Dating from the early late 1950's this BTH Amber was one of two such lanterns discovered on an old garage forecourt in Fife, Scotland by fellow collector John Thompson. Fortunately, John was able to negotiate the acquisition of the lanterns from the garage owner, and had to rescued them himself before the site was cleared for redevelopment in early 2007. Amazingly, one of the lanterns was still fitted with an original 60w SO/H Sodium lamp, but sadly the discharge tube in it had broken. However, John has retained the lamp as a display-only exhibit in his own collection. Both of these early model gear-in-head Amber lanterns were in superb condition, and were an incredible find by John.

This is quite a bulky lantern considering the physical size of the sodium lamps it was intended to burn; the car keys give an idea of scale. The lantern is in lovely condition and will clean up very well.

Front view of the AEI Amber; the spring-clips that hold the bowl in to place are clearly visible in this view. A 2-part mini-photocell has been fitted to the canopy at sometime in the past and this will eventually be removed, and the hole filled to return the fitting to its original state.

Two of these well engineered 'toggle' fasteners are employed to hold the lantern's bowl tight against the canopy's seal. On the opposite side of the lantern are the hinges on which the bowl is swung open, when the toggle clips are released.

With the lantern opened, the large BTH transformer and capacitor are revealed, both being in excellent condition for their age. From this view, it's quite apparent why such a deep bowl is needed and why the lantern is so heavy.

The BTH Transformer is tapped for use with either a 45w, 60w, or 85w watt sodium vapour lamp. However, in this day and age, the old Amber would have ended up burning a 35w SOX lamp. Note the asbestos clad wires.

1. A top-entry BTH Amber 45w-85w SO/H lantern seen in Nottinghamshire on a crumbling Stanton S7 concrete column and swanneck bracket in June 2006.

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Copyright(c) 2005 Claire Pendrous. All rights reserved.

Please note that all pictures are by Claire Pendrous, or are part of the Claire Pendrous photographic collection unless otherwise stated; none of these images can be copied without obtaining prior permission.