boxes section has been enlarged.
30|03|12
The next GEC catalogue appears to be a compilation of sheets from other
GEC publications but does cover the new Directional Street Lighting Reflectors and the development of
symmetrical, axial asymmetric and non-axial asymmetric distributions for the Wembley range.
12|03|12
Another partial catalogue from the GEC has been uploaded. Dating from the 1930s, it includes
further modifications to the Wembley system.
20|02|12
It's back to the GEC with a partial catalogue from the mid-1920s. This marks the first appearance of the Wembley
lighting system.
08|02|12
As part of the work for my second piece for Lighting Journal (which concerns the introduction of
Holophane glass refractors), I've photographed the Holophane 2-4438
refractor bowl used in my BLEECO 695 Enclosed Sunstar.
A Holophane Catalogue from the 1920s has now been uploaded. This gives a great introduction
to the scientific principles behind street lighting optics at the time and also describes the various refractor types available. There is also information on
how do decode some of the longer lantern catalogue numbers which specify both a lantern and type of refractor.
13|01|12
The GEC Catalogue from 1923 has now been uploaded.
10|01|12
The GEC Catalogue from the 1920s has now been completed.
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