My Collection: Thorn Civic 1 (4)

The Thorn Civic 1 was a wildly popular lantern throughout the UK. It could be used with lamps up to 150W, meaning it was used in a wide-range of applications (this one is a 150W SON-T lantern). It's aluminium construction made it a very heavy-duty and sturdy lantern, and two versions of the Civic 1 existed: the older design and newer design. Both can easily be distinguished from one-another, owing to the different shape and paint used. It's distinctive shape makes it an icon amongst the lighting community, and one of the most-well-known lanterns overall. This one is the older design of the Civic 1. This was the fourth Thorn Civic 1 to enter the collection.

It has a partially-frosted polycarbonate bowl as well as the Thorn logo displayed on the bottom of the canopy.

Having run 150W SON for nearly two-decades, the bowl has an overall-yellowish appearance.

The bowl is fixed shut with two metal clips. Pulling these will release the bowl and allow it to hinge open, granting access to the lamp-area.

From above, the lantern is relatively clean of scuffs and corrosion, something these were notorious for. It came with a Zodion SS6 photocell seen on the back plate in it's NEMA socket.

The cell itself is dated February 2017, meaning it was a replacement cell at some point.

The NEMA socket still has the dust protector sticker on it, and is dated to September 2004.

With the removal of two screws, access is acquired to the gear-area. On the underside of the back cover is a January 2005 date-code.

A view of the Philips DynaVision Prog Xt SON150 driver in the gear area. What I found unusual is that this was free floating in the lantern, not secured down at all as there was no where to put the screws in. This may have been installed as a repair at some point.

The 150W Civic 1's first time powered on in the collection: