I broke the original clay burner before I even started the new lamp, but with hindsight maybe it was a good thing as it was so loose it would probably have fallen off. New properly fitting burner fitted and one of the supplied helios mantles fitted. Lamp was checked over before hand for loose things and correct adjustment. Nothing found wrong. So IPA into the spirit burner and some agitated onto the mantle and lit to allow mantle to burn. Once cooled down, some paraffin decanted into the fountain lamp pressurised and checked for leaks. Sigh far so good so pressure released. Spirit burner refilled and lit and main valve open abs vent closed. The anticipation was increasing. When nearly burnt out IPA, a few strokes on the pump and the lamp lit!, allowed the mantle to shrink a bit and increased the pressure and waited for the remaining soot to burn off the mantle. After a while pressurised to working pressure and marveled at the light and sound and heat. Just allowing it to burn now to make sure everything is as it should be. There was just a hint of pulsing in the beginning but that has now died right down. I'm not convinced about the 500 candle power output, but until I get my genuine Petromax running, I have nothing to compare it against. For now a working Chinese Petromax. And the postman has just been and delivered these
Sorry about the mistakes in the posts above, I was using my phone to post on the forum and the predictive text has a habit of changing my words!. It would be interesting to see what a Chinese lamp is like after 60 years though I'm sure there are plenty of copies out there and as someone has already stated, the Chinese will make anything to a price. This particular lamp is made for Petromax.DE or whoever it is whom owns the brand name these days, I believe, they have the parts made in China and shipped to Germany for final assembly, it's probably to get round paying the tax on a completed unit, but what do I know. But hopefully the parts are better made than some cheaper copies, but I've already noticed a few little things different, like the origionals the posts around the glass are all tapped and have screws going into them, whereas the Chinese has threaded ends with nuts and washers and the quality of finish on the underside is not as good, as well as some of the small parts.
If the Chinese Petromax is working properly(as it should), there shouldn't be much or any difference in light output as compared to genuine Petromax (German-made) lanterns of the same ratings. The same goes for many other clones. The Chinese Petromax lanterns are not made with the same machines and toolings as the originals. Their shapes and geometries are not exact copies of the originals. The one you're having here was quite well-made anyway. The curves have larger radii as compared to the originals. Just from my opinion, that difference could probably be deliberate so as not to induce as much stress on the metal(brass) during the stamping/pressing steps. With less induced stresses from the cold-working, it could well be possible to skip the annealing/heat treatment entirely. Omitting this step in manufacture means a big cost reduction. Post heat treatment is usually necessary to relieve the stresses created from cold-working the metal. Brasses are very prone to stress cracks originating from cold-working/hardening. The sharper and more defined (smaller radii on the curves) the features, the greater the importance of the post-annealing step.
