193F. Waterloo Place, Robertstown, Aberdare West, Aberdare, Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales With thanks to Dwight for informing me of this Survivor. Located at the end of a yard that is adjacent Waterloo Place, and accessed from Wellington Street, is a long-disused 25 ft (8 m) Stanton 6 concrete column, topped with a B-type "Shepherd's Crook" top-entry bracket and Simplex 'Refrax' lantern, designed for running high-wattage tungsten filament (GLS), as well as 400 Watt MA/V and MAF/V (medium pressure mercury vapour) lamps.
To misquote a Duran Duran song, the Refrax was introduced in 1938, although as the Stanton 6 column here has the later narrower base section (introduced in the 1950s when lamp control gear began to reduce in size, allowing a reduction in column base size too), this is probably a later example.
Despite the installation's age and disused state, the bracket is (mostly) in good condition, with only a small amount of concrete having broken away from its front, near the connection to the column.
Sadly, the same cannot be said for the lantern, as the prismatic glass bowl is broken.
Zooming in on the anti-condensation top section of the lantern, "Remove other side" is visible in the casting.
The Refrax had an unusual feature built into it that allowed it to be adjusted internally in the event of the column not being perfectly vertical after installation. At its launch, it also boasted features such as a dustproof interior, and an airflow system that used convection currents generated by the lamp to prevent a build-up of moisture.
Such is the thickness of the bowl glass that only the lower portion has broken away; the rest is still intact. A thin sheet of aluminium is installed within the bowl as a way of reducing the amount of light entering the windows of adjacent domestic properties - not that this will have been an issue for a long time!
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