I was amazed to see this pair of vintage General Electric M400 lamps, on a Twin post in the parking lot of the GW Supermarket in Northern Boulevard just east of Parsons. It’s the only lamppost in the lot, and since I haven’t been by here at night, I wonder if they light up in the pale greenish white that these mercury vapor fixtures glow in. When first coming on, they give an audible buzz and are bright green, but gradually brighten to almost white.
From 1962-1975 or so, the General Electric M400s battled for supremacy with Westinghouse Silverliner OV-25s on New York City streets. There was no third party, it was strictly one or the other. Rarely did the two makes mix much; flocks of them were installed at once. Now and then, a Silverliner would be seen in GE territory, or vice versa, but that was when a lamp failed and the then-Department of Traffic installed whatever they had in the yard. GE and Westinghouse also battled on side streets, with glass reflector-less models.
GE M400s first appeared, along with SLECO Donald Deskey poles, in 1958 on Broadway in the City Hall Park area, but weren’t installed en masse until 1960-1962. By 1972, both the Westy and GE’s days were numbered, as new sodium versions of the GE were making inroads. Until 2009, when a massive purge took out the remaining mercury vapors, a handful still lit streets, mainly in out of the way areas, like Little Neck, where I found a few when I arrived in 2007. In 2017, the LED Revolution, in various makes by borough, took out the last stragglers.
Boston also employed numerous GEs and Westys, until its own LED Revolution around the same time as NYC’s. I. imagine the same is true in many locales.
Behind the lamp is a new building, Northern Parc Condominium, which adheres to the blue-glass regulation new NYC residential buildings must conform.
As always, “comment…as you see fit.” I earn a small payment when you click on any ad on the site. Take a look at the new JOBS link in the red toolbar at the top of the page on the desktop version, as I also get a small payment when you view a job via that link.
6/5/24
3 comments
Always reminds me of The War of the Worlds.
I was wondering if there is anybody who might recall if this had been an A&P supermarket? In the mid 1960’s A&P built quite a few stores in Queens. At least two were built in Astoria that had similar poles and GE M 400 luminaires. The one at 14th street and 30th avenue, now a tile store, had several poles that are no longer there. The store at 30th avenue and Newtown avenue, now an Associated Supermarket, still has the one pole with a single m400 in the back on 33rd street.
NYC started purchasing the General Electric M400A luminaire starting about 1966. The initial high pressure sodium installation on 6th avenue was the first use of the M400A that I saw. The M400A was a vast improvement over any other manufacturers fixture. The M400A had two doors, one that held the refractor and covered the bulb and reflector, and another that the ballast was mounted on. The compartment that held the lamp was tightly sealed and “breathed” through a charcoal filter. The temperature in the lamp compartment of any luminaire rises to 800 degrees F. or higher when the lamp is burning and drops to the ambient when it goes off. As the air expands and contracts imperfect seals in conventional luminaires allow air and contaminants to enter the fixture. The M400A with the filter allowed this air movement to occur with out the entrance of dirt. The second door that was equipped with the ballast easily swung down and had a plug for rapid replacement of defective components. GE also touted this feature as making it simple to upgrade to a different light source by just replacing the door.
The Mercury relighting program of the the early 1960’s had three aims. First , of course, was to replace the existing incandescent lights with mercury lights. Because the mercury light produced twice as much light as the existing lights, it was necessary to raise the mounting heights. All the old cast iron poles had to be replaced, and the shorter steel poles had to be equipped with curved extension. The second aim was the replacement of the remaining high voltage constant current series street light circuits. The third aim, which was to be done when the first two were completed, was to add street lights in the middle of shorter blocks. Just about all blocks, unless they were long, only had street lights at the diagonal corners at intersections. I don’t know when they started this part of the program. From June 29,1968 till June 22,1971, I was visiting with my” Uncle “, so I missed three years of street lighting doings.
When I got back, I found that every short block in Astoria had gotten a new street light, all M400A’s. The City must have added tens of thousands of lights across the five boroughs. And I did see the advantage of having the M400A luminaires. During the 1973 sodium conversion program, the electrician only had to open the lamp compartment, remove the mercury lamp and install the sodium bulb. Then remove and unplug the door holding the mercury ballast and plug in the new door equipped with a sodium ballast.
GE had a program that they called their “ open door policy “ where you could exchange the old door and get a break on the price of a new one.
By 1985, GE had twenty years of results of the advantages of the M400A against conventional luminaires without the filter. By changing the lamp and washing the fixture every four years, the filtered fixture could be brought up to 92% of the output of a new one,while the unfiltered fixture could only be 62% as good.
WOW! I didn’t know that there were any left.