A C Ford AC482 140w SO/H 'geared' lantern. Produced from about 1955 until the mid 1960's, the AC Ford AC482 was a geared 140w sodium lantern for (Group-A) main road lighting. At the time it was one of the largest lanterns produced by A C Ford and was intended to compete with other manufacturers who were producing similar sodium lanterns of the period. The AC482 was one of a small range of 140w lanterns which were variants based on the same basic design of lantern. These were as follows:

The AC842 lantern is of a very rugged construction (and very heavy too), having the control gear mounted inside the cast aluminium canopy. The control gear is hidden within the lantern by the 'vee' shaped white enamel reflector plate. Like many similar lanterns produced by lighting manufacturers of the time, the AC840 range uses a vacuum-formed plastic bowl with refractor panels fixed to either side of the bowl to deflect the lamp light down towards the road surface.  

The AC482  in the collection. The example in the collection stood in Wobaston Road, Pendeford, Wolverhampton, and was mounted on a Stanton 8B column along with others of the type. They'd originally been installled in 1957-58 (presumably by Seisdon Urban Distrist Council) to illuminate the public highway outside the main entrance to the Boulton and Paul Aircraft factory, which at that time was situated in a semi-rural location. However, over the years the installation has been slowly replaced with modern steel columns, leaving just three Stanton 8B's and two AC Ford AC482's at the time of rescue in late 2005.

These two lanterns were still working until at least September 2005, when they were finally disconnected and later removed along with their concrete columns; both being replaced with 150w Thorn 'Civic' lanterns on galvanised steel columns. Sadly, the lantern's plastic bowl has gone 'milky' with age and there's some minor damage to it, but the lantern is complete and is a valued addition to the collection. While one lantern is held in the collection, the other example is safely preserved with another streetlighting collector.

An official A C Ford illustration of a AC 480/482 lantern. This lantern appears to be very similar in its design to the Eleco Golden Ray MKIII sodium lantern for 140w SO/H lamps.

  Another official A C Ford picture illustrating a top-entry AC486 geared lantern with the bowl in the open position. The integral control gear is mounted behind the white reflector plate; also note the 140w SO/H sodium lamp.

This is the Fordac AC 482 that was eventually saved for the collection and is seen here on its crumbling Stanton concrete bracket in October 2005. By this time, the two remaining lanterns had completed some 47-years service, and this bears testament to the superb quality of these products and the electrical control-gear used in them. Note that the toggle-fasteners for the bowl appear to be on the opposite side on this lantern to those in the official AC Ford illustration above.

The other remaining AC Ford AC482 with replacement Thorn Civic 150w SON lantern alongside is seen in October 2005. This second AC Ford AC482 lantern was also put to one side following its removal, but was passed on to another streetlighting collector.

Here's a general view of the Wobaston Road showing one of the columns and AC482 lantern when still in use in 2004; the old Boulton and Paul Aircraft factory is opposite. Although AC Ford was a local company, these are the only examples of AC Ford sodium lanterns I've come across in the area.

Update of 9th October 2006

On lifting the reflector plate I noticed that the hinges had completely failed and the reflector plate was now separated from the canopy, but the lantern is 49-years old, so I'm not too surprised. Despite the broken hinges, the lantern is incredibly well made and superbly engineered for access and maintenance.

There’s enough asbestos and PCB in this lantern to make it almost as dangerous as a day outing to Chernobyl in 1986, but that aside, check out the ultra rare AC Ford AC614 solid-filled transformer and Dubilier Duconol oil filled capacitor, both in superb condition for their age. 

A close up of the AC614 transformer (possibly a Philips product?) for 140w SO/H lamps; the brown card label sticking out from the bottom of this almost indestructible transformer reads '1957'; which means this fine old lantern and its durable control-gear were in nightly service for an incredible 47-48-years before finally being taken out of use in October 2005 ...... no Thorn Civic or Urbis ZX is going to beat that kind of service record!