Is there any Mercury lighting left???

[brummie_rob]

Incidentally, I'm sure I saw years ago Hatfield lanterns in Stoke on Trent. Is this correct???

I've been looking for some on streetview but can't see any. Any ideas where they were seen last?

[shampooefficient]

Matlock Gardens in Billingham has some old lanterns still in place. Soon to be replaced though, but worth a Streetview...

[hellooo]

We visited Mundesley in Norfolk, albeit 3 years ago, and much of the village was lit by what looked like Eleco Silver Ray lanterns. Lux levels were low when walking in the evening, probably due to spacing rather than anything else. Replacement with LED horrors seems inevitable, if it hasn't already happened.

[Patrick Harper]

Plenty of MBF left in industrial enclaves and railway stations. And aquariums.

[Gram587]

McDonald's still have some mercury lighting at their drive-thrus although it's starting to be replaced by WRTL Lumas

[Roland]

Hi. I'm new to the group. Despite the PFI Birmingham still has pockets of 80w MBF lamps that are being maintained and even cast iron columns that are being painted! In fact failed LED post top lanterns tend to be replaced with a short bracket arm and old side entry AC Ford 80w MBF fitting. Sometimes they will use an old 70w SON WRTL.

[Patrick Harper]

AC Ford was supplying Birmingham with lanterns well into the 2000s, is that no longer the case? In fact, is there anyone significant still ordering them?

[RJDG14]

I saw a concrete light in Church Stretton last week that looked as if it might be mercury. The design doesn't seem typical of the classic lamps, however it was lit up a very distinctive white at night. I did a search for mercury vapour lights and some of the newer models look a bit like this one.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.55217 ... 312!8i6656

Is it mercury?

[Chris5156]

I saw a concrete light in Church Stretton last week that looked as if it might be mercury. The design doesn't seem typical of the classic lamps, however it was lit up a very distinctive white at night. I did a search for mercury vapour lights and some of the newer models look a bit like this one.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.55217 ... 312!8i6656

Is it mercury?

Yes, I think so - it's a type of lantern that used to be quite common around Scarborough and Filey when I was a kid and they had the distinctive blue-green mercury colour when lit.

[RJDG14]

Thought so - it was a slightly blue-green colour. I recall it being kinda white more than anything, but there was absolutely no trace of orange, which is very unusual for a non-LED. I remembered it because it's not something I see very often. What I don't get is why it would still be standing over 30 years after a replacement scheme started - could the actual bulb be really that old, since a household light has a lifespan of several months?


I have a question about how mercury bulbs warm up - do they come on a dark blue/green and become lighter over the next half hour, in the same way that sodium bulbs come on red?

[sotonsteve]

Colour corrected mercury lamps switch on with a pink colour (the UV light makes the phosphor glow pink), and then the light turns blueish before whitening up. Warm up time is only a couple to a few minutes.

I believe AC Ford is not currently manufacturing street lighting equipment, and there is a good possibility that production may not restart.

[Chris5156]

I've posted in another thread about some unadopted roads near me that are a bit of a streetlighting museum.

As well as this post-war concrete light with its mercury lantern, there's another nearby street with another mercury lantern on an even older post.

I don't know if this one works but will try to have a look at some point.

[RJDG14]

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.56111 ... 6656?hl=en

I see this everytime I'm on the bus, and it looks as if it could be mercury. Never seen it lit up, though. Or, how about these nearby:

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.55920 ... 6656?hl=en

I've looked at street light galleries, and some of the bulbs housed within these are mercury based, others sodium. My guess would be that this is SON.

[RJDG14]

Okay, I can now confirm that neither of those were mercury. But what about this one in Royal Wootton Bassett? It's beside a police station.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.54544 ... 6656?hl=en

The Railway Village ones actually are, just with a fluorescent coating to make them appear whiter

[Ben302]

I've often wondered what the output of this lantern is running. The column is a british steel one from the early 90's and always had this lantern attached as there used to be loads in the area all running mercury but as they failed they were replaced by SOX or SON installations. Once the clocks go back I'll check It out on the way home from football as I walk past it

[Ben302]

I've often wondered what the output of this lantern is running. The column is a british steel one from the early 90's and always had this lantern attached as there used to be loads in the area all running mercury but as they failed they were replaced by SOX or SON installations. Once the clocks go back I'll check It out on the way home from football as I walk past it

Sadly running a HPS bulb

[RJDG14]

Had a look at one of the other old looking lights in the Railway Village, Swindon. To the naked eye it is a slightly off-white colour (white with a very faint green tinge) but to my phone's camera it looks like this. Maybe it is mercury. Or perhaps it's fluorescent or an ordinary filament bulb.

Can other types of light appear this colour under a camera, or only mercury? None of the other lights in Swindon have come out this colour on my phone.

[RJDG14]

The lights I was talking about in Swindon are mercury-based. Zooming into the bulb on the one without the lantern case, I can make out "MBFU". So I can proudly add these to the list .

It is however a modern-day mercury light, otherwise it wouldn't bear the CE mark.

[RJDG14]

And, accidentally, I stumbled upon another today, in the Rushy Platt Industrial Estate of Swindon (the left light of this double column):

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.55366 ... 6656?hl=en

Given this area was only built in the 90s, it seems odd that you'd see a mercury bulb lit up, but the bulb I saw had the distinctive tone to it, even when viewed with the naked eye. My guess would be that the car park it serves is privately maintained, meaning the owners can use any type of bulb they wish. The right light on the column is an SON, as one might expect.

Both the examples I gave use a phosphor to remove the bulk of the blue/green to the eye (cameras probably get round this due to their near-infrared detection). Does this thread cover both phosphor and non-phosphor mercury, or only non-phosphor? The Church Stretton one was non-phosphor.

[sotonsteve]

I very much doubt that is a mercury lamp. It is likely a metal halide lamp that has colour-shifted with age. I have not even seen any clear, tubular mercury lamps available on the European (or international) market.