|
|
|
ilp archive : journals
|
public lighting no. 47 vol. 12
Special Conference Issue, November 1947
- Editorial p91
- The Street Lighting Demonstration at Southport Conference
- "Best lighted town in the Country" - so said a reporter of the lighting demonstration. It
was an attraction for both delegates and to visitors still enjoying their holidays in Southport.
It was a matter of special interest to listen to the opinion expressed by the passers-by - opinions on
colour, brightness and otherwise. The illumination of the road to the standards set down by
the MOT Final Report (1937) can be obtained either by gas or by electricity. The post-war
equipment marks a great advance over the pre-war period. It may be stated with
accuracy that the Annual Conferences of the APLE do intensify a keeness on the part of the
manufacturers to keep apace with modern requirements of Local Authorities. Southport has both
gas and electrical departments - both owned and controlled by the Corporation, each department
having a separate Committee. With the exception of the main high roads and the promenade,
street lighting is by gas, which, although not unsatisfactory, needed bringing up to date,
and for this purpose the Gas Committee had schemes of improvement in hand, which had to
be put into cold store upon the outbreak of war. Since the close of the recent Conference,
several of the gas installations have been taken over and now remain.
- Electric Lighted Streets
- Lord Street is well lighted by electricity, 750 watt gas-filled lamps fitted in
artistic lanterns with suitable glass refractors. The Promenade is lit by similar lanterns,
the double carriage way to North End, with centrally placed standards and double arm brackets.
A few of the special installations proved startling to the people of Southport for the
high efficiency displayed: the tubular fluorescent lighting in Hoghton Street, Nevill Street
and Coronation Walk in particular, where the roads took a daylight effect. It was regretted
that in a few hours after the Conference, the "new order" again took effect, "a 50% cut
on pre-war."
- Lamp Column Demonstration
- An avenue of lamp columns was erected in the gardens facing the sea at Southport.
Several had approval from the Royal Fine Art Commission. The general opinion was,
the modern lamp column presented a more graceful appearance over those of an earlier
period. Slender, with graceful curves, and in many cases a streamlining with the lamp and
the lantern itself, showed that this essential item in street furniture could be made
attractive and unobtrusive. In addition to the columns, Gowshall Ltd displayed
a small group of illuminated guard posts. It was agreed generally that a display of
columns provded invaluable to lighting engineers who had schemes in hand, as it enabled
them to compare types in situ.
- APLE: Conference
- The Design of Lamp Columns and the Royal Fine Art Commission by Mr. A. B. Knapp-Fisher, F.R.I.B.A., F.S.A., Hon. A.R.C.A. p93
- Reproduction of the paper The Design of Lamp Columns and the Royal Fine Art Commission.
- Discussion
- Mr. A. E. N. Taylor (Ministry of Transport):
A committe of manufacturers had been formed in collaboration with the Ministry of Transport to
discuss what steps should be taken to secure an improvement in the design of lamp columns,
and the Secretary of the APLE was the secretary to this committe, which was actin
as a clearing house for the Royal Fine Art Commission. It was hoped that there would
be available to lighting engineers and authorities a fair range of lamp column designs
recognised by the best authorities in the country and representing really good design. It
was hoped that when these designs were available, lighting authorities would seriously consider
using these for lighting schemes.
- Councillor H. Eastwood (Manchester Lighting Committee): Important aspects
were vista and colour. Most were tempted to look at a single lamp column as a sample of
what they were going to buy. But this should be viewed from a broader angle and the effect
noted when looking at a long stretch of road. Experiments were being carried out with colour:
in heavy traffic aluminium was ideal but in a rural area a kind of natural green would be
better. He feared there was a tendency adopting a design or colour of lamp columns according
to the personality of the salesman or the hospitality of the manufacturer.
- Mr. H. S. Allpress (Simplex Electric Limited): As an engineer he often found it
very difficult to understand the views and wishes of the artist in matters of design. He
understood that designs could be approved and assessed on their merit, not so much on their
artistic lines and curves but on their functional performance. The great essential
of lamp column design was that the columns should be self supporting and have the centre of
gravity in the right place.
- Mr. F. Sage (Borough Surveyor, Watford): In his view, the column and the
lamp must be related. The column and the lantern must be part of one functional design.
- Mr. W. H. Burham (North Middlesex Gas Company): Far too often the column was designed
as a separate unit and that was a great mistake. There was nothing more painful to look at than
a massive column with a very small lantern suspended from it. Also it did not seem right
that a colun should come straight out of the ground without a base to anchor it. Obviously
that was not "fitness for purpose."
- Mr. T. Burrows (Borough Surveyor, Cambridge): Expressed disapproval of the almp
columns in the City of London being painted aluminium colour, to which was added, a big yellow
band - what was The Fine Art Commission going to do about that? It was interesting to
hear from the representative of the Ministry of Transport that it was hoped to prepare a
group of standard columns for trunk roads. In Cambridge, there were trunk roads passing
throught and it was highly doubtful whether any of the standardised columns of the Ministry
would suit the trunk roads passing through the College area. The whole gist of the discussion had been
to make columns as inconspicuous as possible, but the question of doing without columns
altogether seemed to have been carefully avoided. What about suspension wires?
