CU Phosco P178

Lantern acquired in April 2009.

Thanks to Richard James of Harrison Lighting for this unused lantern. Along with the Designplan Concourse, this lantern is most frequently seen installed within the grounds of schools in Derbyshire; indeed two heavily-vandalised examples could be seen in the grounds of the former Sturgess School, prior to the site's redevelopment. A number of 35 Watt SOX examples also existed on Birchwood Close in South Normanton until LED replacement spelled the end of their time on the road.

The lantern comprises a canopy and bowl of a similar depth. Prior to being photographed, the bowl was cleaned, in order to remove external surface dirt. A dent is visible to the right of the 508 mm (20 inch) diameter canopy.

 

A slight break is visible on the underside of the bowl but the plastic is, otherwise, in good condition.

 

Removing the canopy reveals the internal reflector/gear tray. Four cranked rods link this to the lower part of the lantern, whilst four screws in the lower section secure the assembly to the spigot cap.

 

The central structure supports the lamp control gear on its underside, along with the angled 3-BC lampholder.

 

The Philips-made 80 Watt MBF ballast carries 'J9' as its manufacturing date code - September 1969. The capacitor was produced at about the same time.

 

Included with this lantern was an unusual spigot cap that appears to fit into a column shaft, rather than the more common method of the shaft fitting into the spigot.

 

Thanks to fellow collector Davy Warren, this nonstandard spigot was substituted for the more common type.

 

The lantern was powered up for the first time in nearly fifty years on Saturday, 27th October 2018. A fault with the capacitor meant that it had to be disconnected from the circuit, as it caused the plug fuse to fail when connected initially.

 

Lamp warm-up video:

Testing with my energy monitoring device revealed the following results. Naturally, with the capacitor disconnected, the Power Factor was less than impressive.

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
245.1 0.88 101 216 49.8 0.46 99.22 19.22 24%

Thorn Beta 4 | Revo Prefect

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