From above, the rather angular appearance of the canopy is apparent. The circle that is visible in the centre of the canopy is where the pattern would be changed on the top-entry version - the Z9465.
The distinctive round bottom to this range of lantern bowls is slightly more transparent than the rest of the plastic is - this being because it wasn't in direct sunlight when in use. Another change made by GEC on later versions of this lantern was the addition of refractor prisms in the area directly beneath the lamp. A thin aluminium retaining ring is attached to the bowl's rim, and the hinges are riveted to this. The retaining ring causes the bowl to be slightly too wide for the bowl to 'sit' correctly - notice the slight bend around the support clip. In order to undo the clip, gentle pressure must be placed on this part of the bowl, which pushes it in sufficiently for the rigid wire that makes up the clip to pass beneath its anchor point and into the released position.
The very top portion of the bowl is also free from discolouring; the canopy shielding this portion of the bowl from sunlight.
With the bowl removed, the lantern's innards (including the rusty gear tray/reflector) of course become visible. Although a 90 Watt SOX lamp is fitted here, these lanterns were designed to run 140 Watt SO/H lamps - these are the same physical size (and have the same operating characteristics) as a 90 Watt SOX does. If only I had an OSRAM 140 Watt SO/H lamp to fit in this lantern...
Funny that I should say that! Although the already-worn arc tube of the SO/H lamp was damaged when it entered my collection, owing to the glass around the electrodes being weakened, the oxidation of the sodium is now complete; hence, the powdery-white appearance of the arc tube.
I wonder how many years it is since a SO/H lamp was last fitted in this lantern.
With the lamp removed, the distribution of the rust on the reflector can be appreciated - it is more prominent to the rear of the lantern as the integral leak transformer is situated at the front of the lantern; this would provide sufficient heat to reduce the rusting during operation. The handwritten message of 'blast' is not my response to discovering that the sodium in the old arc tube had oxidised; it is actually a reminder for me to arrange for the reflector to be sandblasted/repainted as part of its restoration work!
Peering into the open void at the front of the reflector, the rusted heart of this lantern is visible.
Removing the reflector reveals the reason as to why this lantern is so unbelievably heavy - the massive open-coil leak transformer, and, to a lesser extent, the long aluminium capacitor. Unfortunately, owing to the age of the lantern, all of the internal wiring is asbestos-sheathed. The original cable clamp and terminal block are missing, with the result that a replacement (floating) terminal block connects the modern PVC supply cable to the lantern's internal wiring. Typically, one of the two 7⁄32″ (an imperial size that is slightly smaller than 6 mm) grub screws was able to be freed with little effort; however, the other grub screw is currently seized. The remains of the inner steel tube of the concrete wall bracket to which the lantern formerly attached are still very much a part of this lantern, and I suspect that even if both of the grub screws could be removed, the tube may remain resolutely wedged in place.
Although rather crude in its appearance, we have to remember that certain materials, particularly steel, in post-war Britain continued to be in short supply for some time. The tape surrounding the two windings of the transformer is beginning to degrade. A simple eight-way connector attached to the front of the transformer allows for the individual cables to terminate into it. From left-to-right, the terminals serve the following purposes:
1) Lamp; 2) Neutral / Capacitor; 3, 4 and 5) Alternate mains voltage tappings - not used here; 6) Live; 7) Capacitor; 8) Lamp
An almost-fossilised tag advising of the different terminals to use on the leak transformer for different mains voltages was found behind the manufacturer's plate on the ballast. The tag has broken in several places; therefore, I placed the individual pieces together for this picture. The parts of the tag that are still yellow were located behind the plate; the more discoloured parts protruded above it. Originally, the eyelet would have had a piece of string (whose length I know not) passing through it; the other end attaching to a part of the transformer. A tiny fragment of the string still survived behind the plate - hats off to whoever installed this lantern all those years ago, as I would imagine that these tags were often discarded after installation, and the leak transformers had been connected as per local supply voltage requirements.
The aluminium-cased GEC capacitor is rated at 20 µF. Given its age, this probably contains Polychlorinated Biphenyl (PCB) oil - you know that when something sounds dangerous, it probably is, and this is no exception - PCBs were later discovered to be both carcinogenic in humans, and also extremely polluting in nature. Fortunately, this capacitor shows no signs of leakage, and as I am unlikely to hack it open any time soon, the risk is reduced.
A rubber gaiter (bearing the GEC logo) exists at one end of the capacitor, in order to allow connections to be made. At the other end, the cryptic code '40 58 22' is stamped on the casing - this is unlikely to be any sort of date code, however.
Another view of the leak transformer; this time, with the wires removed in order that the details on the plate can be read. The aforementioned fragment of string can be seen to the bottom-right of the plate. The serial number for the transformer is 206884. Incidentally, the reason for de-wiring the leak transformer was to allow for the asbestos-sheathed wiring to be replaced with modern PVC wiring, which of course, is not harmful at all..!
The reflector was (finally) sent away for blasting and repainting in November 2017. Something that I had never noticed before was this very faint September 1956 date stamp on the rear, along with an inspection stamp by Operator 10. Wherever you are these days, Operator 10, you did a fantastic job at working on this lantern, for it to remain in working condition 61 years later...LED lantern manufacturers of the world, take note! Owing to this piece of history being found, this side of the of the reflector will not be repainted.
The refurbished reflector returned on Monday, 18th December 2017. Thanks to a local refurbishment company for their assistance here.
The lamp support was then reinstated.
Meanwhile, the canopy was stripped of its gear and wiring - the removal of the leak transformer made it considerably lighter! The seized grub screw was released with some assistance from a blowtorch, although the stump of the old bracket remained resolutely trapped, and no amount of heat treatment and pounding with a hammer seemed to budge it. A local engineering company had a try, but they too couldn't free the jammed pipe. I decided to try one final time, and eventually, noticed that the hammer blows were starting to turn it. Spurred on by success being only minutes away, I slammed the hammer into the tubing, and it popped out - hooray!
The part of the bracket that had last seen daylight at some point in the late 1950s was in remarkably clean condition. Even the part that had been exposed to the outside world wasn't heavily rusted at all.
The newly-freed lantern was fitted to a wall bracket on Wednesday, 16th May 2018, though unlike its installation in the 1950s, this time, the wall bracket was not concrete!
The Perspex bowl was reinstated next.
With a lamp fitted, the lantern was powered up; the 60-odd year-old Z1743.S leak transformer emitting a satisfyingly sonorous (or should that be 'SOXorous'?) hum continually throughout its operation - the third oldest lantern in the Collection was back in business!
Lamp 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 (W) | Percentage Difference |
| 240.2 | 0.79 | 113 | 190 | 49.9 | 0.59 | 111.96 | 21.96 | 24 |
In May 2023, I decided to try my Philips 140 Watt SO/H lamp in the Z9464.
The combination of the vintage leak transformer and lamp made for a very pleasing sensory appearance.
This video demonstrates the warm-up and operation of the vintage lamp:
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