Revo Prefect

Lantern acquired in June 2004.

This was the first lantern that I won on eBay and I'm very pleased with it. All I know of its history is that it was used in the Birmingham area but I have no idea of exactly where. I am assuming that the lantern has always been used for tungsten, as the insides are very clean and the wires are not blackened and burnt as they would be if a mercury lamp had been used. Also, the bowl shows little sign of yellowing.

The Prefect, shown in its as-received (and very good) condition. It is very hard to date the lantern and bracket due to them being in good condition. The only problem is that the securing screw, that keeps the lantern from unscrewing on the thread, is stuck. However, the lantern doesn't really need to be removed as the bracket has no rust on it whatsoever so it can just be repainted without being sandblasted.

A close up of the lantern itself now. The canopy is clean and appears to be free of any really bad drip marks from when the swan neck was painted. The glass refractor is interesting: instead of displaying the usual 'Revo' name, it displays the later 'Relite' name; however the canopy still carries the original name.

A panel usually covers up the wiring and also acts as a reflector - it is held in place by the three screws shown here and supports the refractor. Notice how good the wiring still is - it's not been burnt or discoloured at all. The lamp you see here is a 60 Watt one; however 100 Watt will be used because that's probably what it would have originally used when on the road - if it was actually ever used on a road of course!

This plaque on the other side of the reflector panel shows that actually, 60 Watt wasn't even an option! It shows a diagram of one of the lampholder support poles and where the lampholder should be positioned depending on what lamp is being used, in order to get the correct focusing for a particular lamp type. The wattages on the left of the diagram indicate tungsten lamps that the lantern can take (100 Watt - 200 Watt), and the wattages on the right indicate what mercury lamps the lantern can take (50 Watt - 125 Watt). Whether engineers actually bothered to set the positioning correctly or not, I'm not sure, but I'd like the lampholder to be positioned correctly if possible. Thanks to everyone who have told me that 'SC' and 'CC' stands for 'Single Coil' and 'Coiled Coil' respectively.

Looking down from above the finial, you can just make out that the lantern has been overturned slightly, but not so much that it would have a great effect on the light distribution.

Restoration of the lantern and bracket took place between Thursday 23rd and Friday 24th June 2005. A clean, followed by a repainting of components was all that was required.

The bracket was painted my 'standard livery' of black with gold highlights and the lantern's canopy had a coat of chrome aluminium applied to it. The result: what appears to be a brand new lantern fitted to an old-looking bracket.

A bulb was fitted into the lantern, but it cannot be seen due to the design of the refractor ring.

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