Desperation finally wins out!!! ENJOY!!! Now you a "small" idea what battle I'm having with "Solomon's Garage"!
How do you have all of the money for this stuff. A snap on tool chest and all of these lamps. I also see those cheeky wickie lamps in the back.
To all, please bear in mind I have been collecting lanterns for almost 50 years. At the time I started they were cheap and you could buy them for a really reasonable price. The 220B, for example I placed in the gallery (Coleman 228B, June 1931) was around $25 or $30. I picked that one up probably 20 years ago. I look for bargains and condition. Believe me I've had some get away for a dollar or two and I really felt like crying! Another thing, a great deal of these I restored myself. There was a time when I bought a "boat anchor" and turned it into a really nice example. I could do it then, I can't now. The bargains are out there, you just have to keep a sharp eye open and keep hunting.
Ahh, 50 years is mighty impressive. Just one question. I was studying each lantern and can’t find a single one with rust on the vent. How is this even possible? Also just noticed the switch lantern. Very cool, I have a few myself.
My rule of thumb: I will not buy a lantern if the enamel top is shot to hell. Unless that particular lantern is very hard to find or rare, I won't waste time or money on re-enameling. It's really got to be a very special lantern before I spend that kind of money.
The railroad switch lantern in picture 4, to the right of the craftsman box. And am I correct in seeing some other railroad lanterns in the background next to the hurricane lanterns.
What about people that say petrol, PPA. Anyhow, why would it matter If you were a GPA distributer or not? Do they get free stuff or just buy more stuff because of the extreme convenience? Also, 50 years and no arc lantern. Just proves how rare they are I guess.
Depends, the last one is and the first one. However, obviously, I’ve never even heard of a gpa distributer so I honestly want to know if the get free things or if just because of convenience and a discount or whatever they buy more stuff.
In this day and age being a GPA distributor wouldn't be a smart career move but back in the day I guess it made a reasonable living and you'd have access to whatever lanterns and spares you wanted. A canny collector could have palmed a punter off with a new model while taking 'the rubbish old one' off their hands. Could have been fun!
I dislike the term GPA - it's imprecise, badly applied, and misleading. I had correspondence recently with a small group of people who were well placed to know where the now popular term came from. It seems they didn't know. Cheers Tony
This site has a very good alternative as its title. Vapour is another term that was widely used. This matter has been discussed before. When it was some participants couldn’t agree on whether it meant “gasoline” or not; but it does. Which means it doesn’t apply to kerosene unless by extension. And that’s where the trouble starts because you don’t put “gas” (gasoline) in a kerosene stove and many lamps unless you’re looking for big trouble. GPA is culturally a North American term and became popular quite recently through the Coleman Collectors Forum (some people think that’s where it started). The fact that gasoline was much more widely used in North America in stoves and lamps makes it a reasonable, if inaccurate, short hand there, but it’s a term I’d never heard of here in Australia until it was imported from CCF to CPL. Cheers Tony
Same here Tony. Not a UK term and one I'd never heard until some US/U.S. person used it here on CPL. It boils my **** when someone invents a term (or even worse, an acromym) and then arrogantly expects everyone else, worldwide, to know instantly what they're talking about. It just leads to confusion, IMHO... ()
Except this one, perhaps, which runs on "gas" (gas)! Anyway, it came from this thread:- Usha Gap 2 - The Stovies Return... which I re-discovered the other day whilst searching for something else. It describes a weekend's stove/lamp/camping adventures and particularly one of our peregrinations around the Yorkshire Dales when not having anything better to do. As so often happened with Trevor and me, he drove and I let him lead me astray and ended up getting, er, 'highly refreshed' in the process - happy days! I don't half miss him and his company... It might be an interesting read if you're 'Shut In: Nothing to do!' - that's my justification for it, anyway...
Poor @george Clearly you are a very unwell man and you need the expertise of a highly trained professional counselor to help with your psychological problems regarding your misaligned concept of "collecting". May I suggest you take the first steps by purchasing a large crate from your local hardware shop and placing at least 25 of your rarest lamps in it and sending it over to me, to help you on the long road to well-being. Best wishes for a speedy and complete recovery.
The term 'Gas', I believe, originated in USA. Well, I don't think the lanterns and stoves guys started that. It was just meant to be gasoline. It must be the automotive guys or could be anyone who owned a car or anything that ran on gasoline. (I'd imagine that'd be almost everyone in the US back in the day when the term was created). It was easier to just say: "we ran out gas" rather than ...gasoline.... Peehaps in USA, every(almost) device that needs to be powered, had been made to run on gasoline at one time, and it meant that's the stuff that everyone would be relying to live on in the modern age. I'd even guess that there was a time when a person could say: "we can live without electricity but not without gas". Gasoline was so convenient and popular that Coleman and others even made a range of everyday appliances such as irons and ovens that ran on 'gas'. Modernity was the thing and it'd be nothing without the ease and convenience of starting up a device without the 'inconvenience' of preheating. Everything has to be quick, preferably instant to cater the needs of a modern soceity. That's the essence in all that. 'Pressurized Appliances' came a little later I guess, since there had been fire and explosion risks involved. So, some eventual regulations must have been made to allow legal use of these 'appliances' in towns, cities, households, etc. That'll cover the hollow wire lamps and such in buildings as well. Naturally, such terms were created and the rest is history. Why GPA? To differentiate these from steam and compressed air driven equipment. Well, I'd guess gasoline's about the only common fuel that's volatile and flammable enough to create the risks and hazards stated in those regulations. It seems, that could be conveniently applied to propane too. Just my opinion anyway.
