A C Ford Fordac AC710 / 712 / 714 / 716 range of small sodium lanterns. Produced by A C Ford Ltd from the late 1950's to early 1970's, the AC Ford AC712 was one of a small family of lanterns manufactured during that period, these were:

Illustration of an AC712 from the 1968 AC Ford brochure

Thought to have been introduced in 1958, the A C Ford AC710-716 range of lanterns were Group-B sodium fittings designed primarily for use on minor roads. Manufactured with a cast aluminium canopy and moulded plastic bowl, these lanterns were supplied for either top-entry, or side-entry mounting, with, or without integral control-gear, and could be used with either 40w SOX lamps (re-rated 35w SOX), or 60w SOI / SO/H lamps. Sheffield City Council was one buyer who purchased quantities of the gear-less top-entry AC712 lanterns along with A C Ford brackets for modernising old cast iron columns in the City's side streets.

The AC712  in the collection. This particular lantern came from Sheffield in August 2006 and stood in Orgreave Lane, Handsworth where there was once a small installation of these lanterns all mounted castiron columns using specially made AC Ford swanneck bracket/control box combinations. The tall brackets were employed because the old cast iron columns on to which they were mounted were quite short in height. Fortunately, the bracket was also rescued along with the lantern. The lantern is complete and is a valuable addition to the collection, and my thanks go to the kind people at Sheffield who saved it for me.

A C Ford AC712 on the day of acqusition, a nice example despite the milky bowl.

The lantern with the bowl in the open position is similar to the Atlas Amber-Minor, in that the bowl is fastened from the front and hinges from the back. Howveer, the bowl is not a quick release type, and requires a split pin knocking out of the hinge assembly to release it from the canopy.

'Alas, poor 'Boris' I knew him well'; a well-cooked spider hangs from the lamp support holder that is minus its retaining spring. Another retaining spring will have to be sourced from a scrap lantern. A deeper canopy was used to accommodate the control-gear for the AC714 and AC716 gear-in-head models.

Here's the same lantern back in June 2006 when still in use in Orgreave Lane, Sheffield, it was removed the following month along with the column.