HelloMy mother is the daughter of John McKinley Hunter who patented the Hunter lamp. My brother and I are doing bit of research and would appreciate copies of the patent and any advertising for the family history we are collecting.My mother would certainly enjoy any information that is available and if the historians have any questionsI am sure she would answer what she can. JM Hunter was a wounded WW1 vetran, he emigrated to Canada , from lanark, prior to the war with his two other brothers and mother who was a widow. He enlisted in Canada was wounded in action and returned to Lanark. I look forward to hearing from others and if anyone has a nice example of the lamp surplus to requirement I would be interested.Alan SimpsonClapperton Ranch B.C.Canada
Alan. I have some paper and such that might be of interest to you. As I do historical research into the lamps and the people who made them we may well be of assistance to each other. We need email contact so I will PM you with my email address. You may run into trouble looking for a Hunter lamp or lantern. They are rare beasts and so far very few are known with collectors. I have one and I think I know of maybe another two lamps and one lantern. Still you never know stuff does turn up. ::Neil::
Hi Neil, do you have pictures? I'm sure I won't be alone in not having a clue what these lamps look like...
I have a lantern (which is shown in the gallery) and a Hunter table lamp (which isn't, although it's probably the one referred to by Mick Emm in this topic). It would be interesting to know who D. Hunter was - I've never seen any reference to him, other than his name inscribed on the burners i.e. J.M. & D. Hunter...[/URL]
The D was for David JMH's youngest brother who returned to Canada at some point. Hope that is helpful. Alan
HI ! This is a rare oppertunity for lamp collectors to also get a better understanding of the history of your father J.M.Hunter . I know J.M.Hunter had a buisness at 36 bloomgate ,Lanark , Scotland. this address was given in the Ironmonger monthly news paper adverts in 1921 and suggested a move was to be made to Birmingham in the september of 1922. I am curious as to how your father became in volved with a lamp company " Nulite of chigargo " you mention the family moved to Canada before WW1 and your father returned to Lanark after the war. Maybe he worked with petrol lamps when your family lived in Canada and I guess electricity and lighting in general was not so easy to come by ! Please tell me more ? If a lamp is almost impossible to source for your family history / archive . I can get you good pictures given time of existing lamp models ! I have been to Lanark often as I used to go to the cattle market auction house there once a month in the days when I lived near Lockerbie !It was a great source for second hand lamps !! Regards mick
Hello Mick It is a good question you pose...My brother and I were discussing this too.There may have been another relative in Chicago at the time...my brother believes we met this relative when we visited Lanark in the 60's. We will follow up on this. JMH was a true buisnessman, while in Canada he was a farmer and involved in farm machinery sales and service with a brother in Calgary. BTW he was also an owner of the County Garage in Lanark. My mother reports he was planning on the purchase of a factory in Birmingham ...something to do with television after the war...when he passed.
I have now done a family tree for John McKinley Hunter and done some digging to find any info on the company. I have shared what I have with Alan. There are some odd facts though. In 1925 there is a note in the London Gazette disolving a partnership between JM Hunter and Ernest Albert Terry. This states that from 6 May 1925 the company will be managed by John Hunter. From this I read that the Birminglam business was originally a partnership. There is a second Gazette note for J.M. & D Hunter. dated 21 October 1955 which is disolving a partnership between this same Ernest Albert Terry and Arthur Powell leaving the company to be carried on by Mr Terry. It appears therefore that Mr Terry bought back into the company at some time. Possibly before John Hunter died in 1944 but also possibly he bought the company from the executors of John's estate. It is also interesting to see the company is still listed in the London Telephone directories up to 1972 as Hunter J.M. & D. Petrol Lamps. I suspect they were by that time no longer actually making or selling lamps. The company is listed between 1972 and 1980 as metal pressings. Making tanks and such for other companies perhaps? There are no entries after 1980 so presumably the company folded that year. ::Neil::
Hi Alan ! Thanks for your note ,prehaps you can tell me a bit more about his back ground like :- What age was John when he ,his bothers and mother emigrated to Canada ? And what age was he when he enlisted ? You mention he was a WW1 war vetran , ( I am wondering if he was more of a designer / salesperson than a maker due to his injuries ) coming back to Lanarkshire maybe he had a war pension ie money to invest in a buisness . Going overseas in WW1 he would have encountered alot of what was available in portable lighting in Kerosene and Gasoline ( thats paraffin and Petrol to us English ! )and possibly this could have started his inventive ideas or prior to 1914 as I said before maybe working with farming in Canada brought him into contact with a sales man for Nulite or prehaps he was a salesman for Nulite ? Another factor to remember is after the first world war alot of gas engineers or gas lamp makers realised the need for portable lamps, for domestic use , agriculture or industry and by 1921 alot of lamps were being imported to Great Britain from USA and ( Canada I guess )and being rebadged to make the lamps appear brand new inventions or maybe just more appealing names the public could associate with ! I'm just making a guess here but I reckon John had some how got the rights to sell Nulite in scotland as alot of the lamps up there can trace their roots to Nulite of chicargo ! Pics to follow as I can't get computer to send attachments at present no idea why !! Regards Mick
These adverts appear on the site somewhere but it seemed worth adding to this post on John Hunter to make it easier for alan to follow the thread so far Patent 1923 this shows john hunters invention Advert for JM Hunter 1922 This advert for 1922 claims to be able to produce 4000 lamps per week, seems a lot when you consider the number of these lamps that have been found mick
In 1921 there is evidence of John Hunter as importer and wholesaler for Nulite lamps. He already had a patent for a lamp invention it would appear he concentrated more on pushing the nulite sales in Scotland and possibly the whole country suggesting he was the sole importer for them. I understand John Hunter was born in Callender Scotland you may be surprised to see the chandelier lamp above I found just down the road from there in Doune. There is evidence of other lamps coming out of the same area, sadly I sold this lamp a while back. mick
Hello It's been a while...I'm still looking for a correct, preferably functioning, example of a J.M & D Hunter Lamp. Given my family connection the lamp would be intended to stay in the family. Please let me know if one comes available. Alan Simpson
Well, I had both a Hunter lantern and a table lamp - I passed on the lantern to Neil who got it running and the results of his handiwork are on here, somewhere. I can't remember exactly what happened to the table lamp but I may have sold it during the summer just gone... These Hunter lamps are seriously RARE - running ones are rarer than hens' teeth embedded in rocking horse droppings. Good luck...
I am not surprised you have not found one yet. I only know of maybe two table lamps, the one lantern and there is a chandelier out there somewhere. They just don't seem to turn up but there must surely be a few more survivors. Here are my two running. ::Neil::
Thanks for the replies. Niel, it is wonderful to see a running example. David, if another example surfaces...I'm here. Perhaps a finders fee to the website? Alan
