In a condition I’ll maintain, unrestored (apart from replacement of seals and pump cup washer) but in good working order. The patina (showing its age) is a delight … … the decals largely intact. Wartime economies with the use of steel for the fount - some argue it could have been for the sake of durability - and some components, such as the bail, are steel also. The pump and control cock are all-brass though. The hood’s enamel has aged gracefully too. Globe and cage support are reproductions incidentally. I have another Tilley with a steel fount, an EX100. Silver paint as opposed to the blue of the PL53. On the EX100 the control knob is in brass and the pump is partially of steel, with a rounded top to the brass pump knob. Neither of these Tilleys is equipped with a pressure indicator (pip). I know some steel fount examples did, but maybe it eventually occurred to Tilley that a steel fount (including the base) was robust enough not to require an over-pressurisation indicator. John
@Gerard It is, yes. A reproduction, from Base Camp (UK), the design pre-dating the manufacture of the lamp, but a plausible combination I think as a wartime replacement with older stock that happened to be available.
The WW2., Tilleys are interesting because any combination of brass and steel parts is possible. On The EX 100 the thread which the control cock nut screws onto is probably made from steel.
@JEFF JOHNSON The packing nut threads are steel as you say Jeff. I acquired the EX100 before your treatise on control cock types and it was interesting to have that confirmation, which you helpfully demonstrated with the use of a small magnet. Yes indeed, the Tilley tendency to use up parts bin residual components to assemble lamps must have gone into overdrive in wartime. John
Steel tanks seem to be thought of only as "war time". I have a 1935 "Letter to Agents" introducing the steel tank "primarily with the object of avoiding the heavy duty on brass goods". They go on to say "we like the result so much that we expect to adopt it as standard".
