Museum of Making, Derby

Derby's former Industrial Museum, housed in the elegant Silk Mill building, reopened as the Museum of Making in 2021, following lengthy refurbishment. The work saw more of the building open to visitors, with almost an entire floor being dedicated to 'The Assemblage', which categories objects in the Museum's store according to their material properties. My keen eyes spotted several lighting-related products in amongst their Collection that I would love to incorporate within my own!

Somewhat ironically, three miniature Stanton columns were positioned on one of the shelves dedicated to metal objects - of course, their full-sized counterparts would be concrete! I assume that these were produced by Stanton, in order to provide samples of their typical products to potential customers. The tallest of the three is to the 8D design, while the smallest is to the 10F. The middle column is a mystery, as it features the same square base of both other designs but would be equivalent to a 20 foot column, which is not a known height that Stanton produced.

The attention to detail of the models is superb, with each one supporting a miniature lantern, complete with an unofficial means of securing the bowl (in this case, rather perished elastic bands)!

Careful consideration of the scale of the miniature lanterns has been made, with each one being in proportion for a typical low pressure sodium of each mounting height.

If only the lanterns incorporated miniature SOX lamps too..!

A cabinet demonstrating the manufacturing process for tungsten filament (GLS) lamps is located in the 'Glass' section. As can be seen, it was produced by British Thomson-Houston (BTH) to showcase their Mazda-brand lamps, which dates the artefact to no later than 1959, as on the 1st January 1960, BTH ceased to exist, with all of their products (as well as those of former rivals Metropolitan-Vickers, Siemens and Ediswan) being branded for Associated Electrical Industries Lamp & Lighting (AEI) instead.

The vial located top-left contains Scheelite, a Calcium Tungstate mineral, and an ore of tungsten itself.

Also in 'Glass' is this cabinet containing bowls (and a mantle) for gas lights, enamel signs and...an ESLA lantern! Although the body of the lantern is cast iron, its famous facetted reflector system relies on small mirrored glass trapeziums to direct the beam from the centrally-mounted lamp.

The mirrors on this particular example are in almost-perfect condition, and employ the same style of 'rimpled' glass that exists on my own lantern.

Back in 'Metal', these two swan neck brackets were espied, with the foreground one still retaining the top-entry Beta 5 lantern that it had when removed from service.

The Beta 5 is fitted with a Hy-lite HL4N photocell dating to 1997 (I looked!), while the lamp was fitted in 2010. The lantern and bracket may, therefore, have been removed from service as part of Derby's Street Lighting PFI.

Nearby were several railway-style lanterns, the top finial from a gas lantern, and a Revo Spondon post-top.

CLICK HERE TO MAKE A MONETARY DONATION