I got this at an antique sale today and came with some NOS mantles, I initially thought I would use it for spares, but given it's from April 1949 this would make it one of the first produced? It's got a big dent in the fount as you can see, but ive been reading people get good results with the freezer method with water. I'm not sure how rusty the bottom of the fount is but I can hear a ton of debris inside from shaking it. Anyway I've got 3 of the things now!
1938 was the first production year for Canad per ICCC website By Model - International Coleman Collectors Club Nice find
Ok, so Canada made these things first? This is a canadian model here. Interesting you say that, I noticed this has stamped on the collar 249 scout. I have not noticed the word scout on my other 249s
Canada made the Coleman 249 “Scout”from 1938. It was a kerosene version of the Coleman 242 (it had a larger generator; plus priming dish).[As per @Pancho, above]. Coleman in the USA began making the 249 in 1947. Australia produced Coleman 249s from 1950/1 to 1960. Coleman 249s were also made in the UK. Cheers Tony
OK, so as far as I understand, the 249 in general always was a kerosene version of the 242? So would it be safe to say that the scout was the same lantern as the US made 249? If coleman was making the 249 from 1947 in the US, then there must have been an overlap for a while after with the canadian scout naming?
Both Canadian and US 249s were called “Scout”. But what I don’t know without doing more research, was when either of those Coleman producers stopped calling the 249 “Scout”. The 249 was/is a kerosene lantern. Edit: I now note that Neil McRae has a 249 listed in the Pressure Lamp Catalogue as “10 36”. I assume this is a Canadian lantern, but the PLC is silent on the country of manufacture. Tony
Not forgetting the Coleman 247 'Scout' too. I wonder how that model designation fits into all of this. @adelcoro has also posted (as per above quotes) on the Scout designation in respect of the 247.
This opens up a bit of a rabbit hole here. This is the first and only "scout" I've come across. At first I thought this was not even a 249 as all i could see was scout while I was looking for the markings on the collar, the model number is in a different spot than later lanterns and much smaller writing. I expect that there is a good chance that 1949 was the last year scout was used, but we should have enough data from examples in others collections? Something to keep in mind however is there is always the possibility of collars being swapped over from other lanterns.
I have some 1948 249 Scouts and a 1950 249. The fount stamp on the above lantern is typical under the filler cap on a 249 Scout , it moved between the filler cap and pump on the 249.
Your right, i never noticed that. Anyway I've stripped it down and don't hold much hope. It's full of rust inside and I'm unsure if it's eaten through, looks like it must have had water in the tank at some point? It should not rust like this. A good amount came out as you can see in the photo. The generator is bent, im hoping it's possible to straighten this. Also the air tubes on the base have bent, are these easy to straighten out?
Put a few small steel nuts or ball bearings and some paraffin into the fount and shake it until your arms hurt and cramp. Rinse out afterwards with clean paraffin and if there are no leaks it should be good to use outside away from anything that can burn incase of leakage or fire. The back end of a tight fitting dril bit can be used on the insid of the generator to straiten it after the coils have been removed and it is cleaned.
I had been thinking of using some citric acid inside to clear out the rust. I also have some steel shot i could put inside to shake round. I will give the drill bit method a go, nothing to loose It's had a hard life this thing, but hopefully I can bring it back to life. I see someone has also painted the burner assembly, I expect this will burn off. Right now I've got the fount in the freezer, so hope this will bring out the dent.
Keep your eye on the tank in the freezer: you don’t want it to spread itself in the wrong direction. The recommended method is to freeze the water to below the dent, then add more water to push the dent out. I use citric acid in steel tanks often. It works well but you still need to get all the rust debris out of the tank or you’ll end up with fuel problems. I also have used round steel bars to straighten the air tubes on Coleman lanterns. Cheers Tony
Yes, Ive got it half full in the freezer and the lid removed. will add more water in the morning and periodically check on it.
My 247 from 2/1948 made in Canada has also stamped "Scout" on the collar above the English text. It is also clearly marked "No. 247 for Kerosene or Gasoline" and "Generator must be preheated" on that collar in English, Spanish, and French.
Is this a brass plated steel tank? I use Berryman Chem-Dip and BB shot to clean the petroleum residue and junk from brass tanks. In the past ive used cleaning vinegar and BBs to remove rust from a steel tank. The vinegar is pretty hard on brass
I'm not aware of any colemans with brass plating over steel, as far as I'm aware, all of them had steel bottoms and brass top before going completely steel. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm not aware of any coleman with a 100% brass tank. Your right, vinegar is hard on brass, but so is citric acid. I dont think its too much of an issue providing you don't leave it in too long. I'm not too sure how long to leave it in, but I guess I just have to monitor it and regularly check.
Most of my dented tanks are ML93 conversion lamps so I presume that using the freezer method would result in a rounded bottom (what I would give for that, but I digress!). Has anyone found a method of removing dents in these, most of mine are dented right on the base.
Well some bad news, the steel bottom had indeed rusted out, there were a couple of rust spots on the base I had some concern about, and the freezer finished it off and it just flaked off after thawing out. It never completley removed the dent either, but got rid of some of it, the steel looks wafer thin on the bottom of the fount where its rusted. I could weld it up and pour some epoxy in the base to seal it, but I have no idea if its worth it or if anyone bothers to repair these. At the end of the day I bought it for parts, but i thought I would have a go at saving it if its worth the effort.
