Here is my Wells no.14 lamp. Runs on either Paraffin or petrol, I'm just running it on paraffin, not feeling too adventurous. It takes quite a long preheat, even after that it still wants to flare as liquid fuel reaches the jet. Nearly lost my eyebrows, once it's got enough heat in it, it maintains vaporisation though. For some reason the built in preheat cup is tiny, it doesn't hold anywhere near enough meths, I had to use two Tilley clips one after the other.
Thanks guys. I've always fancied a lamp of this type, although I've seen a few, most have been naphtha flare lamps and I really wouldn't want to play with those. The fact that this one is a Wells, just makes it so much better for me. I think the wind does effect the flame quite alot, I've heard that in a good breeze you can get a 2 foot flame out sideways. It keeps going though, there is enough heat in the burner that it doesn't randomly flare with great balls of fire. Here are a couple of short videos I took whilst I'd got it going, you may want to turn the volume down, for some reason it's louder on the video than in real life. Vid 1 Vid 2
really good that matt i light some kettle lamps here sometimes big orange flames are kinda hypnotising like this lamp of yours i bet great stuff pete
We need a few more of these to turn up, to satisfy demand. Your right Pete, you could just sit and watch this for quite some time, perhaps on a summer evening when it's a bit warmer outside. Fingers crossed for Newark next year, get this hung up outside the awning and get some flames going.
Not too sure about that Nils, it's was originally advertised with a 7 hour burn time, but I'm not sure yet what the capacity of the tank is. A no.40, which was basically the same as this, had a 7 pint capacity and a 7 hour burn time, but those were available with double or single burners so I don't know which the 7 hours refers to. They did advertise my lamp as costing less than 1d per hour.
Hahaha, I hope it's fire retardant. Just hung it up outside and got it going again, no flare up today, I preheated it with a propane torch.
Thanks for sharing this Matthew It looks awesome when lit. I expect it doesn't luninate much and is quite a thirsty beast but I think I could sit and watch it for hours. Well done on aquiring it and well done for sharing the pics with us Regards Ozzy
I don't sign in very often and just found this post. I've recommissioned a couple of these flares now and have found they light quite easily, they weren't intended to be pre-heated with Meths but the fuel in the tank, I use just a slither of rag to help it along. One thing that worries me slightly is that the original poster has stated that they will run on Petrol, they were never intended for this fuel hence my post in hope it may save somebody a little too much excitement! The fuels stated for use are Petroleum and Kerosene. If all the ways are properly cleaned and the gauze and jet are in good fettle the flame should be very consistent and not be affected to much by wind, if large flares are occurring (two foot!), I would suggest improper vapourisation due to flooding of the burner? As mentioned above some flares of this era and prior were fuelled by Naptha, Wells ones actually have written in the casting "safety from explosion" owing to their use of the safer fuels.
Hi @Matthew92. I am based in South Africa and fell in love with AC Wells after purchasing a nr. 5B and nr. 18 lamp. I am on a mission to try to get the whole collection - perhaps ambitious, but I love challenges. By seeing your impressive AC Wells collection, I figured you would be a great person to get in touch with to point me in the right direction trying to locate AC Wells products in the UK especially seeing they are even more scares in South Africa. I would appreciate it tremendously if we could get in touch to share some thoughts, if you would be interested. If easier, my email address is: awjonk@gmail.com Thank you very much in advance. kind regards, Riaan Jonker
I have an A C WELLS #13 gas generating lamp. It seems to be missing the wire gauze in the burner. does anyone know where it goes and what gauge mesh it might be ? So I can give it a go. TIA Keith.
I had one of these that had a tripod. Unfortunately it was stolen from work. Only thing I inherited from my grandad.
