I wondered if it would be somebody from here who had won that lamp! I was watching the auction to see what price it fetched for, just out of interest. I have no use for such a lamp at the moment (and won't do unless I end up with some really old main road mercury lantern like that GEC Oxford/Wembley at Skipton, for example!) and so wouldn't have been bidding anyway... but it's gone to a good home anyway.

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They are of the right period to be used in the Viatron providing that lantern had a magnetic arc deflector which is designed to keep the arc in the centre of the arc tube when the lamp is horizontal. I am not sure if it did. If the arc touches the arc tube it will burn through. The Dioptrion which is another lantern of that era definitely had such a deflector.

The light produced does have a greenish blue tinged compared to MBF.

The seller has put another identical lamp on Ebay, I shall be a bit miffed if it goes for less!

On here it mentions that the Viatron did have a magnetic arc deflector.

Well the latest addition to my lamp museum is a Sylvania SLP35, 35W SOX lamp.



Unfortunately there are no date codes anywhere on the lamp. The construction and brass cap suggest 1980s though - don't make them like that anymore! The instructions mention SOX and SLI lamps which would again suggest mid 1980s.

An experienced lamp collector (not on Ukastle) tells me it looks to be 1983/4.

Are you going to power it up?

Some pictures of them working.

Vintage Philips SOX, yellow at ends, pink in the middle.



Crompton MA at start up. Interestingly when the lamp first turns on, the arc is very diffuse and fills the width of the arc tube. It is also quite blue and not very bright.



After about 5-10 minutes as the lamp warms up, the arc starts to become brighter and as the lamp reaches full power, the arc narrows in the arc tube with the light becoming less blue and more green/white.



Sylvania SOX full power.

Does that MA lamp just run on normal 250watt Mercury gear or does it require special gear?

It will run on conventional 250W MBF gear but must be run cap up so that the arc remains vertical.

Interesting pictures, thank you for posting them.

Interesting to see the MA lamp powered up. There can't be many people on here who still remember those being in public use. We had GEC Viatrons in Blackpool until the mid 80s although I suspect they were running MBF by then.