GEC Z9454

Lantern acquired in April 2003.

This, the Z9450 and Z9464 were all used to light a now demolished army camp called Hilton Depot. This particular lantern dates from the early 1980s, and is the last version of the Z9454 that was made by GEC before the lantern was renamed the MRL 90 by WRTL. The lantern was made operational on Wednesday, 15th April 2003, using the gear for the first Alpha 1.

The lantern is in a very good condition, both inside and out, despite being used for around 20 years outside. Notice the distance between the lamp and the top of the bowl - this would be where the gear tray would be on the gear-in-head version.

Looking down on the canopy of the lantern shows where the top-entry hole would be if this was how the lantern was mounted - the Z9455.

The triangular shape to the bowl can be seen here.

Opening the bowl shows four threaded holes that do not serve a purpose with this lantern - they would be used to support the gear tray. The lampholder connection looks to have been rewired at some point, using regular red/black solid core cable. Originally, two white heat resisting cables would have been used.

The lantern's identification label is mounted on the inside of the canopy, just above the end of the lamp. Very faintly, to the left of the label, is the code '18UBS', with the 'UB' part being the manufacturing date code. This represents February 1987.

Due to the bowl shape, balancing it on a flat surface can be difficult, but fortunately I had a torch that was exactly the right height to fit into the lip around the canopy, and hold the lantern up straight. The refractors don't seem to be doing a great deal for half of the lamp's u-bend, but they probably would be more effective if you looked up at the lantern rather than saw it straight in front of you.

Lantern warm-up video:

Philips SGS 204 | GEC Z9450

CLICK HERE TO MAKE A MONETARY DONATION