- Mr. A. B. Knapp-Fisher: Aluminium paint might be alright in certain towns but not
in rural ares. Green was a difficult colour to deal with. He preferred curves to angles.
The central of gravity should be in the right place and the column and lantern should be designed
together with one unit. A column should have a base and not appear as if it came direct out
of the ground. The yellow bands on the lamp columns in the City of London were a temporary
measure for traffic control. He could not give the views of The Royal Fine Art Commission
on the subject of suspensions wires; it was rather a controversial subject.
- Lighting: Columns, Lighting: Design
- Lamp Columns In Holland p95
- At the conference, M. Baart de la Faille, Electrical Engineer for the City of
Amsterdam, described the difficulties that confronted public lighting engineers in his
country particularly the soft nature of the sub-soil. It was difficult to maintain heavy standards
in a perpendicular condition. He expressed a preferenec for centrally suspended lamps when
possible.
- Lighting: Columns
- The Ayrshire Ripple Control Installation p96
- This was activated on August 10th, 1947, where street lights in as far as Largs,
Ardrossan and Ayr were controleld from the central location of Kilmarnock. It utilises the
existing distribution network and through step-up and step-down transformers thus extending
the range. It is the largest ripple control network in this country and extends over 1100 square
miles. For the present, control is exercised in respect of street lights and load shedding of
water heaters.
- The control from Kilmarnock extends 28 miles north to Largs and 50 miles to Ballantrae to
the south. It is anticipated that there will be over 10,000 relays operating within the
network.
- Direct Capacitor coupling of the ripple control current is applied to the two section of the
11kV system, the ripple frequency current being fed from the ripple alternator via a line-isolation
transformer and tuning inductors to the capacitors. The maximum transformation is 11kV,
22kV, 33kV, 11kV, 3.3kV and 240V i.e. five transformations. The equipment has an initial
capacity for eight different signals. The lighting load in the area served totals 3,000 kW
initially and the area is dividied into four zones. Each zone has a separate "on" signal,
and the switching "on" is in sections to minimise the instantaneous load. Switching "off"
is effected in two stages.
- The injected ripple current is generated by a motor alternator rated at 50kW, 485 cycles.
A sheet steel cubicle houses all the control gear. The controlling signals are initiated from
a "transmit" push button and two nine-position rotary switches. Each of the latter has one
"off" position and eight signal positions.
- The "Rythmatic" relays operate efficiently at voltages varying from 0.4 to 5.0 volts and
discriminate between signals by means of two types of filter, one mechanical and the other
electrical. These consist of a spring-controlled oscillatory galvanometer and an electrical
resonant circuit respectively. The secondary mechanical filter is employed to guard against
interference and to give additional signal discrimination.
- The resonant circuit accepts the signal frequency and rejects the 240 volts 50 cycles
potential. The signal current is then rectified and applied to the galvanomenter relay
which swings at the fixed periodicity or "rhythm" determined by its spring. When a number of
pulses in harmony with the natural periodicity of the relay has been received, the swing of
the armature builds up in amplitude to the point at which the galvanomenter movement closes
a contact, thus completing a circuit to a mechanically-locking switch which operates and
performs the selected switching operation.
- Lighting: Control , Lighting: Installations
- New Standards for Steel Tubes and Tubulars p97
- A new British Standard Specification 1387-1947 has recently been issued, giving details
of new standards for screwed and socketed steel tubes and tubulars for gas, water and steam
services. Under the new standards manufacturers are making available a wider range of
thicknesses than has ever been available before. They have also introduced a new lightweight
quality tube which will afford a considerable saving of steel, a matter of great importance
in these days of world-wide steel shortages.
- Tubes are now known as Class A (previously "Gas"), Class B (previously "Water") and
Class C (previously "Steam"). The colours are now "Brown" (Class A), "Yellow" (Class B) and
"Green" (Class C).
- Lighting: Materials
- The Evolution of an Electric Lamp p97
- This lecture was given to the Liverpool Section of the Illuminating Engineering Society on
October 21st by J. N. Aldington, B.Sc., Ph.D., F.R.I.C., F.Inst.P, F.I.E.S. of the
Siemens Research Laboratories, Preston. He showed the gradual process by which
technological developments advance by a series of small contributions with only an occasional major
step forward illustrated by reference to work on electrical discharge through gases. The theoretical
possibilities of the new "Gas Arc" were explored.
- Lighting: Lamps
- Special Gas Lighting In Southport p98
- Night pictures of two Conference installations.
- APLE: Conference, Lighting: Installations
- APLE Conference Southport p99
- Descriptions of the gas and electric installations at the Conference.
