Thorn Beta 8 55w SOX lantern. Not a particularly common lantern to find in general use these days, but belonging to the same family as the very popular Thorn Alpha 9 range of lanterns. The lantern began life as the Atlas 'Junior,Amberline' and was part of the Amberline range of lanterns offered by Atlas in the 60's. It later became the Beta-8 when Thorn Lighting took the Atlas concern over in the 70's. The Beta-8 was finally superceded by the very popular 55w Thorn Beta 2, a lantern based on Thorn's 35w Beta-5 lantern (also a former Atlas lantern), and that remains in production to this day.

The 'Eastbourne' Thorn Beta 8 (top) and larger Thorn Alpha 9 (bottom) are seen together for comparison. Unlike the Alpha-9 with it's NEMA socket, the Beta 8 has never been fitted for photocell operation.

Although slightly smaller than the Alpha 9, the Beta 8 is very similar in appearance and is really designed for use on minor roads. The Thorn Beta 8 uses a 55watt SOX lamp, and was originally available as either a remote-geared or integral-geared lantern. The lantern in the collection came from Eastbourne, East Sussex in 2005 and was originally a remote-geared version; however, the gear tray in this lantern is common to both remote and geared types, so an original new and unused Thorn G53182.4 35w/55w self-starter ballast and 16uF capacitor of the correct type was sourced, and the lantern was converted to the geared specification following restoration. My thanks to fellow collectors Bob Cookson (for acquiring the Eastbourne lantern for me) and John Thompson (for sourcing the control gear).

Since the restoration of the Beta 8, a small hoard of unused 'geared' Thorn/Atlas Beta-8's dating from 1972-1974 were discovered in a store room in Yorkshire. However, none of these Beta-8's came with bowls as Thorn used to supply the bowls seperately to the lanterns. One of these Beta-8's has since been added to the collection to complement the Eastbourne lantern.

The lantern's interior seen after restoration and the fitting of the new control gear in December 2005.

The Beta 8 seen warming up after being switched on for the first time as a geared lantern.

An example of an in-service Thorn Beta 8 in Beeston, Notts in July 2005. This one is seen 'dayburning' , which suggests that the photocell has failed.

A small hoard of unused Thorn/Atlas Beta-8's dating from 1972 to 1974 were discovered in Yorkshire in 2006.  

Please take a look at the Alpha 9 Deep-bowl lantern and the Alpha-9 shallow bowled 'geared' lantern in the collection as comparisons.