A brief history of cast iron street lamps
I read with interest the article (July 1) on the various of types of lamp posts in our locality.
The lightning column in the photograph is a prime example of a unit that illustrates the change from Victorian times to the mid-twentieth century.
The cast iron column was originally designed for gas lighting and is fitted with ladder arms to provide access to a post top gas lantern – most gas lamps had to be switched on and off manually and pilot lights and gas mantles had to be maintained.
There were two lamp posts like this in Parkes Hall, Dudley, when I was a child in the nineteen thirties and can well remember the lamp lighter coming round morning and evening to switch them on and off – they also provided focal points for us to gather on dark evenings.
The first conversion to electricity could have been a simple replacement of the gas lantern using tungsten filament lamps, but with the retirement of more illumination the light source had to be controlled and raised in height.
Classes
Road lighting systems were divided into two categories – Class A for main road lighting at twenty five feet and Class B at fifteen feet. As most gas columns were only ten feet or so a swan neck extension was necessary to raise the lantern to the requisite height and the light source intensified and controlled.this was achieved using mercury or sodium lamps with refractors to give the necessary light spread.
The photo shows a typical conversion incorporating a control gear box for 60w mercury lamp, and I would think this was installed just after the war.
Expensive
Cast iron columns were expensive to make and were subject to corrosion so concrete was used as an alternative and Revo had a lot of trouble with theirs in the 1950s and ’60s, with corrosion of the steel reinforcement causing the concrete to split, so much so that they stopped manufacture.
Some of these that had been installed were saved by fitting a long galvanised sheet steel sleeve over the column. Some of these were installed by Brierley Hill UDC in 1952 in Heathbrook Avenue, Wall Heath, and can be seen today supporting a post top mounted horizontal mercury lantern with control gear within the lantern.
Revo were not alone in making these conversion units and control gear boxes: a large number were supplied by A.C. Ford Ltd in Dudley, a firm that I worked for and we supplied hundreds of swan necks, brackets, and boxes to local authorities and electricity boards all across the British Isles – all painted Brunswick Green.
When I was at A.C.
Ford we developed and patented a column for Class B lighting and sold quite a number locally. I believe there are still some in the Tettenallfinchfield area, they were mainly light grey. I believe that the patent for these was later sold to GEC but I don’t think that they developed them.
They were made in GRP (glass reinforced plastic) and were easily carried by one man.
Eddie Austin, by email: eaustin@talktalk.net