Recently picked up the lamp as shown. It is a Tilley, but definitely doesn't have the correct glass etc. The glass support is home made and the hood is made out of an old baked bean tin or something similar. The glass has vapalux written on it. It does work. Question is, does anyone what what it is, and what the correct the correct hood/glass should be.
Well that’s different, necessity is the mother of invention, someone has gone to great lengths to keep it going. Very cool
It most probably started life as one of these 1962 Tilley R1A Radiator and a previous owner has converted it to one of these 1950's Tilley conversion unit with a home-made CH1 conversion hood
They haven’t made tin cans like that for years.. the ends of the air tubes are different.. maybe home made too? Nice
Stripped it down this evening and made a start on cleaning. Looks like the hood has been made out of a coffee tin.
Perhaps you could add an image of the burner's air tubes and that date code stands for December 1963.
Thanks for the image and in my opinion, the extensions of those burner tubes are also home made, those extensions were most likely required because of the diameter of the coffee tin and tins were made of decent metal back then.
Unless the glass was replaced later, the conversion must have been after 1968, as Willis and Bates didn't revert to the Vapalux brand until the end of that year. '69 or '70 perhaps?
If that R1A conversion was mine, I would find a radiator heater burner and a guard. Then you could have an original R1A radiator, and you can use the home made conversion as well, depending on what you want at the time, example a heater or lamp. You just slip off the conversion and slip on the burner head, 2 seconds and done.
@Rich F Looks to be cleaning up well there interesting last image also appears to be the shorter vapouriser that was used with the lanterns..
Had it running this evening for several hours. Have decided to leave it as it is as it works well, and obviously has some history.
It's cleaned up nicely, congratulations A previous owner has gone to a lot of trouble to make a working lamp. It would have been a shame to have discarded his work.
Your lamp/lantern/ heater looks great, as an original conversation piece I’d leave it as is, it’s cleaned up a treat. Not everything needs to be extra shiny and perfect, I like original as found patina and all. You have hours of fun there. The globe is very cool. As I’ve said earlier someone has gon to great lengths to my it a going lamp. The sun in a jar
