1930s 500cp Petromax with a paraffin preheater. Took me ages to restore this one. The tank was riddled with stress cracks, including a big one across the base. I took the base apart and soldered up all the cracks and fitted a new base plate. Took me a while to get it airtight and I had to resort to soldering on the outside, so painted the lantern to cover up the repairs. It was missing some parts but the parts from a modern 500cp lantern fit. It was suggested that 824S stood for spiritus but I am not sure.
Very well saved @James I saw that one when it was up for sale and was tempted myself. Deep down I knew it would end up in the shed and I'd never do anything with it, so I didn't put a bid in. Pleased to see that it has been resurrected.
Nice job ! The S is for Spiritus / alcohol. Nice to see the top part of the pre heater. Most of the time they are lost in transit / time.
Here you can see another very similar lantern, called 824N. To my information the preheater should work with paraffin, other than the R823/6 or R826 which use a similar setup (separate tank with pump), but which is intended for meths/spirit preheating. BR, Martin
@WimVe & @Martin K. Am I the only one to think it odd that it is an alcohol (spiritus) lantern with a kerosene (paraffin) pre-heater? Or have I missed something? Cheers Tony
@Tony Press , yup, you missed it and I had to check it. Like martin already wrote there are two lantern types: - kerosene lantern with kerosone pre heater the N version and - kerosene lantern with alcohol pre heater the R version. (Cat 73C - 1930) But it looks that there is another version too: - 826K, kerosene lantern with a kerosene pre heater but no built in recevoir (Cat 82 - 1932) It would be nice if someone could convince the owners of these catalogues to make a sharp colour copy.
Tony, the preheater of the 824N / 824S should work well with alcohol, like similar preheaters in Swiss Hasag or Ditmar lanterns. But these basket like preheaters were initially designed to use paraffin in order to avoid to have available two kinds of fuel for one lantern. In fact I prefer to use them with alcohol because it smells less and doesn't soot at all. And the lantern itself is certainly designed to burn paraffin, since it is not a "B" version for petrol/gasoline. There weren't so many Petromax versions designed to burn alcohol, if any. Wim, I have got some of the 1930's Petromax catalogues from a fellow collector, but of course I cannot put them in here without his permission. And I haven't yet seen a 826K, but surely it makes sense to sell a less complicated version than the 824. However, short time later the the "Rapid" torch preheater was invented (see Petromax 828 / 829) which solved the issue with the two fuels. That may be the reason why only a few of those sophisticated lanterns 824N - 824S - R823/6 - R826 have survived. BR, Martin
Martin, You are correct. The development was a race between the manufacturers. Tilley also has a rapid version and a kerosene pre heater version. All lanterns must be pre heated so the first company that solved the problem: easy and fast was the winner. For the rapid you also need the extra bottom fuel/pressure seal. So a complete new construction of the valve. Pre heating with alcohol is easy but you need another fuel, extra bottle and more time But I do prefer it over the rapid.
We always seem to forget that our precious lanterns where intended for daily use mostly in a working environment. So they where used and after a while broke down and thrown away or overhauled by newer inventions. Surviving is more a question of luck. Someone liked the design, had special memoires or whatever and put it away on the attic. Other lanterns survived by the shear amount of them : like the ex BW lanterns. Some versions where mainly exported overseas like the petromax donuts to India. Racek was a darn good reseller I think. Even today in rural areas in Asia they use the 500cp petromax style lanterns daily.
Same type of lantern as James' but has a different nameplate. Can anyone suggest the significance of the two "S" letters and the matrix of dots? Apart from the simplistic idea of stamping the first "S" in the wrong place and trying to obliterate it? I don't think it's a mistake. .
