Thorn 70W SON-R High Pressure Sodium R95/R30 Reflector lamp

although I sadly missed out on the recent Pearl SON's I was very pleased to be in the right time and place to nab one of the 70W SON-R's that was also listed

as this lamp along with a Pearl Discharge lamp, has been long on my wanted list for many many years now! (pretty much since I discovered James's website back in 2005 or so!)

although GE did continue to make these for a while even in Hungary, and those are interesting in their own right (they have a slightly different type of bulb and frosting)

im especially pleased to have an original Thorn example :)

its a very awesome little lamp

speaking of James's website I notice the one on his website shares the same date code as this one, I wonder if they are from the same place/batch? I am also curious when they where made

the Date code is 09, which is September 1982 or September 1990, I want to say 1990, as the 1982 Datasheet describes tuck ended packaging, rather then the cardboard box seen here

but it would be interesting to see what others have to say on that regard :)