Willis Lamm's
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General Electric (GE) Form 79CR Street Light |
The Form 79CR refractor is an interesting variation of GE's Form 79 "gumball." Instead of being bowl shaped, the refractor comes to a point. The refractor beads are designed to minimize light output to the sides and direct light efficiently and quite uniformly in a broad downward circle.
These lower wattage lights were often used to illuminate small intersections and residential streets where most of the light was directed onto the pavement area and light would not be directed towards residences. We believe "CR" stood for cutoff refractor. This was a slightly smaller refractor designed to compete with Line Material's "Spherolite, Jr.," Westinghouse mini "Cuplight" and Joslyn's smaller gumball design. There was significant competition among manufacturers to produce lower intensity street lights for alleys and narrow residential streets where minimum side splash was preferred. These fixtures used a maximum bulb size of 200 watts. While some companies like Line Material and Joslyn made smaller luminaires to accommodate their junior sized refractors, others like GE and Westinghouse made adapter rings so that smaller reflectors and refractors would fit to their standard size luminaire heads. GE's catalog image shows a somewhat squat pendant type luminaire head, however the Form 79CR could just as easily be adapted to standard heads that had side mount slip fitters and top mounted photo controls. GE's pointed refractor design eliminated nearly all the light that otherwise would have shone into nearby windows. |
| Components of the Luminaire |
| The luminaire itself is fairly light weight. The slip fitter is cast but the rest of the body is a single piece of stamped aluminum. The socket mounts next to the slip fitter and the refractor opens with a latch and hinge. |
Head, reflector / refractor & adapter.
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GE logo on refractor.
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GE Product line from the 1940s
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GE Form 175 Street Light