Can someone give me some logical reason why this preheater is so long please. It means there is a gap between the vapouriser and the preheater.
Some early Tilley lamps had the fuel tap for the preheater in the riser not the cock. My Pl56 is one example, I’ve also seen a Pl53 with the same design.
Eagle eye Bob (@Lamp Doctor )pointed out to me that Jim Dicks book shows a great picture of the patent. Patent 355869 Espacenet - Original document @Matthew92 so yours even has the original gland nut.
Y'know, I must have looked at that picture a hundred times and I'd never spotted that the handle (parts J1, J2 and J3) of the pre-heater shroud (part I) was designed to clip on to the riser pipe (part E). Presumably that allowed it to stay raised for lighting and the initial pre-heat as the fuel got going and then safely stowed when not in use. Sadly we lost that feature later on when the design was changed and the shroud handle gained a knob at the bottom. This resulted in (i) folk not preheating correctly and then as a result (ii) the shroud being removed and subsequently becoming lost. The design of the preheater is very clever but requires a bit of patience on the part of the operator and a willingness to actually read the bliddy instructions beforehand!
Hmmm... interesting stuff... The end of the handle on the shroud riser was probably burning folks fingers! Another thought... A while ago there was a thread about the short threaded part extending out of the tank that the Control Cock screwed into and why was it there? ( Part 'K' on the Patent drawing) This was presumably to allow for this type of pre-heater to be fitted if required? ... That changed again later when the design was incorporated into the control cock?.. ...Does that seem to make sense, at all?
Well it would be cold when first raised. In practice, they don't have to be kept raised for too long so I doubt they'd get that hot. I'll investigate next time I light one - don't hold your breath, though...
