Philips 'Iridium' SGS 252

Lantern acquired in June 2006.

From the tried-and-tested mercury lamp to a sign of things to come now - the Philips CPO (Cosmopolis) lamp range - only launched towards the end of 2005. The 'W' suffix means that this lamp gives out white light - another lamp is produced which gives a more golden output (similar to a SON). This was what the standard side-road light source would be for Derby following the commencement of the 25-year PFI programme in June 2006, with the Iridium being the luminaire which would contain these then-revolutionary new lamps (and not the Arc or Syracuse, as had been assumed originally) - strangely enough, I spotted several examples on the date that this lantern entered the collection!  Some main roads also used the Cosmo lamp; but it will be of a higher wattage - believed to be 140 Watt. With LED technology evolving by the late 2010s, many of the 'new' Iridium lanterns were replaced with OrangeTEK AriaLED fittings after only a few years' use, particularly on residential roads.

The new Iridiums all have deep polycarbonate bowls - perhaps, due to vandalism problems with the glass bowls employed on other Iridiums. Another difference is that these have two grub screws - the single screw employed on previous versions of the Iridium was very problematic, especially on thinner bracket diameters.

The 252 is slightly smaller than the 253, though the lantern remains the same shape to maintain an on-street uniformity. The NEMA socket still has its Zodion dust sticker attached!

It isn't immediately noticeable that the CPO-TW lamp is fitted - but have a look at the lamp cap - this gives it away. Although not visible here, the bowl has one or two scratches on it - this might have been done when the lantern was removed from its original box.

The lamp uses a cap similar to GU10 reflector lamps.

As before, the lamp control gear is hidden behind a hinged cover.

Dedicated electronic ballasts for each of the Cosmopolis wattages were produced. The label located top-right in this picture carries the detail that the lantern was manufactured in May 2006 (E6).


The Iridium was fitted to an AC Ford AC 872 wall bracket on Sunday, 11th June 2006. It was then powered up.

Lantern warm-up video:

AC Ford AC 850 | Abacus AM301


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