Left:
An American Electric SRX-55 (55W SOX) lantern. This is rare in Left:
An American Electric SRX-55 (55W SOX) lantern. This is rare in
So where are the best areas in the UK for finding SOX lanterns?
It seems that Wales is a good area, particularly north and south (mid-Wales has a higher concentration of mercury lamps). For example, Neath Port Talbot is estimated at 90% SOX, and the figure is probably similar in the Wrexham area. If you are a fan of Thorn Alpha 1s (and these lamps do seem to have practically their very own fan club), Abergele apparently is the place to go. I myself would recommend Flintshire for having a good range of old models of SOX lanterns, with many other areas having somewhat newer models. Also, it is worth looking for older lamps in less affluent areas as it seems that councils are less reluctant to spend money in new streetlighting in areas where there might be vandalism!
Liverpool and Manchester city centres are also good SOX areas: Liverpool uses Thorn Beta 5s and Philips XGS104s on side roads and the Philips SRS (formerly MA 50s and MA 90s). An estimated 95% of side roads & 60% main roads are SOX (ref: Colin Grimes)
Edinburgh is apparently an excellent place to find SOX lamps: home to Phosco P107s, Thorn Alpha 1s, Beta 5s (side- and top-entry), top-entry GEC9454s (mostly mounted on CU pendant columns), Philips MAs/MIs, plus numerous GEC turtles, Eleco GRs and HW747s. There are also some Relite Hyperion ‘C’s to be found, which have apparently been giving good service since their installation in the early 1970s. Although some lamps are now being replaced with non-SOX alternatives, lantern replacement in Edinburgh isn't quite on the same scale as it is in other cities. (ref: Steven Oliver)
On the other hand, London is almost entirely non-SOX, although SOX was widely in use there in past decades. Metal halide lamps are very popular there as new installations. And in Lancashire, the area where I come from, there has been a massive reduction in the number of SOX lights since around 2001.
Some areas are still installing new SOX lanterns: as mentioned in this book, Thorn, Philips, CU Phosco and WRTL are manufacturers who still make them. Wrexham, Flintshire and Newport are three Welsh counties continuing to install SOX; there are probably others also.
There are also many SOX lanterns overseas, with some markets very buoyant and other new ones emerging. Belgium and Holland, for example, use SOX (there is a Philips factory in Holland, and possibly one in Belgium); there is an interest in low-pressure sodium there because of the technological development in which they were involved in the late 1970s and early 1980s. In parts of Holland, many mercury lanterns were converted to use SOX instead. However, overall numbers of SOX are now declining in Holland. SOX is far less common in Germany, and is apparently banned from use in residential areas in Denmark because of their lack of colour rendering. (ref: Sjef Jansen, Philips Lighting)
Japan and Korea also use some Philips SOX lighting for tunnels and roads as they are impressed with the quality. (ref: Allan Court, Philips Lighting)
There is also now an interest in SOX by the Chinese. James Hooker of Sylvania in Belgium was recently approached by the authorities in Beijing who requested that he assist them in setting up local production of some six million pieces a year — which would quadruple world production of this lamp! There are apparently some difficulties regarding the supply of glass for these additional SOX tubes, but I myself certainly hope that China’s request can be met. In China there are severe energy shortages, and they see SOX as being the way out of this difficulty. However there are very large import taxes imposed on anything brought into China, so they need local production. (ref: James Hooker)
SOX has not been widely used in the past in the USA - in many parts SOX lanterns were very rare (Americans refer to SOX lanterns as LPS — low-pressure sodium). In the USA it's not uncommon for long stretches of highway outside of cities etc. to not be lighted at all, so there was not such a need for highly energy-efficient lighting for those sorts of areas. Apparently there were some test installations in the late 1970s, but the public reaction was very negative, and so most of these have since been removed.
However LPS is widespread in Arizona, partly because of the observatories there, used by astronomers who prefer LPS as it is easier to filter out the light when they are surveying the skies. The Rite-Aide chain of stores, which exists all over the USA, uses some 35W lamps for security. As further examples: LPS is used in San Diego, California; there are some Philips MA-60 installations in Illinois; and LPS has some use in New York. LPS is also used for tunnel, bridge and platform lighting in Chicago. Furthermore, it seems that more recently LPS is becoming more widely used in many parts of the USA, following its use in the UK. (ref: Colin Grimes, Sjef Jansen, Mrs H Meyer, Jon Paul)
SOX has not been used in Canada except for Toronto, where they were in use from the early 1970s until the final lanterns were removed in 2006 (James Alcock)
SOX lighting has been more common in Australia, having been used quite extensively. Here it is also referred to as LPS. However, in Australia also, low-pressure sodium lamps are being phased out and replaced with high-pressure sodium varieties, and it seems that nowadays there is not much left, except in South Australia. It is interesting to learn however that most Australian LPS streetlights are the same as in the UK because Philips, Thorn, GEC, Eleco, REVO etc. had suppliers there, as Australia used to be part of the British Empire. There are many photos of Australian streetlights in my book, courtesy of Michael Greenslade. (ref: Michael Greenslade, David Pietsch)
This is a difficult area in which to find up-to-date information, so any further contributions are gratefully received!
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© Matthew Eagles 2005. Last updated 2nd June 2011.