I've just come across these images which I took just before my last camera stopped working. This burner was on a Tilley X246 bought at a farm dispersal sale many years ago. One can only wonder what sort of a life the lantern had had, how many hours and how many gallons of paraffin it had burned, how many vapourisers, mantles, glasses and seals it had seen.
I'd reckon that didn't happen overnight and it was somehow still working with the burner severely eroded as such.
That's a new one on me, Jean, and it's not in my Oxford Compact Dictionary. Presumably the opposite of replenish - unless it's from the Doric of course...
Ooh - a new word - I like ! according to the internet of fibs things it is indeed a Doric/Scots word.
Yes, looking further into it, it seems to be more a Scottish word than other parts of the UK. Whatever, it's definitely 'Word of the Month', Jean, and I think you should have a little banner under your avatar like they do on CCS for 'Stove of the Month'...
Once upon a time, I had the idea of creating a black museum but it never materialised. Another potential exhibit would have been the glass from a Bialaddin 315 (again, from a farm dispersal sale) and was an excellent example of why damaged mantles should be replaced as soon as possible. Long since confined to the rubbish bin and no images, a description is all I can offer. Suffice to say the intense localised heat of the invisible flames escaping from the damaged mantle had melted the glass which then sagged and left two holes, more or less opposite each other and somewhere between 8 and 12mm across. Surprisingly, the glass was still in one piece when I first saw it before the auction began but by the time I won the lamp, the glass had cracked horizontally in two. I do wish I'd kept it, I think it would have been an interesting (occasional) addition to my display at vintage rallies.
These aren’t as bad as Henry’s burner, but worth a look: The Buggered Burners that I’ve Met Cheers Tony
@Tony Press - yes I have had a Guardsman burner with the "droop" like that. Nothing was salvagable bar the spigeot and one air tube nut. C
Hum .. remarkable and as @MYN said it didn’t happen overnight ?? Just wondering if anyone has ever run a Tilley on a higher octane mix and seen the effects? I’m aware of the potentials.. Would everything run hotter??
Based on my experience I suspect that did happen overnight. I bet it went to overburn and it wasn't noticed until it got so hot the brass started to decompose and burn itself. Scary. I wonder what eventually stopped it. Ran out of fuel or it melted the vapouriser. Either way probably best the owner wasn't around. It doesn't take long for overburn to make the air tubes droop and the burner body to go triangular in shape. Seems like this one continued way past that stage.
“Overburn” is a term @JonD uses to mean what most of us mean by “underburn”. That is, where the gases ignite inside the mixing tube and continue burning in there, rather than burning as flamelets outside the burner at the flame holes where the mantle is tied. Edit: It is usually accompanied by a roaring sound rather than a hiss. Tony
Would this be caused by a loss of air pressure sufficient enough to push the flames out of the burner?
“Underburn” is a widely used term. There’s no need to invent another one because it’s a Tilley lamp or it’s on CPL. The reason “underburn” is used is that the failure of correct ignition (burning inside the burner, rather than outside the burner) happens before the appropriate point of ignition. The same phenomenon in stoves where the incorrect burning occurs under the burner cap is called “underburn”. In many older gaslights and liquid fueled lamps the mantle was upright… the underburn would have been under not over… Tony
