Have acquired this one …….any information would be appreciated. On underside has Veritas made in England????
Wow I have never known one of those to work without hours of fettling. The last few I found all have cracked tanks. Well done
It's a Veritas brass duplex lamp and it's probably from the 1960's or later. I would dismantle it and give each part a good clean and that includes the inside of the tank, the glass chimney and shade should be carefully washed in look warm water and washing up liquid and then gently rinsed. It's best to fit new wicks and the wicks need to be properly trimmed before the lamp is lit, the tank should be filled with clean paraffin to just below the filler cap and the wicks should be fitted into the burner which should then be screwed into the tank and the wicks should be left to soak in the paraffin overnight, that method ensures that the capillary action will work, if the wicks are not allowed to soak for long enough then they will burn rather than the paraffin. If there are wicks already fitted to that burner and they look okay, then I would wipe them down with a damp cloth to remove the dust and use them, my method for trimming flat wicks is as follows, trim the ends which are going to be lit flat, then cut a small part from each corner at an angle, so that the part of the wick which is lit is slightly narrower than the rest of the wick, that will stop the flame from bulging and blackening the glass chimney, if the chimney does get blackened, then turn the lamp off and let it cool completely and then use damp newspaper to clean the chimney.
