This is my Tilley 264B. It has a strange shield on it that I haven't seen before. Is anyone familiar with this shield? Is it an original accessory? It's definately not something home made. I assume it's function is to not blind persons who stand behind the lamp so that things in front are better visible at night but I have no idea in what context this shield was made. This is a dutch lamp (well, I bougth it in the Netherlands). Date code is 185, so it was made in january 1985.
Interesting. I do not think it is a Tilley made product. These were sold to fishermen, where the shield would be very useful. It may be an add-on from a fishing tackle supplier. Are there any retailer labels on or underneath it ?
Hi @GuidoK it’s an interesting lantern and it would be good to see some more photos of how the shield is attached? The handle appears different where it pivots on the cage as well? regards
Here are some more photo's of the shield and how it's attached. The shield is basically a bent piece of embossed aluminium sheet, with at the top a piece of wire (with eyelets bent into it on the outsides) attached to it by rolling over the sheet, and at the bottom a strip of steel attached to it (also by bending the sheet over it) that functions as a strap (with a carterpin to twist to tention the strap) I had to look twice to other lamp pictures regarding your remark about the handle, and indeed it's different. The ends have a 90deg bend in them to clear the eyelets from the shield. So consequently the handle also doesn't click into the 2 little bumps in the cage to stand upright, but the handle can still stand upright because those bends (or at least, one of them) rests against one of the eyelets in the upright position. Here are the eyelets at the top that fall over the parts of the cage where the handle attaches to it. inner side of the shield: back side of the shield: As you can see, there are no stickers, or stamped markings that reference a brand or model. When I bought it used (in '08), there also weren't any sticker residues. I also think the most likely manufacture and selling purpose back in the days would've been a fishing tackle supplier. I don't know anything about fishing (other than that the worm goes onto the hook), so I don't know how a lamp is used with night fishing (do you use it to have light when you sort out the tackle, or is light used to lure fish or is it used to just see the bobber at night), so I'm not really sure how a shield would benefit for this use. Another use I thought about was maybe on a boat to illuminate the deck without blinding the captain in the cabin or something like that. But as this lamp is from 1985, which I think is quite late, I can't imagine by that time boats still relied on pressurelamps for light and not have electric lights to do this job when the boat is still running (and thus the engine is turning over). In the 50's, 60's and 70's maybe, but 80's?
The purpose of the shield/reflector is to do one or both of the following: direct by reflection more light to the open side, and/or prevent light interference on the shaded side. There are a number of lamp manufacturers that made side reflectors for their lanterns (eg Coleman, Petromax, Austramax) but as said above, yours is not a proprietary Tilley product. I've used such style side reflectors while fishing from a boat, dinghy, and shore, as well as while camping to minimise light impact on other campers. Yours could very well be a one-off workshop job, but in any case, it's a good piece of gear. Cheers, Tony
It sure does look well made, and a handy thing to have in any lamp collection. How about a photo outside showing how well it works? Congratulations mate.
