Philips MI 80 GO

Lantern acquired in October 2007.

This predecessor to the MI 36 (and latterly the XGS 104) lantern is brand new and unused. The capacitor is dated to October 1985, and so I would think that the rest of the lantern dates from around then as well, though the first MI 80 examples appeared in 1981, as a replacement for the CU Phosco-sourced P224/6 range, which Philips marketed as the MI 8. This type of lantern was also sold in 'Kombipack' form; where a wall bracket and photocell were also included. This version was known as the SXK 55 - I remember several of these being fitted on the corners of buildings at my school - at one point, one was removed (presumably due to a failed gear component) and was placed inside a compound (I never discovered where on the site it had been removed from!). I recall eventually plucking up the courage to ask one of the caretakers if it was going to be scrapped; however, he told me that it was going to go back up after repairs had been carried out. Thinking back, the gear tray was very rusty, and so at least, this new example is in better condition.

At the time of acquisition, the MI 80 was becoming quite a rarity on Derbyshire's streets - there were still a small number in use, but their numbers had dropped significantly, following sleeving or complete replacement of 6 m concrete columns.

As with the MI 50, the MI 80 features an aluminium canopy. The bowl is identical to the one used on the XGS 104.

Whilst this is the side-entry version, a top-entry version was also produced. The casting shows the unused top-entry spigot. As the lantern is unused, the NEMA socket still has its dust cap fitted.

Looking at the bowl, this lantern could easily be mistaken for an XGS 104 at night...except for one very minute difference which exists between the two lanterns:

...the lampholder is situated at the rear of this lantern, whereas it is at the front of the XGS 104.

The label states that a 36 Watt SOX-E or 55 Watt SOX lamp can be used in the lantern...but looking at the previous photograph, the lamp support can be repositioned further along the lantern in order to accommodate a 35 Watt SOX lamp - indeed, the gear states that it can also run this wattage.

By the time this lantern was made, Philips had moved away from the one-piece leak transformer and instead were using a separate ballast and ignitor. The test label, located top-right, carries the factory code 'LH', representing the Hamilton (Scotland) facility, and alongside, a date using Philips' standard coding system - 'L5' (tranposed - it should be '5L'), representing November 1985.

The lantern was fitted to an AC Ford AC872 wall bracket on Friday, 20th June 2008 - it literally just fitted next to the Z8430CM!

The lantern was then powered up:

Lantern warm-up video:

GEC Z9532 | Kingswood Precinct

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