Off James Street, Denton Holme, Carlisle, Cumberland Attached to a low building that is to be found on the corner of James and Hewson Streets is a short, up-tilted bracket supporting an ELECO 'Silver Ray' HW-720 lantern, and designed to run a 250 - 400 Watt MBF (high pressure mercury vapour) lamp. ELECO launched this lantern in 1957 to take advantage of the then-new MBF technology, which improved on the notably poor colour rendering produced by the earlier MA-type medium pressure mercury lamps. The new lamps also boasted universal burning positions, thanks to their quartz arc tubes; the earlier lamps were, generally, restricted in their burning positions, owing to the weaker glass arc tubes being incapable of sustaining the heat generated by the electrical arcs if the lamps were burned horizontally. The quartz arc tubes also had the benefit of being much smaller in size, reducing production costs, and allowing for improved optical performance.
Positioned beneath the vintage lantern and bracket is a modern LED floodlight, suggesting that the earlier means of lighting the yard area is now abandoned.
The Silver Ray features a distinctive long neck section, into which the bracket fits.
A glass refractor bowl, supplied by Holophane, provides much of this lantern's optical performance. This part was common to AEI's Brampton, older Atlas / Thorn Alpha 7s, and Phosware's P151.
The supply cable to the lantern is encased in steel conduit.
The refractor bowl provides a symmetrical lighting distribution.
Another Survivor is to be found a little further up James Street; on an access road leading to Carlisle Enterprise Centre is a further wall-mounted installation - a Relite 'Lucidor A' is installed; although now also abandoned and disused, this would have run a 140 Watt SO/H / SOI/H lamp; later 90 W SOX (low pressure sodium) lamp when in use.
Although a Revo product originally, the Relite branding to the cast fuse box that forms part of the overall bracket assembly, indicates that this is a later example; probably from the late 1960s or early 1970s.
This version of the Lucidor sees the lamp control gear housed within the lantern; understandably, given the dereliction, the ballast and capacitor appear in rather poor condition.
Again, an LED floodlight now provides the illumination to this area.
The 'geared' version of the Lucidor is a rather bulky lantern, with the canopy depth increased to accommodate the components, but not made especially aerodynamic in the process.
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