About using spirit in Petromax

@Antonis Tsolomitis
This Petromax does not have a "positive shutoff", so gasoline is not safe in this lantern. If anything happens to the NRV the fuel will pour out! This is a very dangerous situation.
This model, "Sicke" was made for a short time only, probably 1954/56, give or take a year. Yours is interesting because the Sicke models I've seen didn't have scratched dates. @WimVe knows more than I do about this. I only have one Sicke model and it's not even a Petromax - it's an Aida 1250!
This is a fine example and I hope you get it running soon!

 

Yes it was indeed made, but for a short time. It'll still light up, though not as bright as kerosene since it has much less calories per litre. For one of the reasons, there had been a shortage of petroleum-based fuels for sometime, particularly during and shortly aftee the war years where many such would be reserved for military and other more essential purposes. The alcohol could be made without fossil fuels and in some ways being a cheaper and renewable alternative for the civilian. As a quick measure, an adapter was made, which can be easily retrofitted into existing lanterns without having to redesign and changing the manufacturing processes too much. That'll mean that most Petromax-styled lanterns were never specifically designed for use with volatile fuels such alcohol or gasoline, and therefore lacked many essential safety features for this purpose. The idea of using alcohol was generally abandoned when kerosene was again economically viable to the public. There was no real need after the war years for further development of the lantern design to make it better suited for alcohol use thereafter.

 

Please can someone point me to the risks of using petromax adapter in petromax lanterns to use alcohol as fuel " therefore lacked many essential safety features for this purpose" Cause they are still selling it and i think it would be mad to sell it if it adds risks, don't you think?

 

The equivalent jet orifice for burning alcohol is generally larger than the one for kerosene.
As long as you don't have leaks for example; at the pump, etc., and you don't release the air from a hot operating lantern, there aren't any real risks.
Its better that you could seek advice from Pelam or any other seller for such inquiries.

 

Hello, My 827 Sicke has 55 scratched on the bottom.

1955 Petromax 827 Rapid

Best regards Fred

 

The main reason to run them on alchohol was when it was all you could get.
In WW2 Sweden the general population were not allowed Kerosene or Petrol - what they did have was wood alcohol.

Maybe it was the same in many other countries too?

 

For the safety issues please reade this document: petromax myth of Neil Mc Rae.
It is dated as much here but the general picture is still valid.

Maybe some one can point out the new insights so I can change te text.

 

For the record, 80% alcohol will not work at all as fuel for a pressure lamp. The other 20% is water and when it boils the water vapour stops combustion from occurring. At least this has been the result of my experiments with double and triple distilled grappa head. The same alcohol burns merrily in a pre-heater cup though.

 

@Tive I can't remember any scratched dates represented by just two numbers... Maybe one of our Petromax experts can help me on this one. Perhaps my memory is getting dull.

 

@Javi This has been a topic here for some time now. I know some dealers swear that there dual fuel lantern will burn anything you can put a match to, but it's not true. Petromax (with some early exceptions), Aida, Tilley, Bialaddin, etc all rely on seals made of rubber or some other pliable material. If these seals fail (and they will over time) you have, say gasoline coming out of the lantern! Can you imagine what that's like when it hits an open flame like a red hot mantle! You can't shut it off! Remember the seal that's supose to keep this from happening has already failed!
Kerosene on the other hand is far less explosive than gasoline, so you usually wind up with a smelly mess of raw kerosene all over the place! Keep in mind most kerosene lanterns are extinguished by venting the air out of the tank. You wouldn't do that with a gasoline lantern!!

 

Hello, I want to share my experience in the independent manufacture of an alcohol adapter for Petromax 500. My friend sent me the sizes of the original adapter. With him, the lamp started, but the glow pulsed. after installing a twisted copper mesh into the generator, this passed, but the lamp still shines worse than on kerosene.

After reading this topic, it became clear that the hole in the nozzle needs to be increased, it remains to know how much)

 

I think you did well to get that lamp burning and I am impressed with your fabricating skills. If your lamp is spreading light in an even, non-pulsing way, even if it produces less light, I think you have accomplished all there is to achieve. Given the lesser caloric value of alcohol than paraffin, the output of light might be affected the way you describe. A richer mixture could - in theory - be accomplished by using a smaller mantle.
Thank you for sharing this experience!

Mike

 

Sometimes, its good to have a little trial and error exercise. I'd first try to use a jet with an orifice that's one standard size larger for alcohol. For example, if its for a 350cp kerosene lantern, the usual size of the orifice would be approximately 0,20mm, +/- 0,01mm. If its to be tested for alcohol use, I'd put in a 500cp jet (~0,24mm?) and needle instead.
And if its for a 500cp unit, I'd enlarge the orifice of a spare jet up to say 0,30mm or thereabouts for an initial trial. (0,30mm is considered very large; too large for kerosene or petrol lanterns in most cases and about as large as some jets on stoves and some blowlamps).

 

For a 500cp lamp to run on alcohol the jet needs to be 0.38mm. For 300cp it is 0.3mm.

 

Many thanks to all for the advice, I will try.

 

Not to get off point here friends, a fellow I knew worked at the airport. Someone told him JP4 was ultra pure kerosene. He took some home and put it in his Ker-O-sun heater. He isnt with us anymore.

 

JP4 is (was) a 50:50 blend of kerosene and gasoline. It would be far more volatile than kerosene and dangerous in kerosene appliances.

Jet-A is kerosene; Jet-A1 is kerosene with antifreeze.

Tony

 

@Tony Press
Thanks, Tony that's a good point to remember.

 

@Rob Mikell
The chappie with the JP4 .............. what happened, did he get an unexpected bang out of the fuel that he could't ignore, or did his Maker call him for other reasons?
Cheers
Pete

 

One thing though - the fire from alcohol can be put out with water!

 

Is aviation fuel not full of dopes ?
Like gasoline for cars. Ok it is gasoline but also full of additives.

 

@WimVe

Not quite:

Jet-A is unleaded kerosene, and not usually available outside of the USA and lower Canada. Jet-A1 is kerosene with additive. I use Australian Jet-A1 in my lamps with absolutely no problems.

See here:

Jet fuel - Wikipedia

Tony

 

I'd say there would always be some additives, inhibitors, etc.in Jet-A1 for it to meet some specific requirements as modern aviation fuels.
Its kerosene-like in its basic form. But I suspect it might pass off as some low-sulphur transportation 'diesel' too.

 

After the heater got up to temp, it exploded I believe.. The fellow died in the process. He lived in a mobile home (caravan) park. It didnt blow the walls out, but completely consumed the dwelling in under 10 minutes. I lived 2 doors down at the time. It was a bitterly cold winter. 20 degrees in Florida US is uncommon. The fellow was trying to stay warm. I had a ker-o-sun also. The landlord went door to door and had all tenants remove these heaters. The fire marshal later issued a report noting the suspect fuel.

 

It took me a few months to come back to this project. So this just to report that after fixing a couple of leaking issues the lamp worked again using Petromax kerosene (Alkan):

This is a 826, CP350 with Sicke tank, made in October 1954 by Petromax. I will not use any other fuel than the above anyways.... Thanks to all people that helped me find information.

 

Excellent!

Cheers

Tony

 

Antonis,
Nicw looking lanteen.
Congrats

 

It looks great, Well done.
Cheers
Pete

 

I like it, but then I pretty much like all the German made Petromax lanterns!

 

The Petromax Alkan should be a highly refined grade of kerosene, I suppose? Your lantern would love you for using that.
Its not cheap though.