White All-Round PERKO Lamp

[jimh]

The white all-round light on my 1990 REVENGE 22 W-T Whaler Drive boat is mounted atop a tall stainless steel pole. The lamp fixture was made by PERKO. Recently I disassembled the lamp to check on the miniature electric light bulb condition, and I noted several identification marks on several parts.

Fig. 1. The PERKO white all-round pole lamp from a 1990 REVENGE 22 W-T Whaler Drive boat.

PERKO_WhiteAllRoundPoleLamp.JPG (61.77 KiB) Viewed 1216 times

The lamp is composed of the following parts:

1. a clear plastic domed lens that terminates with a narrow flange with three notched reliefs in the edge of the flange and identified by embossed legend FIG 74
2. a chrome-plated brass ring with three holes which retains the lens atop the lamp and fits over the lens flange and identified as PERKO A-16
3. three stainless steel oval head small self-tapping screws that hold the ring onto the lamp base
4. a plastic molded circular part that contains a bayonet mount light bulb socket with attached black and wire insulated wiring of about 16-AWG or smaller, and marked FOR 12 V USE 1416 8CP (candle power)
5. a second circular plastic part that sits below the light bulb socket and forms the mounting base of the lamp and is held by rivets to a metal part that attaches to the round pole, and
6. a miniature electric light bulb with bayonet base and marked GE 1416.

When the lamp fixture is assembled the screw fasteners pass through the metal retaining ring holes, through the notches in the lens flange, through the holes in light bulb socket assembly, and thread into the raised small circular posts on the lower plastic base component, and in this way all layers of the lamp are locked in alignment.

The PERKO company maintains an archival resource of information on their older products in the form of a PDF copy of a 240-page catalogue they published in c.1976.

In the index of the catalogue there is a list of "figures" arranged in numerical order. Looking for FIG 74 indicated it was used in Fig 945 on Page A-15.

Turning to Page A-15 shows a lamp that is similar in appearance as the white all-round lamp used on my boat, but in the catalogue this lamp is marked as a ""Chromalex Transom Sternlight." It appears to have a built in shade that limits the arc of visibility when mounted to a vertical transom surface to the required 135-degrees instead of the 180 degrees that would occur without the shade. But the appearance is remarkably similar to the white all-round lamp that Boston Whaler used.

The listing also specify the following parts:

• Spare socket specify FIG 1109
• Spare lens specify FIG 74
• Spare bulb see FIG 56 No 4

I suspect that Boston Whaler may have customized the FIG 945 lamp to become a white all-round 360-degree visibility pole lamp by deleting the shade component that would have fit under the lens dome. I base this hypothesis on the fit of the lens under the retaining ring: the lens is somewhat loose, as if there should have been some other layer of material (perhaps the shade) in place.

The plastic lens on my lamp had some scrapes and scars from being stowed. I tried a glass cleaner intended for use on electric stove tops to remove burned-on food as a polish to improve the lens. Using a very small amount of the mild abrasive material and water, I was able to remove most of the imperfections on the exterior surface of the lens.

Using some very fine grit emery paper I lightly abraded the light bulb bayonet base brass to remove some oxidation. I also applied a very small amount of WD-40 to the lightbulb socket to help restore its electrical conductivity.

[Oldslowandugly]

Jim, thanks for that catalogue.pdf. Almost all my lights and electrical things are Perko brand. I would rather restore an original Perko part than waste my time and money on the imported junk available today.