I don't think it would be a positive expression. We would have to anchor him in concrete. I have seen M-400R2's , 400 watt HPS on these same arms here in Elkton and they do bounce and wobble But hold, they'v been up for many years..
Nope it's aluminum, just dulled because it's so old. It originally must have held a remote ballasted merc (since double guys are rare here and were only used in the pre-cobrahead days). Yeah I like how the arm has a thru-bolt flange as well so you can at least have the arm nice and sturdy while you adjust the guywires.
LOL yeah it does look like steel but in person you can tell it's aluminum because it's not "speckled" like hot-dipped galvanized metal is. And if it wasn't galvanized that thing would be very rusty! NECo only used steel arms way way back and the ones left are very rusty. here's an example. You cans see the rusty looking line on the pole near the arm where the ballast can was.
NECo also used galvanized steel arms with the 50W M-250R2s and 113s that replaced incandescent lights. The incandescents were on aluminum upsweep arms but they didn't reuse the arms for some reason... Anyway, here and here are examples of the arms, one with an R2 and the other with a 113. I like how the 113's tags typically stay nice and yellow while the GE HPS tags from the 90s always faded to white after a few years.
I think the patterns "speckles" are formed as the molten zinc coating cools on the surface, similar appearance to when water freezes on a surface leaving fern-like patterns.
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NECo also used galvanized steel arms with the 50W M-250R2s and 113s that replaced incandescent lights. The incandescents were on aluminum upsweep arms but they didn't reuse the arms for some reason... Anyway, here and here are examples of the arms, one with an R2 and the other with a 113. I like how the 113's tags typically stay nice and yellow while the GE HPS tags from the 90s always faded to white after a few years.
A different style cantilever arm that was aluminum was also used in the 80s and early 90s. It's also 6ft but was aluminum. I prefer these to the steel ones. The 80s M-250R1s, FCO M-250A2s, early M-250R2s, some 113s, and the OVCs used around 1990 all used this style arm.