Hello, I've inherited a lamp which I think is complete apart from mantles. Does anyone have any information about it? I might be looking to sell but it's a nice thing so I'd be interested in getting some mantels and giving it a go. Also, is it safe? Heating a vat of meths seems a bit risky on the face of it. I think there's supposed to be something in the end under the burner to heat the pipe. However i t just has a charred stump in the holder, is that something that people can point me in the direction of replacements for please? Thanks, Jamie
@Jamie Frost ‘Magic lantern’ illuminating lamp apparently. Text and photos from no-longer-current web auction. Someone here on CPL alerted members to an ebay auction a while ago. Vendor had (bravely!) lit it. Mantles of that pattern aren’t readily available. Here’s something similar, which I keep as a collectible. John
@Jamie Frost Original mantles are antiques Jamie, collectors’ items in themselves and long obsolete with no modern equivalent available. If I were not content with just having the lamp on display as a curio (I would be content) getting a flame would be my first priority. There’s potentially something inherently catastrophic in the apparatus however. Constriction or total blockage of the fuel line to the burner or its jet and since you’re heating a tank of meths supplying it with the meths heater it could go very badly. Not his patent for the device you have, but a publishing date for the example below of March 1898 tells you that WC Hughes’ magic lantern illuminator was from a similar period. True, Primus stoves were around at the same time and they can be got to work safely and well even now (I’ve done so) but this meths contraption isn’t in the same league as a tried and tested device such as a Primus, Svea or Aetna and the more volatile fuel makes it doubly dangerous.
@Jamie Frost I doubt it was ever much of a favourite with projectionists. Acetylene illuminants were effective and safer, believe it or not. Electric arc became the industry standard though.
I wonder if this could be made a bit more safe by fitting a valve on the tank and then using a Coleman style pump to pressurise the tank rather than boiling the fuel.
I don't believe so James. The design relies on vapourising the fuel in the tank, not in the feed tube or burner. An interesting lighting system Jamie Frost.
That's an interesting device. I'm somewhat a fan of such risky setups, or just about any related inventions that can potentially explode should things go wrong. Hardly any room for errors. It'll get some adrenalin running. Not exactly for the faint-hearted
