I have been using two different Coleman 500cp lanterns on these cold winter evenings. One, a Coleman Northstar with the standard long ‘concertina’ mantle, and the other, a classic Coleman 236 with a Petromax 500cp mantle. Both lanterns are very bright! But note the different hue of the mantles: the Northstar mantle gives off a reddish hue, while the Petromax mantle is bright white. The Northstar is the lower lantern: Cheers Tony
I had a couple of North Stars and they always burned with a yellow hue whether the mantle used was thorium or yttrium tube mantle. A member here diagnosed the problem as having something to do with the top of the burner assembly not being sealed and he said it was a common problem which I believe he corrected by soldering.
Try the Northstar with a petromax type mantle next time it needs one. That's mine with one. Also sometimes the burner tube in these is loose. Some muffler mender or stove cement will seal that up.
Last month I got my Northstar working. It had a few small issues, one of which was a loose spigot tube as described by others. I replaced the burner assembly with one i’d bought some years ago. It required some careful adjustment to get the auto ignition working well. I’ll look for an opportunity to compare the hue against another lantern.
The North Star was to me a solidly built lantern but internal parts like the burner assembly seemed somewhat flimsy. Mine always looked like it was burning at 300cp and though I wanted to be impressed by the lantern I wasn't. It's the North Star Propane I find indispensable. The NSP is a great lantern, not as ruggedly made as the fuel version but tons brighter and extremely reliable, makes a great camping lantern.
I had the opposite experience in that I really wanted my NSP to be good but it wasn’t to be. I bought it before I had this hobby, it was for use on our springtime camping in a National park. I used it for 30 minutes on the trip then it was packed away for a year. Next trip 12 months later I placed a mantle on it by torchlight and tried to light it but it just roared like a lion with laryngitis - on further investigation the burner screen was gone. I don’t know when it fell out but the timing of the camping trips meant the warranty had lapsed. I stored it hoping to get replacement part/s but none were stocked or on auction sites, it seems. I know there is a DIY approach to a fix but decided it wasn’t worth more effort so sent it to landfill. Admittedly it did perform well for the 30 minutes it was working.
The price of propane cartridges makes it very expensive to use one in the UK . One can refill used propane cartridges of course... but that has tricky pitfalls as well ... kerosene/paraffin is the best option I find whilst petrol/Naptha is another option ... another tale
@Tony Press I’m tending to be a little hesitant in comparing 2 lanterns’ mantles side by side as shown in this example. The respective jet’s, and supporting burner gear, not to forget pressure would not be the same for both lanterns. In my mind that would invalidate the results. In my opinion, the only way to compare would be to use different mantles on the same lantern and recording the light output for each mantle by a lux meter and of course with photos. Just saying, just my engineering background popping up it’s investigative head. Cheers Pete
I agree with Pete. I've got 8 Tilley Guardsman lanterns and even with identical mantles, they all look different in action. That's what I love about these wonderful things, they're more like living creatures, each with its own personality and idiosyncrasies!
It’s the hue, Pete. Of course you can’t compare two completely different fitting mantles on each lamp: they don’t fit. If you go through the posts here over the years, you’ll see that Butterfly have a reputation for giving a reddish hue. As to Collin’s comment: yes, quite right. But that was not what my post was about… Tony
Sorry Tony, you're correct, you were talking about the colour temperature, not the overall light levels. Apologies for that.
This was the problem with the 2 I owned . Using a standard single tie lantern worked, it burned white but the lantern still didn't seem very bright especially compared to a NS propane.
A lot of the resulting colour hues are due to the different mantle compositions used. That's regardless of whether the mantles contain Thorium oxide or not. Even these 'radioactive' ones can sometimes have pinkish, yellow-orange or reddish hues. It is mainly due to these two reasons:- 1. The relative percentages or ratio of cerium oxide : thorium oxide was excessive (greater than the usual max of 1%). 2. The slight (sometimes deliberately introduced) presence of oxides that can strongly affect the light colour hues. For example, chromium oxide gives a reddish hue. Neodymium, tungsten or praseodymium oxides can make the resulting light orange-yellow even if the mantles are primarily thorium-based. Yttrium-cerium (non-radioactive) ones usually produce light with lesser amount of greens and blues in the resulting light, making them appear a little yellower by comparison to the older thorium-based mantles. If anyone's interested, most of these information can be found only in the literatures or patents from the late nineteeth century(1890s). These are seldom if ever, described on later(20th century) patents. Just some of them here:-
Hey Tony, Check your mantle, you have probably got a "Warm White" on one and a "Cool White" on the other.
