This clean Guardsman came my way with the accessories and the packet of ‘Owlite’ lighting powder. I can’t find a date stamp on the base, any ideas folks?
I wondered about that Jeff. The lamp is so original and so little used, I just wondered why the cock would have been changed? When did the later cock first appear? You’re right there Pete! Thirty three lamps now.... there are a couple down in Yorkshire I bought that my mate picked up for me that aren’t here yet. Plus another pal who has told me he has three ‘old Tilleys’ for me. No lamps make Stevie a dull boy No lamps make Stevie a dull boy.... Seriously, I’m infected good and proper.
I do not have documentation which shows an exact date for when Tilley started to use that push on knob, but I reckon that it was 1960. Earlier lamps etc., do turn up with control cocks fitted which have that knob, but they are probably replacement control cocks. Sometimes there is a date stamp on the Tilley lantern boxes.
Owlite powder? I have to show my ignorance. What is Owlite powder? I know it's taking the place of spirits/denatured alcohol, but how exactly do you warm the vaporizer with it? Dah....
The cage is steel. They came painted this way from new. I believe the cages and founts were painted assembled, someone else on the forum might have more info about this. I think these Guardsman lamps are the best of the common Tilleys, as there are plenty around, they’re affordable too. l bought one with no globe a couple of weeks ago for a fiver... why not? Stevie
Wow the whole kit-and-kaboodle excellent mate you have a way of finding amazing lamps well done my friend.
Hum.. Very nice :-) Did you try out the Owlite stuff at all Stevie? When I was a nipper I inherited my brothers Mamod traction engine and there was an alternative to meths ; They were similar to firelighters, only smaller and suitably shaped to fit in the firebox.. I wonder if the owlite was a powdered version or similar?
Probably metaldehyde tablets:- Metaldehyde Toxicity (Slug Bait Poisoning) | VCA Animal Hospital (vcahospitals.com) I've wondered that myself on occasion. Also whether slug pellets would burn in a priming pan. I'd imagine hexamine (=Esbit) tablets may be a more modern equivalent...
@podbros I did try a little of the Owlite powder out. It was difficult to light and didn’t at first make too much fuss, then after a short while it burned with a little intensity. The stuff had been in an opened packet, in the lamp box in a garage on the Moray coast since the 1950s, so I guess it was both a little damp and whatever fuel it was impregnated with had to some degree dissipated. @Buggerlugs This lamp I found back in the summer of 2019. The old boy that sold it to me was delighted that someone was interested in it, his own kids had told him to take it to the tip! @David Shouksmith Mamod used to market the blocks as Meta Blocks, the clue is maybe in the title.
When in the boy scouts we used broken up hexamine blocks (readily available from the local army surplus store) to pre-heat primus stoves. For reasons I can probably appreciate now better than then, the scoutmaster considered them safer than a bunch of lads with meths..
