22. Jeremy's Mum's House. A working Thorn Beta 8 with a 60 Watt SLI/H lamp is fitted to the side of the house in order to light a passageway. The control gear is mounted in the lantern itself - this consists of a 65 W fluorescent ballast and starter. The ballast of this wattage is used as it is the closest modern equivalent - it will slightly under-run the lamp (by about 60 mA); however, this is not a problem, and probably gives a distinct life-advantage. The Beta 8 lantern was originally only available as a 60 Watt SLI/H Linear lantern before SOI/SOX versions were available. It was known as the 'Amberline Junior' before being called 'Beta 8'. 'Amberline' was the name given to the linear lantern range (including the larger linear lanterns); SOI/SOX types were known as 'Ambers'. The Amberline name stuck when the SOI/SOX versions later became available, but harks back to these lanterns' 'true' history as linear lanterns.
With the bowl removed, the lamp is easier to see - this is a GEC one:
The lantern is controlled by a part-night Quartz Vennerette time switch located indoors:
Another interesting lantern is fitted by the front door of the house - it isn't a survivor, but certainly could be:
The decorative copper porch lantern houses a 40 Watt Iwasaki clear mercury lamp. A special wall bracket was constructed to hold the lantern in place and to give the lantern some protection against possible attack.
Control gear and time switch for this are housed in the utility cupboard adjacent the meters and other services. The time switch is a Horstmann spring-reserve Y-type solar dial with midnight off and 4:30am on. The ballast is a 40 Watt mercury Iwasaki High-Power-Factor 'outdoor' type. These are extremely high quality ballasts which are designed for outdoor use, mounted on poles etc. without any additional protection. No additional capacitors (or ignitors in the case of High-Pressure-Sodium and Metal Halide versions) are required; everything is in the one case. These ballasts come with flying-leads instead of terminals and hence a small junction box is employed here (on the left of the ballast, behind the gas meter) to allow the ballast leads to connect to the outgoing cable to the lantern.
Notice how the instructions on the ballast have been directly translated from Japanese - meaning that the English doesn't make perfect sense!
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