Petromax hand scratchings - are they actually made at the factory or not?

*ALERT* RESPONSE TO OLD THREAD!
I just bought a Petromax 883 with scratchings on the bottom. I'm not sure if it is 8 6 or 9 8. Here are the numbers up and down.

 

Here is a better close up.

 

I would go for a 8 and 6.

 

Since these 883's were made between '36 and '39 (maybe even '40), both could be correct. For hand comfort while writing, the 8 6 seems more practical since the writer could rest his hand on the flat surface of the fount and not on the edge. In any event, the dates fall within the production dates for this lantern.
I love the way the person made his 8's!

 

What @seavandal descriped is the point. And this same Px worker also did
his job on the bottom plate of my Px 900 Little Baby. So here comes
this nice 8 again with a 6 which is August 1936. Have a look at the pic.

Matthias

 

Dead ringer!

 

Boy, can you imagine the same worker scratching both these lamps?!! I swear it looks like the same fellow did both!

 

Holey poop! I checked the bottom of my Petromax 828 from Nov 1936, and the scratchings look the same there as these! One hellva busy guy! Must have been the fastest "scratcher" at Petromax at that time! lol

 

George,
maybe he got paid for scratches per minute?
And he did this in his peculiar way. A good guy, wasn't he?

Matthias

 

Faster scratcher than a dog with flees .....

 

Well he or she would have started at an early age then.
I like to know how that worked during the bombing of Berlin, between all the shell making.
And after the war when there was no food, housing, nothing but russians all over the place.

 

Hello all,
from my opinion the scratch marks are 100% date codes. Until now I've not found any contradiction against that theory. However, anybody could scratch someting on a fount bottom, and some of the scratch marks are really hard to find, due to wear or corrosion.
I've also checked that with rare lanterns, such as Aladdin Petromax, which were manufactured only during a small time slot.
Regards, Martin