A treatise on lamps!

"I will love the light for it shows me the way, yet I will endure the darkness
because it shows me the stars.”

Og Mandino - American essayist and psychologist. 1923 - 1996

Well, given that my roof is near completion, my thoughts today have turned to the subject of that vital ingredient for any TARDIS - the lamp at the very top!

My initial thoughts were to go for a marine lamp with a fresnel lens, but I've found these to be pretty expensive at in excess of $150 for a suitably size lamp.



Therefore, I've been looking at garden lamps and lanterns, and so far I've found two potential candidates.



The first is a candle lantern produced by a company called Gardman in the UK. I've found a site i n the US which sells them and placed an order since it is quite cheap ($25).



The advantage of this lamp is that there is some evidence that the BBC used one of these for the lamps on the TARDIS props for the new series - however, it will require some considerable rework to get it right, since the top of this lamp has two tiers, and there is no "hole" in the bottom for an electric light fitting. It could also ideally do with some pillars running from top to bottom and obviously it has to be painted blue.

The second is something a little more expensive (about twice the money) from Home Depots website.

This has the advantage that it probably comes unassembled, and the "stake" and vertical bar can just be left off, leaving the lantern section with a small hole at the top which can easily be filled. The lamp part would be mounted from the bottom instead of the top where it currently sits but this shouldn't prove to be a problem.

So, whilst option 1 is probably more authentic and is cheaper, it will require more work than option 2 which looks pretty good (you can see it at Home Depot but it's only available to order) as is and would just require painting for the most part.

Anyway, I ordered this one too! Both should arrive by the end of the week, so I can compare the two properly "in-situ" and make a decision between the two. Of course, this means I've wasted between $25 and $50 depending on my eventual choice, but I can always use the lamp I'm not going to put on the TARDIS decoratively around the house.

Of course, whichever one I choose, I need to work out some way of fitting it such that:

• I can get external power to it (probably through a small hole in the flat section of the roof)
• It will be watertight
• It can withstand high winds and not fly off
• I can easily open it up to change the bulb

Other news - well we didn't go to the Zoo today as the missus isn't feeling too great, but I don't think can get away with spending any more time that I've already spent today on the project. However, I did manage to pick up the lumber I required to make one corner post.

Now, I'm sure some will be thinking, why only enough for one when 4 are required? Well, I'm a little concerned that if I buy everything in one go I'll be tempted to take a "production" line approach to the construction and therefore if I mess it up, I'll have to redo them all. So, I'm starting with just one, to make sure my construction goes to plan and assuming it does will approach the other 3 in one go.