GEC Z9450

This is the Z9454's predecessor - probably dating from the late 1950s or early 1960s. Although both lanterns could be described as being 'similar' in appearance, they both have a lot of differences in design - probably the most obvious of these differences is the shape of the bowl - where this lantern has a flat-bottomed bowl, the Z9454 has a bowl that resembles a triangle when looked at straight-on.

Despite being quite an elderly lantern, the Z9450 is in excellent condition - it hasn't even been drilled for a photocell. The bowl has become slightly cloudy, but the lamp can still be seen inside. The canopy on this lantern is stepped, whereas on the Z9454, it follows a single curve. The Z9450's canopy is noticeably heavier as well. The two bowl toggles make the bowl fit very tightly to the gasket inside the canopy.

The central section of the canopy extends to form the point where the bracket entry attaches.

The underside of the bowl is flat, rather than having a sharp curve, which the Z9454's one has. The only real damage to the lantern can be seen here - the refractor panel on the 'hinged' side of the bowl is cracked.

Another difference between both lantern types is that the reflector is separate - on the Z9454, the inside of the canopy is used as the reflector. However, as with my Z9454, the lampholder has also been re-wired at some point - judging by the age of this lantern, the original wiring might have been asbestos insulated.

The reflector hinges to the side. There is not much space between the canopy and reflector when it is in position, so I'd imagine that this lantern was intended for remote gear only, given the typical size of control gear when this lantern was produced. Modern gear might just be able to fit, however. When acquired, a porcelain cable clamp was fitted to the left of the connector block, however, as soon as its holding screw was loosened, one section broke into two pieces.

The lantern was powered up on 23rd April 2003, using the first Alpha 1's remote gear to power the lamp. The object inside the bowl is a piece of the porcelain cable clamp (mentioned above) - it is meant to be behind the reflector so I know where it is, but seems to have escaped into the bowl for this photograph!

The lantern now has its own control gear, and it works rather well!

Lamp switch-on video:

Testing 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 to rated wattage	Percentage Difference
244.9	0.57	97	140	49.9	0.68	94.92	4.92	5%

GEC Z9454 | GEC Z9464

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