I didn't realise they were that old. Prior to the late 80's I've never seen SON lanterns like that. The only type I saw before that were the Alpha 3/Turtle's where the bowl covered the whole of the bottom of the canopy.I didn't realise the MRL6 design was that old either. In my area they were only introduced in 1988 and then they started to spread like wildfire (hmmmm, a bit like the Stela is now!
). Prior to this the group A SON lantern of choice was the Thorn Alpha 8. At that time, the MKIII Alpha 8 had just started being used in 1987.
Z8600's originally appeared as Mercury lanterns! York ones certainly were, as half the bowls on them are burnt to a crisp!I've never seen a mercury Z8600! That would certainly look strange! I bet York was an early adopter of them then!
Great photo Truvelo! I bet back in 1980, they were like the equivilent of the Furyo - very modern!I used to think that in 1988. I used to think of the MRL6 as a very modern, futuristic lantern. At the time I used to wish they'd replace a lot of the older Alpha 3s and SOX lanterns with them whereas now I hate to see lanterns like those being replaced!