94A. Rolls-Royce, Victory Road, Derby With thanks to Dwight for informing me of these Survivors. Situated in front of the impressive office building that forms part of Rolls-Royce's 'B' factory are two Concrete Utilities' 25 ft (8 m) Avenue 3DNN columns. Although the columns have had their original brackets replaced in favour of steel sleeves, the original GEC 'Universal Difractor' Z8135B top-entry lanterns were re-used, with the sleeves being adapted to accommodate these, rather than having new side-entry lanterns fitted instead. With the lantern having been launched in 1948, and (seemingly) having been discontinued quite quickly, in favour of the (older) Z8128B 'Difractor', which remained in production until the 1960s, the likely age of the installations can be established.

The juxtaposition of the original lantern and column with the newer brackets makes for quite an unusual setup.

The Avenue 3DNN columns are triangular in profile, requiring the sleeves to match.

The Z6610 toughened glass bowl is shared with the Z8128, as well as earlier 'Wembley' lanterns.

The lantern could accommodate mercury vapour lamps from 125 - 400 Watts, with the intended higher wattage examples being the medium pressure MA/V and MAF/V types initially, and the 125 Watt size being the MBF/U type. Later, the MA-type lamps would be phased in favour of MBF lamps too.

With these installations being pictured in November 2024, the columns and lanterns were approaching 80 years of age, unlike the Philips 'Iridium' SGS 254 visible in the background, on Victory Road itself, which was much newer, at around 16 years old.

The second lantern's bowl still shows the witness mark of its wire guard (now removed) on the glass. The guard was intended to prevent the glass from falling, in the event that it became broken while on the street. The practice did not last long, and later lanterns were sold without its inclusion.

Another example existed at the entrance to the factory on the opposite side of road. This column is a Stanton 6 type, and its B-type top-entry bracket survives. Ironically, Stanton brackets tended to be worse, overall, for spalling, than the equivalent products from Concrete Utilities did, and indeed, the lower portion of this bracket, where it connects to the column, is in poor condition, suggesting that sleeving this installation too might have been a shrewd move.

There still looks to be a lamp installed in this example.

Nearby, and appearing the height of modernity in comparison to these elderly lanterns, was this Thorn Alpha 3, with the lamp control gear installed within the lantern, attached to the corner of a building.

The Elton Road Rolls-Royce site also has lanterns surrounding it that can be classed as 'Survivors'. Click here to see them. Moor Lane and Wilmore Road also have elderly installations in their grounds.

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