My post with pictures here is for an oldie in the street lighting of France. A fixture that was introduced at the beginning of the 1950s. PHILIPS NVF 125.
For me a very big surprise and great pleasure that I discovered such oldies. They were still in operation in October 2021.
These fixtures were equipped with MV lamps 125W.
Page 67 of the PHILIPS catalog eclairage (F) shows the variants from 80W to 400W. There were two different sized fixtures.


Source: PHILIPS catalog eclairage, page 67, France 1965

 
The small version for 80W and 125W, the large version for 250W and 400W.  You can hardly find these fixtures anymore.


Location: Pont-Saint-Esprit (F)



Location: Pont-Saint-Esprit (F)


Regards

Olav

I think you should post those pictures in the gallery, Olav - some people might miss them here 

I had one barely used NVF 125 but I gave it away last year. The small village where I reside in the weekends had one installed till the mid 1990s. What I find interesting is that the reflector panels are movable and one can adjust the light distribution. Also the lamp socket is installed on a bracket which can be shifted and in the end the whole lantern is mounted on a rotule which allows the lantern to be inclined to the intended position.

A big and very nice surprise for me: the fixtures PHILIPS NVF 125 in Pont-Saint_Esprit (F) are still available and in operation in October 2022.
About 2/3 of the entire fixtures are still equipped with a MV lamp 125W, the remaining fixtures are equipped with "LED corn cobs".
In total, I saw almost twenty NVF 125 fixtures on four different side streets of the city.



Pont-Saint-Esprit (F), 04.10.2022



Pont-Saint-Esprit (F), 04.10.2022

Good to see any still installed. As they get re-lamped with LEDs they will remain for longer time.

There is a photo (only taken with my smartphone) of the operation of the fixtures and two pages of "waste paper" from "REVUE PHILIPS lumière N°10" :


Pont-Saint-Esprit (F), 04.10.2022



Source: REVUE PHILIPS lumière N° 10, page 19



Source: REVUE PHILIPS lumière N° 10, page 20

Nice posts, Olav. I do remember seeing those lanterns while growing up decades ago. There are very few of those left indeed, most of them were scrapped during the great sodium conversion of the 1990s, and very few found their ways in fancy bars and restaurants (I was pleasantly surprised to see that on two occasions). Of course, in the latter case the luminaires were converted to GLS - it would have been really nice if they had kept them original with mercury lamps, but that's too much light for a cosy interior lighting setup.

By the way, which year is the Revue Philips Lumière from which you pulled those two pages posted above? around the mid-1950s?

Hello Max, the magazine is from 1953.
Yes, sometimes you see the fixtures PHILIPS NVF 125 and NVF 250 as equipment in a loft or an offer for utopian prices.

Thanks Olav, that magazine was published about three years after Philips introduced its second-gen HPL lamps. No wonder they mention those light sources are being new technology. By the way, until 1955 those HPLs were available in 80 and 125 W only, so it's likely that the NVF250 was released after the smaller NVF125.

That’s incredible their still there and working!  , these would suit a 125 watt MBFR 

Things were built to last back then.

Unlike today when they're built to fail and get replaced. 

Back then they were built to last, then when they did fail, they were repaired. 

And I had one well preserved NVF 125 which I got from an electrician in France in the vicinity of my weekend house. 
The NVF 125 lantern also bears the designation NV 500 in the top mount piece which means that it was also available without gear for incandescent lamps up to 500W.

There is an update for May 2023: all fixtures PHILIPS NVF 125 are still available in Pont-Saint-Esprit (F). 
A few fixtures still have MV lamps 125W, the remaining lights have replacement lamps. I think it's great that these oldies are still in use.



Pont-Saint-Esprit (F), 15.05.2023


Before today's visit to Saint-Esprit-Esprit, I was finally able to buy a PHILIPS NVF 125 fixture from a private seller at another location after years of searching and waiting. 
It has very few scratches and hardly any dents. The original capacitor is still present but no longer connected. It has probably been defective for a long time. The ballast for the MV lamp 125W is still quite new, probably installed as a replacement part.
I didn't expect to be so lucky again.



Lanas (F), 15.05.2023

Good to see that you got one of these fixtures Olav!

It’s great to know that such lights are still in service in 2023.
Looks like the weather is nice too.