Dating a Petromax ‘5th gen.’ Britelyt lantern -?

Hello all. I have a lantern which belonged to my late father, apparently never used. He had stored it in a back closet, and I have never seen it before! I am trying to find out more about it. It has a nameplate that does not have an American flag, so it might be older. Where on the lantern can I find a serial number? There is no funnel or additional kit, but I did find a packet of extra wicks, and a small manila envelope imprinted with Britelyt, bearing images of various small parts (shown in the second photo among some other items). Thank you in advance for any information or guidance.

Fran

 

Hi Fran and welcome from the Scottish Highlands.
Others here will give you more history about your lamp. Only the items in the Britelyt envelope relate to the lamp.

Will you use the lamp? Maybe something to remember your father by to perhaps light on important dates?

Stevie

 

Welcome aboard!

 

Thank you for the nice welcome!

Anyone with ideas on the age of this lantern? I would bet that my father got this as a replacement for a similar one, probably for earthquake preparedness or something. He liked old-fashioned solutions to modern problems. It doesn’t look like a German one, but the nameplate doesn’t match anything I’ve seen yet.

My dad was a Korean War veteran - didn’t the U.S. military issue this style of lantern? My father also lived in rural Korea on a Ford Foundation grant, doing a linguistic/ethnographic study while in graduate school in the early 1960s. (The rest of the family, including myself as a toddler, lived in Tokyo with my mother’s extended family, while he traveled back and forth to visit us when he could). The setting for his study was a deeply rural village, there was no electricity, plumbing or anything. A lantern like this would have been vital.

Fran

 

It's a relatively modern lantern, but I do not know it's exact date of manufacture, the build quality looks decent, but it's always best to have a lantern serviced by a knowledgeable person and I see that you are located in Santa Barbara and there are probably lantern collectors in that general area.

The second link below is for the Coleman Collectors Forum which is based in America and the third link is for Old Coleman Parts which is also in America.

The first link is for Britelyt's website.

Here is a safety tip, your lantern runs on paraffin/kerosene only no matter what Britelyt may say.

Britelyt Green Science & Innovations Inc – LIGHT. HEAT. COOK.

Coleman Collectors Forum

OldColemanParts.com

 

Another clue! My father never threw out pertinent papers for anything. Original directions in multiple languages, original glassine envelope for mantle, photocopied illustrations which he enlarged on a copier, or were sent to him? Does this point to a 1970s German lantern, since the metal nameplate also has no American flag?

Fran

 

With this brand I do have to suggest to ask Diana directly.

Erik

 

Well, I did send an email to the company - so perhaps I have indeed asked the very person you recommend, inadvertently! I had no idea who Diana might be, so I searched the forum here for the name. Got it!

The brochure in German / English / French / Malay was intriguing. It’s not the selection of languages I’d expect for the international market. I’ll share what I learn from the company...

Fran

 

For me that is to much credit for a company that makes strange and even dangerous claims about the Petromax style of lantern.

 

As far as I can tell Bryte Lite dates back to 1998 when they negotiated an agreement to import Petromax product from Geniol (USA). The lamps were at the time made in Hong Kong and imported to Germany by Heinz and then supplied to Geniol in the US. As I understand it they are still Chinese product imported to the US from Germany. So all BrytLite lamps are 21st century Chinese made lamps. Diana insists they are German made but then she does get them from Germany but fails to accept that they are not made in Europe. She also insists on this fatuous "Generation" twaddle and that they are safe with just about any fuel including gasoline. They support this dangerous notion because they had an engineer test them. Problem with that test is it was not a safety test and only reported that they WILL run on gasoline. That is perfectly true because they do work on gas but there are design features that make them dangerous on anything more volatile than kero and the fact the at least two we know of have exploded reinforces that.


::Neil::

 

Eddie wrote me back, the lantern is from 1998 - just when the company took over the name. He warned me to check the rubber seals for age-related cracks or wear, and to be sure to replace them before attempting to light the lantern. He said it pre-dates the addition of the heat shield in 1999 (part # 126).

I think it’s never been lit. The little envelope of spare parts is missing a part, but the lantern looks pristine - no residue, new mantle, nothing on the glass. My guess is that my father couldn’t get it to work, called the company and was sent replacement parts, but still couldn’t get it working. So he put it away in disgust and forgot about it. I’m now a bit concerned that it sloshes when moved. It must have kerosene in it! Is there a way to allow the fuel to evaporate?

Fran

 

That could be a dangerous assumption, particularly as you're in the US where Coleman fuel/white gas(oline) seems to be the norm.

I wouldn't let the fuel evaporate. Apart from taking ages, that could be potentially dangerous in the event of a stray spark and could leave nasty residues in the tank. It's probably better to empty it out and dispose of it via whatever means there are at your location.

Regarding Brite-Lyt, Neil has it exactly right and "Eddie", inadvertently, has backed that up - as a matter of your and your family's safety DO NOT use Coleman fuel/gasoline in any equipment that relies on perishable rubber seals. Eventually they will degrade and leak as sure as eggs are eggs. Leaking paraffin makes a mess which can be cleared up; leaking gasoline can result in fires, explosions, injury or loss of life...

 

Fran if your lantern has 20 year old fuel it certainly wants emptying out and the tank could probably do with a clean to remove any old fuel residues. It may well work OK with just new kero and seals but a lamp with part evaporated fuel could require a removal and clean of all the working fuel feed and burner parts. ::Neil::

 

Uggghh. Thank you, everyone. Much wisdom and experience here. I think I’ll try to sell it as-is, but I will buy and include the replacement seals it needs, and specify “local pick-up only.”