- APLE: Conference, Lighting: Installations
- Demonstration Street Lighting at Southport p100
- Details of each of the lanterns used in the installations at the Conference. These
include the Eclipse by William Edgar & Son,
Majestic by Elm Works,
Elmax by Elm Works,
Alpha by Foster & Pullen,
Sideways by Foster & Pullen,
Stellaris by C. H. Kempton & Co,
The Burham Prism by Lighting Trades & Welsbach,
Southport by Sugg,
8000 by Sugg,
8000 by Sugg,
Cranford by Willey,
Maxilla by Parkinson & Cowan,
Sol-Etern by REVO,
Mazdalux Fluorescent by BTH,
Hilux by Falks,
Dilux by Holophane,
Euston-Sieray by Siemens,
Gowshall,
W Lantern by BLEECO,
Trafford Lantern by Metropolitan-Vickers,
15/4/3A and 15/3A/COM controllers by Horstmann,
Type SS and Type S controllers by Sangamo,
Kingsland controller by Gas Meter,
Columns by Stewarts & Lloyds,
Streamline Lantern by BLEECO,
Columns by Stanton,
Golden Ray by ELECO,
Solar by Wardle,
Four Eighty by GEC,
Adastra Columns by Poles Limited and
Columns by Broads Limited.
- APLE: Conference, Lighting: Columns, Lighting: Luminaires
- Trade Literature p110
- Brief description of the GEC's Conduit, Conduit Fittings and Accessories catalogue.
- Lighting: Publications
- 'Traffic Signals' take over at busiest City Crossing p111
- The name "Bank Complex" has been given to the junction of Threadneddle Street, Cornhill, Lombard Street, King William
Street, Princes Street, Queen Victoria Street, Poultry and Mansion House Street. A specification for traffic signals
to control the traffic was prepared by the Ministry of Transport with the City of London Police. The Mayor switched on
the controls and ended the task of the familiar City policeman - the "Robot" had taken over control.
- The signals operate on a plan which ensures efficient control of the "Complex." A further feature is that other
junctions in the immediate vicinity are controlled by the same master timer.
- 35,000 vehicles use the junction each 12 hours and most of the approaches are narrow. To deal with this heavy
volume it had been arranged that traffic flow in four main stages. The general principle of allowing east and
west bound traffic to flow and then permitting the north and south bound to move has been followed. In addition to the
main stages there's also a number of minor stages.
- The whole system is "Electro-matic vehicle actuated" opering on the "flexible-progressive" principle under control
of a dual-master-timer. Vehicle detectors will be used in each approach to the "Bank Complex."
- Other
- Novel Lighting of a Bournemouth Roundabout p112
- Early this year a new roundabout was constructed at "The Lansdowne", Bournemouth, which carries considerable traffic,
being the junction of six roads, four of which are used by trolley buses. The approach roads both rise and fall away
from it and the presence of trolley poles on the centre island and roundabout perimeter make it undesirable to
install further lighting standards.
- It was suggested 5-ft. fluorescent tubes might be adaptable and the GEC when approached made up four
sample reflectors, so arranged that they could be carried on bracket arms mounted on the existing trolley poles
above the spanwires. The tests with these lanterns were so satisfactory that it was decided immediately to complete the
roundabout and also put two additional units in the immediate vicinity of the roundabout in the approach roads to
cater for crossing pedestrians. Twenty-five units were made in all.
- The installation was lit on the 1st June. The standard of lighting is extraordinarily high for the current consumption of
2¼k.w. including choke losses, whilst the evenness of brightness is most remarkable. At a subsequent date
test point and brightness readings were taken on the roundabout and on the kerb edges between 2 and 3 f.c. were
obtained in nearly all positions.
- Many visiting engineers expressed the opinion that it is probably the finest roundabout lighting that has been
seen for years and they were particularly impressed by the absence of glare, due to the cut-off distribution and the
low brightness of the light sources.
- Lighting: Installations, Lighting: Luminaires
- Ford 25-ft. 3-Stage Tower Wagon p113
- Description of the 25-ft. Tower Wagon which was loaned to the APLE for the Southport Conference.
- Lighting: Equipment
- Adverts:
The General Electric Co., Ltd,
Gowshall Ltd.,
Stanton Ironworks Co., Ltd,
Siemens Electric Lamps And Supplies Ltd.,
Automatic Telephone And Electrical Co., Ltd.,
Broad And Co. Ltd.,
REVO Electric Co., Ltd.,
Philips Electrical Ltd.,
The British Thomson-Houston Co. Ltd.,
Stewarts And Lloyds Co., Ltd.,
Sangamo Weston Ltd.,
Willey And Co. Ltd.,
British, Foreign And Colonial Automatic Light Controlling Co., Ltd.,
Falk, Stadelmann Co., Ltd.,
Parkinson And Cowan Ltd.,
William Sugg And Co., Ltd.,
Engineering And Lighting Equipment Co. Ltd.,
Concrete Utilities Co., Ltd. and
Poles Ltd.
|
|
|
