I acquired this at least 15 years ago and it must be ten since I last ran it, so a bit of recommissioning was in order before it got to this lit state. R55 generator with a priming cup, sliding door in the mica globe for access. I dismantled the lantern to inspect parts, noticing a few jobs to do. One was a nick in the priming cup. No big deal, but a fill with silbraze put it right. The R55 generator was new, old stock. I remember having done these twisted wire repairs to secure breaks in the top rail of the frame. Still a bit wobbly, so I flowed silbraze into the joins, which made for a more rigid structure. The ‘ears’ on the sliding access door of the mica globe had long since broken off. A strip of tinplate cut to shape and soldered to the door restored ease of use. The graphite packing for the valve spindle was in need of replacement. Turns out only one of the two graphite strips in the picture was enough. Once the packing nut was tightened, the loose fill of graphite compressed into a solid piece. Some details. Control knob form and inscription. The Coleman Canada logo and the date. Stamped inscription on the cage base plate. John
That's the beauty of those old Coleman's , it doesn't matter if its 10 or 100 years old , a little easy fettling and its a working lantern just like it was fresh out of the factory in the 20's . I took a 327 camping and used it as a night light for my son , burned right outside the tent and it burned all night , morning came and it was still faintly burning.
The nick in the priming cup was made at the factory, and it once held a piece of asbestos string wicking. Not all Coleman priming cups had this, but some did. Such wicking is sometimes seen in Coleman 237 type priming cups as well. I don't know that I've ever seen wicking in a 249 cup. anybody got one???
Doh! Oh well. The generator vapourises so rapidly on a quarter cup of alcohol, a wick to prolong pre-heat seems unnecessary. The earlier Q99 ‘loop’ generator was intended to pre-heat with a couple of matches held to it after all.
Not to prolong heating, just a small loop of wicking to facilitate lighting what's in the cup. A piece of string, similar to what mantles tie on with. Some early Primus cups were similarly equipped.
@burndout Ah, I see. I think that rather than re-cut that nick I’ll indulge in the jet flame of one of these. A fusion of old and new.
I think this is a Coleman model 427K "Sentry" kerosene lantern not L427. To some extent the pre heater cup indicates kero but I think I see one of the punched dimples in the upper air tube to locate the inner restrictor which is definitive for 427K. ::Neil::
@Mackburner Thanks for the information Neil. I see another dismantling in prospect to confirm there’s a restrictor in the air tube as you suggest. Meanwhile, a worn pump cap hole led to an unacceptable measure of slop in the pump action. I used a pump cup boss from a scrap stove to install in the Coleman cap, threading the cap hole to secure the boss prior to silbrazing. The slots in the boss’s threads are to enable the silbraze to flow. I applied silbraze to the upper surface of the cap for ease of access and to prevent silbraze flow onto the threads. Excess machined off, cap polished and the pump rod assembly re-assembled. Installed in what may well be a paraffin lantern … to be continued!
@spiritburner @Carlsson Ross, Christer, could one of you amend this lantern designation in the title to L427K please? Identity confirmed as Neil suspected, it’s a paraffin lantern. Thanks Neil! Some dismantling. The ‘dimple’ … … which secures the air restrictor tube. Fuelled up with paraffin (kerosene) and mantled up with a couple of Coleman #21’s. A spirit prime and it’s fired up beautifully.
Thanks! Sorry Christer. I see there’s a separate entry in the Reference Gallery for these kero 427’s so maybe the whole thread should be moved there? John
Night fell. A brilliant kerosene light. @Mackburner Neil, I wonder if you could clarify something for me? It’s to do with terminology and the working of that restrictor tube you drew my attention to. ‘Restrictor’ maybe implies that it reduces gas flow, but it surely acts as a venturi, creating a partial vacuum within the restriction, drawing in more air through the air tube inlet. Given that the jet is primarily designed to meter gasoline - and gasoline jet orifices are larger than kerosene ones - the extra air drawn in by the restrictor ensures that too rich a kerosene/air mixture is prevented. Or is my reasoning flawed? In the camp stove context I’m more familiar with the restrictor tube provided to enable an Optimus 111T to burn alcohol (with a jet change also) doesn’t work so well. Probably because there’s no air tube and the vapourised fuel/air mixing chamber length is so much shorter than in a lantern. John
I'm not sure it was intended to act as a venturi although it will of course due to the changes in pressure and gas velocity at the diameter change points. I do know that restrictor was to change the mixture for use with kero but I would have thought that was determined before the start of the restrictor. Quite how it functions I am not sure. Maybe it is more to do with the distance from gas tip to mixing tube and how much air the gas stream can gather before it enters the tube in a similar way to moving the J tube in a Petromax type lamp does. Restricting the air flow to change from gasoline to kero was done later by Coleman by reducing the air intake tube with a plug at the intake point and you can see that in the 157-159 series of kero lamps. A similar restriction was done by Aladdin in the PL1 and some SunFlame lanterns where one of the two air intake tubes is closed off with a tab for kero. That suggests to me that the restriction is to reduce the air ratio of the mixture so the result is richer than for a gasoline burner. ::Neil::
@Mackburner I’m grateful for your reply Neil. Thank you. I’ll content myself that it works, and very well too. John
I’m thinking that a low pressure in the mixing chamber is caused by the Bernoulli principle also known as the venturi effect. It’s caused by the velocity of the high pressure stream of vaporised fuel out of the restrictive jet into and through the mixing chamber causing a pressure drop. The air rushing in through the air tube to equalise the mixing chamber’s lower pressure would be restricted somewhat by the added restrictor tube thereby causing a greater fuel to air ratio, a richer fuel mixture, as depicted in the following attached diagram. This effect works much like a carburettor does on a car engine ...... the earlier versions of course. Basically as Neil said. Just my ponderings Cheers Pete
Thing is Pete, in camp stoves, burners capable of vapourising kerosene as well as gasoline utilise a jet change. The air supply is a constant. A smaller jet orifice for kero than the gasoline jet is what works, creating a leaner fuel/air mixture for kero burning than is the correct (richer) ratio when gasoline is the fuel. Something to do with the greater energy content of kerosene over gasoline. That’s counter to what’s being suggested in the case of a pressure lamp.
//////////:::::::::........ The smaller jet approach were also used by Coleman in US and Toronto with others like Akron in an earlier time frame.
Interesting, thank you @coleman54 Kerosene fuelled pressure appliances ideally requiring a leaner fuel/air mixture than their gasoline equivalent is for sure the case. I say ‘ideally’ because some manufacturers in the stove sphere at least go for the marketing attraction of selling a stove capable of burning kerosene or gasoline without a jet change, or restrictor tube. An Optimus Nova or their Polaris is a case in point. It’s a compromise and other manufacturers - Coleman, MSR, Primus, offer different generator tips or jets suitable for kero or gasoline. The Nova jet orifice is optimised to burn gasoline and kerosene runs too rich with it - yellow in the flames. A jet re-size made all the difference.
