Hello everyone! This time I found myself an oddity, it’s like, same same but different. Let me present to you, the Komet 119 Lantern. By all means this is a perfectly normal a common Radius 119 from around 1934-37 the only thing is that it does not say so on the fount, it only says KOMET 119. Another thing I have not seen on a Swedish lantern before is that it has been double plated, meaning that where the upper layer flakes off, another layer of nickel is still present, not showing any brass. One can only speculate why this one is labeled KOMET (Swedish spelling for Comet)119, but it seems to me that it was manufactured at the same location as all the other Radius lanterns, and using the same design of the text on the fount as RADIUS. Last photo shows the lantern running in found condition. Best regards Frederik
In fact, shooting stars ARE comets entering the earth's atmosphere! (luckily for us they are rather small most of the time so they get burned up before hitting the ground...). Best regards, Wim PS., we call them "falling stars" over here.
Wim, meteoroids (shooting stars) are not comets entering the atmosphere. They some times derives from a comet, though. Generally they are just any gravel, pebble or smaller rock from space debris. Up here, we also call meteoroids for "falling stars" rather than "shooting stars".
Comets have regular, mostly very elliptic, orbits around the sun and appear to us at predictable intervals. Meteors can be any piece of debris or asteroid in space that enters the earths atmosphere. It is a meteor while it is burning in the atmosphere and a meteorite after what is left has hit the ground. In Afrikaans it is also called a meteor or less scientifically a "verskietende ster".
It's meteor in Swedish too as long as the piece stays off the ground and only leave a trace of light. Well, I guess it's the same everywhere. The nomenclature is global: -Meteoroid for the actual gravel, meteor if it never reach the earth and meteorite when it does. 'verskietende' is not too far from 'shooting', am I right?
Yes, it directly translates to shooting star. But back to the topic: We know Radius manufactured stoves for e.g. oil companies with their names on it, but this is the first time I have heard of a Radius lantern with another name. I wonder what the story is behind that?
Yes, it would be interesting to know more about it. The Swedish spelling of Comet might indicate domestic use, but on the other hand Comet is spelled as Komet in other countries too, so a special labelled export/manufacturing from Radius, like in e.g. the Sunflower case, is not impossible. I have a pressure lamp catalogue from an older Swedish brand called Comet. It's with the English spell of this phenomenon, and was made by Per From's mekaniska verkstad AB, but I can't see that this earlier brand has anything to do with this later lantern. Just mentioning it.
Yes it would be interesting to know the history behind this one, was it ordered in some numbers for a retailer, or was it an employee retirement gift, if it was a request from another company that wanted re-branded lanterns, more Komet lanterns should turn up sooner or later. Note: the only thing that is imprinted on the fount is ( KOMET 119 Made in Sweden ) nothing else not even the shooting star and the small text in various languages are present on this one. works good after i changed the rubber in the safety valve, and even better when over pressurized using a nice earlier lid. Fred,
Comets, meteorites, asteroids... paah! I'd give that lantern a home no matter where it comes from or who made it! It looks lush!
Sorry @ColinG its mine, well it could be if I can talk @Tive out of it ...... I don’t like my chances though ..... Cheers Pete
