They say that good things come to those who wait; I had been after one of the two Uttoxeter Road Alpha 8s since the PFI scheme along the road commenced, and after the column supporting the other lantern was removed, I was determined to acquire the second. Having seen that the lantern was no longer operational on the 13th May, I was sure that the column would disappear very soon afterwards. The presence of a platform van (FN03 BXJ no less, though by then, Jeremy no longer worked for Street Lighting, and the van had been allocated to another operator) further along Uttoxeter Road the following day worried me sufficiently to park up near the column in order to keep an eye on it - my concerns were well-founded; about an hour later, a HIAB parked alongside the installation and proceeded to attach a chain to the column shaft. I headed over and politely asked the workmen whether I could have the lantern...the results of this conversation are displayed below:

This version of the Alpha 8 (featuring a GRP canopy and aluminium chassis) was introduced by Thorn in the late 1980s as a replacement for the earlier all-aluminium Alpha 8 (a design which was approaching its tenth birthday by then). The original Thorn Alpha 8 was an indirect 'replacement' (by name only) of the bulky dual-lamp Atlas Alpha 8 that was produced throughout the 1960s, but quickly fell out of favour (and production) during the more "energy-aware" 1970s. The first of the 'new' Alpha 8 lanterns appeared in about 1978, and production of the lantern (in both of its Thorn guises) continued until the mid-2000s, when the Civic replaced it.

The one-piece construction of this version's canopy does away with the distinctive rear 'shoe' of the earlier design. Having been in use for over six years, the canopy's fibres are beginning to shed.

Although the bowl is the same physical size for both versions of the Thorn Alpha 8, their means of attachment at the front vary slightly, with the result that trying to fit a newer (non-refractor) bowl to an older lantern will work, but there will be a small gap around where the clip attaches. Along with the change to a GRP canopy, this version of the Alpha 8 brought about additional alterations - the lantern could now accommodate SON lamps up to 400 Watt, and three optical types were offered - a shallow polycarbonate bowl (as seen here), a deeper polycarbonate bowl (used when 400 Watt lamps are fitted) and a flat glass cover. Curiously, Thorn literature states that if the lantern is initially supplied to work with a bowl, it cannot be converted to flat glass operation. Using an adaptor, the lantern could also be post-top mounted. The 20 mm diameter hole that is visible between the two side-entry grub screws would act as the cable entry hole if the lantern were so equipped.

The underside of the lantern's chassis has the Thorn EMI logo embossed into the casting. Even after Thorn and EMI demerged, this detail was not updated (although some examples feature a raised block in place of the EMI suffix); thus, even the final Alpha 8s produced would have carried this 1980s' company designation. The two screw ends visible at either end of the logo are for the screws that secure the ballast to the chassis.

With the bowl unfastened, the reflector panels become considerably shinier - I think the bowl may need cleaning!

Although this version of the Alpha 8 is known as the "Mk 3" by collectors, it is officially the "Mk 16"! The "05 04" code in the top-left corner of the identification label suggests that the lantern was made during Week 5 of 2004 (26th January - 1st February).

Another change that Thorn made to this version of the Alpha 8 is that the canopy now tilts forwards, in order to allow access to the gear and wiring, in a similar manner to that employed by the Philips SGS 204. This is an improvement on the 'trapdoor' mechanism employed in the earlier version, as space was always rather limited in the gear compartment. Two captive screws located in the rear of the canopy prevent it from accidentally tilting forwards during normal operation.

A retention chain ensures that the canopy cannot over-tilt when unfastened. A number of drainage holes exist in the chassis; despite this, the gear components were not too "spidery" when the lantern was removed.

The only similarity between both designs are the curved aluminium reflectors surrounding the lamp (or lamps, in the case of the Atlas version).

Once powered up, the lantern sprung into life. The NEMA socket had been disconnected in advance of the lantern's attachment to the bracket.

Lantern warm-up video:

Testing the lantern with my energy monitoring device revealed the following results:

Test Voltage (V)	Current being drawn at full power (A)	Measured wattage (W)	Apparent Power (VA)	Frequency (Hz)	Power Factor	True Power (W)	Difference to rated wattage	Percentage Difference
242.1	1.38	303	334	49.9	0.9	300.69	50.69	20.28 %

Wardle Murray | Philips MA 50