What it said on the tin really... I have a small collection of cheap Chinese "Hurricane Lanterns" that I hang from the trees in our garden at weekends. The problem is that they often blow out in anything more than a light breeze... Now it's easy to dismiss this with "they are just cheap Chinese rubbish etc" but that is a complete cop out. They may well be cheap but there still has to be a reason that they blow out when presumably a "Hurricane Lantern" shouldn't. There must be a basic design flaw in these that doesn't exist in lamps that stay lit in strong winds... As cold blast lamps my understanding is that fresh air is drawn in from the vents at the top of the lamp, through the two hollow tubes to the tank and hence the base of the burner. Hopefully I have that basic principle correct.. I've noticed that mine have vent holes in the plate that the globe sits on... are these holes present in other designs and could this be the weakness? At the moment I see no reason why my lamps should be less wind resistant than any other design and it would be interesting to find the cause.
Yes you have the operating principal down. The holes are normal. Probably because of the loose fit of parts and wind gets in.. None of my oldies blow out easy like that but their parts fit tightly(air tubes and burners)
The links below are for 2 excellent books on hurricane lanterns, Jeff. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=0IxoAQAACAAJ&source=gbs_similarbooks http://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Lanterns_That_Lit_Our_World_Book_2.html?id=D4GTHQAACAAJ&redir_esc=y
That seems reasonable - close manufacturing tolerances are unlikely to feature highly in a lamp that cost £3 including transport from China...
Hi Gneiss There must be some designmistake in the hood/vent. I have some of the smallest "Feurhand" and I use them every year at christmas-time to hang around the buildings during our white windy winter to create christmas-mood. They dont blow out though they sometimes flicker a bit. A picture of the top would be nice. If you show me yours - I will show you mine Claus C
Yes I'll have to take a series of pictures tonight, the only ones I have are rather fuzzy distance shots of them hanging in the trees...
Well they don't come much cheaper than mine! What sort of baffle and would this fit directly above the globe? I bought four of these in different colours, red, black, blue and green. For the price it's really remarkable they can make them at all but now I have them I want them to work as they should.. Here are the pictures.. In this second picture you can see the ring of holes I was questioning earlier..
The baffle is up under the hood where the air tubes attach and covers up the openings so that the air reaches the tubes openings INDIRECTLY. Deflects the wind. I Like those, they're cute. Oh- and the holes in the globe plate are normal...
That's what we thought, and to be fair if it's not windy they work well although the winders are a bit hit and miss too... I also soldered the two parts of the burner together as it was a bit fiddly with them in two parts.
