I was driving though some roadworks today – since spring, Nottingham City and Notts County Councils have gone berserk (obviously there’s no recession up here) – and I suddenly thought of something. The silliest of things.
Roadworks are usually demarcated by those orange blinking lights (see inset, which these days are often solar powered and timed to come on when it gets dark) – but for some reason I just thought of those ones I used to see when I was a kid.
Inside there was a small metal container which contained paraffin, and in the top of that container was a small wick assembly. They often used to be lit and left running all day, and someone used to come and fill them up regularly. The case had three thick glass lenses to spread the light, and they used to be hung on the side of scaffolding or other attachment points, or just stood alongside the thing they were warning you of (building sites used them a lot, too).
The thing is, these lamps were in use well into the 70s and possibly even longer, so don’t think I’m that old!
Few people dreamed of stealing them or tampering with them, but – and I think this is probably why I suddenly thought of them – can you imagine what might happen if they were still using anything like this today? Even the electronic ones have to be nailed down nowadays.
I got this picture from a site which sells them for £35 as curiosities