Hi all, On my American oldies Odyssey I have landed on this project. This is the Standard-Gillett Light Co. No. 296 Portable Table Lamp. It’s made sometimes between feb.1909 (patent written on cowl plate) and 1911, when Standard-Gillett was overtaken by National Stamping& Electric Works. There are Nulite catalogue pages identical to the ones in the No.31 Standard-Gillette catalogue referring to this lamp as the “No.296 Standard Portable Table Lamp”. AGM also manufactured a similar/identical lamp launched as the “American Portable Lamp No. P66”. This lamp is equipped with the C type 400 CP gasoline burner “Mechanism of No. 444 Lamp Series Patent 912185”, and this burner and cowl was very common on hollow wire system lamps and portable lamps from several manufactures at 1910 and onwards. The original lamp had an opal 982 Alba globe shade, but I found a good enough replacement shade that I think is OK. An odd thing is (maybe that’s why I bought this lamp) that my Standard-Gillett lamp has a hanger hook identical to the one on my Sun Gas Lamp Co table lamp. The images of this lamp in the Standard-Gillett/Nulite catalogues, show a lamp without any top end hanger/decoration, whilst the AGM P66 lamp has a fancy top end scroll part. Why is that typical Sun Gas Lamp Co hanger on this Standard lamp? Sun Gas Lamp Co was situated in Kansas City and Standard-Gillett in Chicago……any connection? This lamp was a troublesome fettle project and after many hours of fixing leakages and replacement of burner parts it turned out well in the end and I believe the 100 year old lady wear her aging wears with grace. /Conny
Hello Conny, I saw this lamp on USA., Ebay and I'm glad that it's found a good home! It has restored well amd it's working at 100 years old! The build quality must be excellent, this is the first S-G., table lamp which I have seen, Jeff.
Those Washington burners do restore and work very well. It seems that very often the old ones are easier to fettle and run than some later more complex lamps. I still don't know who made these. The same design with two distinct burners turn up with half a dozen or more brand names. It is odd to see so many different brands with the same lamp. Some such as AGM Nulite and Brite-Light we know were manufacturers as were Standard so one might expect one or more of them actually made them but then you have to wonder if AGM were selling product to Nulite? Seems unlikely to me. I have for some time suspected that the burners were made by the Washington Lamp Co and sold off to all comers who then added the tanks and such. ::Neil::
How do you light one of these? I've come by an Albert-Lee #65, but it has me stymied for what would be the proper process. I haven't started to fettle it yet, but I need to have a sense of when it's finished!
Hello Conny, That is a very fine lamp and a nice cleanup too. If I may. Hello Al, I've got an AGM P66 which uses a burner similar to this one; come to think of it the whole lamp is similar. My method of lighting is fairly simple. Fuel and pressurize then open the valve and listen until the air in the feed tube is replaced by fuel. Close the valve and heat the lower curve of the generator until the liquid vaporizes and light the lamp. As they say, it takes longer to read it than do it. I do this with the globe off as there is no good access on my lamp with it in place. The fingers can get warm pretty quickly when installing it. Not being aware these were 400cp I use standard Coleman 21A 300cp mantle on mine, a wee bit of burn outside the mantle tells me that I could either go a bit larger or maybe that the tip of the vaporizer is worn; probably a bit of both.
Thank you John! I looked up the patent on Google and ferreted out how to light it! I'll be posting photos soon. It's a fantastic lamp! I need to get a globe and clean it up, but I am nothing shy of delighted
Patent numbers on lamps can be misleading. Patent 912185 is indeed a patent by Oscar J Seehausen from around 1908-1910 when he was president of Standard Gillette but it is not the patent for the burner used in the lamp. It is sort of the same type but in fact a simpler version with two horizontal air tubes and a heavy one piece generator. The burner used has only one air intake and uses a much narrower generator tube which also has a built in pricker. If you look in the Nulite catalogue for their version of this lamp they also quote a patent. That is inded a Nulite patent but only refers to the method of fitting the globe and nothing to do with the burner. The implication of course when you see a patent stamped on a product is that "This is our patented device" That is just marketing hype. That burner is the brainchild of George Washington of the George Washington Lamp Co. New York. ::Neil::
I have a good sketch of this lamp in an ad from 1919. It doesn't have the finial. The makers name is a bit obscure but the model number is given as No 296.
