We visited friends in Kent over the weekend just past, and I couldn't believe my eyes when we drove into the Hempstead Valley shopping centre in Gillingham, to be greeted by the images below...
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Now, this was exciting enough, but I really wanted to see these beauties illuminated. I was hopeful that they were still in nightly use, as the overall condition was rather good, with only two casual replacements, one being a spectacularly nasty LED thing, entirely out of keeping with the delightful Alpha 3s. I can't identify the saucer lanterns, I'm thinking GEC possibly. I'd assumed they would all be running SON. Now, being a confirmed MBF-head, I was almost beside myself when I saw this...
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The above photos show only one of the saucers lit, via two MBF bulbs by the looks of things. Given that my geared Alpha 3 is running 250W MBF, I'd venture that these are running 400W MBF given the brightness levels. Could the large saucer be something like a GEC ZD10606? And the small one a GEC Z5680? Very lovely whatever they are.
Given the fairly recent addition of a nasty LED lantern, and the energy savings that would offer, I would say the days of these fantastic mercury lanterns may be numbered.
Larger versions are visible on my
Flickr page.
I'd like to offer my sincere gratitude to my other half, who allowed us to drive quite a bit out of our way at 1.30am to get the night photographs.