Lytham Corporation ATE 'Rythmatic' Control Box

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Lytham Corporation ATE 'Rythmatic' Control Box
Lytham Corporation ATE 'Rythmatic' Control Box

During the 1940s, Lytham Corporation in Lancashire used a system known as 'Rythmatic' or 'Ripple' Control' to switch their street lights on and off. This rectangular cast iron box once contained a frequency sensitive tuned relay encased in a Bakelite surround that switched the lamp on and off. Each streetlight would have had one of these units.

'Rythmatic' or 'Ripple' control was an automated switching system used by a by a few local authorities, from the immediate post-war period through to the late 1950s. It enabled the 'switching' of street lighting over large areas, to be controlled from a single unit at an electric sub-station.

As in this example, Individual street lights, or groups of street lights would have been fitted with a frequency sensitive tuned relay. When it was time to switch the streetlights on, a burst of high frequency signal was sent down the mains supply from the sub-station, and these relays detected the signal and closed the circuit to the lamp. When it was time to switch off the streetlights another burst was sent. Sometimes the HF signal generator at the sub-station was controlled by a master time-switch, or sometimes was even operated manually. This switching system was in some ways, the forerunner of the telephone control switching systems used today.

I presume that there were issues with the system, but it quickly fell from favour, most authorities replacing the units with electro-mechanical time-switches.

The ATE frequency sensitive tuned relays used by Lytham were 250v AC, 1450 Hz Rythmatic Control Switches with a Rhythm sensitivity of 0.66 for 'ON' and 1.00 for 'OFF'.

Today, none of the remaining cast iron boxes contain the frequency sensitive tuned relays, these were taken out many decades ago. However, one of the Lytham units did survive as a paperweight in the street lighting superintendent's office in the early 1960s. Thanks to the foresight of a local lighting collector, he recognised it and was given it. Thanks to that person, the unit was donated to my collection about eight years ago.

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Taken on: April 17, 2015
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