It’s certainly a handsome lamp, and fascinating to learn about (as can be said of many examples of fine old technology and craftsmanship), but way above my skill set to deal with!

Thank you again,
Fran

 

Boy, the extremes some companies go to to sell a product! I suppose throwing it in a box marked, "Made in Germany" makes it made in Germany!

The Far East versions of this lantern despite them being called Petromax are not made in Germany! I believe sometime in the very early 1970's the whole operation moved to Portugal, thus Petromax ceased in Germany.

 

Agree with Neil, twaddle! I could use stronger terms!

 

It looks pretty decent to me. How about getting it to work? As advised, do empty out the old fuel first. These earlier Britelyts are basically based on the Petromax. Maybe with some subtle cosmetic changes on the collar where the nameplate is attached. Looks more like a re-brand. Kerosene-fueled. As far as what I could see from the picture, there are basically no design difference that'd make it appropriate for anything more volatile. I don't know about the 'insides' of it though.
It does look well-made enough, at least from the outside.

 

G'day all,

I thought this may be of interest, my apologies if it isn't. I can't tell if the patent is a match for the OP's lamp because they all look the same to me.

I read the patent description of the lantern and apart from repeating herself over and over, I couldn't find a reference to what fuel should be used. I think this is the only patent that I have ever read the description of, that the type of fuel to be used wasn't mentioned.

Filed, 2000 Patent Approved, 2002.

 

Yes. That's the patent associated with the Britelyt, I believe. But I think Fran's lantern could pre-date that. I could see its somewhat different. The later Britelyts would be based on that patent.

 

Thanks for sharing the patent Matty!

 

You are very welcome Jeff.

Having this level of involvement in the lamp, one thing is for certain, Diana knows where the lamps are manufactured. On the evidence at hand, Germany seems highly unlikely.

 

Filed 2003 Patented 2005


Filed 2005 Patented 2009

 

Not going to keep saying this but unless you have suicide in mind, DON'T BURN GASOLINE IN THIS LANTERN!!! There is no positive shut-off valve!

 

If I'm reading the second lantern patent correctly, all it seems to be patenting is a pump using o-rings in place of the traditional leather pump cup, It could be of course that there's more of the patent than has been provided by the OP.

The first lantern patent seems to be for a cook-top that sits on top of the hood similar to that found on the Radius 119 for example - and we all know how crap ineffective they are!

Incidentally, do we still have the British Standards 'Kitemark' system in operation? If we have then that lantern (and stove) wouldn't meet at least one of the criteria for approval.

As far as the stove patent is concerned, my eyes/spectacles subassembly are insufficient to read what's on the patent. Perhaps I need to go to Specsavers...

 

Of course she knows. Britelyt sued Pelam over the brand name PETROMAX, patent infringements and restrictive trade. Part of the complaint was
"For several years before June 4 2009, Silver-Ray Kaiping a Chinese corportion, sold to the plantiffs, lanterns, cook stoves, and lantern parts, which Britelyt re-sold."

In 2013 the action failed and Judgement granted in favour of Pelam International. Within the docket there are several references to emails by Diana which show she knows very well that the factory is a Hong Kong company. This partial mail is because the HK company had told Britelyt they can only purchase from Pelam. ::Neil::

 

I'm confused, now, Neil - who wrote that email and sent it to whom?

 

Diana Draper to Pelam. It is one of the emails sent as evidence for the action Britelyt bought against Pelam. Shows she clearly knew where the lamps were made. ::Neil::

 

I may be completely wrong here but she seems to allude to the US military buying these lanterns for their use. I think she's off-base here. Most pressure lanterns were pretty much retired from US military service by the early 2000's, and those that were still in use were straight gasoline lanterns, i.e. SMP, Armstrong clones of the Coleman 252. The only kerosene US made lantern for military use I can think of was the Coleman 237B. Probably for the navy.
It was made during the war and I don't know of any kerosene lanterns made after that period for US military use. Trend in the US military seemed to be to get away from pressure lanterns all together and go for LED types.
Please correct me if I'm wrong.

 

There are 14 or so more pages to the patent. I wasn't preparing and posting all of the pages, I took time enough doing what I did to post for others benefit. What I didn't realise was, the Patent No wasn't in the initial page of information. I just assumed it was there and if anyone wanted to look at the patent themselves, they could look it up.

2002 Patent

https://pdfpiw.uspto.gov/.piw?PageNum=0&docid=06439223&IDKey=272A6ECEA398 &HomeUrl=http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2%26Sect2=HITOFF%26p=1%26u=%252Fnetahtml%252FPTO%252Fsearch-bool.html%26r=1%26f=G%26l=50%26co1=AND%26d=PALL%26s1=6439223.PN.%26OS=PN/6439223%26RS=PN/6439223

2005 Patent

https://pdfpiw.uspto.gov/.piw?PageNum=0&docid=06863526&IDKey=0ECDB08B3DDC &HomeUrl=http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2%26Sect2=HITOFF%26p=1%26u=%252Fnetahtml%252FPTO%252Fsearch-bool.html%26r=1%26f=G%26l=50%26co1=AND%26d=PALL%26s1=6863526.PN.%26OS=PN/6863526%26RS=PN/6863526

 

There are a number of patents by the Drapers that I assume, to be related to the BriteLyt lantern. Some of these are:
US6439223 B1
US6688877 B1
US6863526 B1
US6887071 B1
US7568911 B1
US9316367 B2
There are more but the above patents are what I have at hand and believe to be the closest ones.
However, I'd say that none of the above patents are related to the BriteLyt lantern that was posted by Fran in this thread.