Coughtrie WP.10-S

Once again, nostalgia plays a significant part in my acquiring of this fitting, as several WP.10s were installed on WB.5/C corner brackets on the main building of my primary school. These examples were designed for running filament lamps, although my memory of them is that they were retro-fitted with compact fluorescent lamps.

The bulkhead arrived in a box covered in slogans relating to Coughtrie products (odd that; it being a Coughtrie product and all!) - these included, "The choice of professionals", "Better than they have to be", "Beat the vandals", "Tough but not rough", "The big range", "Shed light on perfection", "Lead in exterior lighting", "Set the standard" and "Examples of Scottish excellence" - how I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall during the board meeting that coined these slogans!

These fittings are instantly recognisable by their long, cylindrical, two-tier refractor bowls. The threaded 20 mm side-entry connection is visible here.

The bulkhead comprises a completely flat canopy, save for the Coughtrie logo and product name.

The underside of the bowl is also flat. This plane is split into quarters, with two of these having the refractors positioned horizontally, and the other two refractors positioned vertically.

Two slotted screws secure the bowl to the bulkhead body. As I hadn't spotted the lamp type required on the label seen above, when I first removed the bowl, I was surprised to see that the circuit was wired to run a 9 W PL-S lamp - the design of the refractors prevents a view into the bowl. As the central screw pitch was designed to accommodate a bayonet lampholder, an adaptor is provided in order that the narrower two-pin compact fluorescent lampholder is secured. As with the FGC 111 bulkhead from Philips, the only control gear component required is an external ballast, as the lamps incorporate a starter in their bases. A capacitor is not included in the circuit.