A 1930 U30 Primus 1001 All Nickle-Plated Hood, Solid Control Cock, Gauze Burner, so its on the early side of the 1930 "transition" year. Running lovely! This lamp was in a horrible, rusty seized condition but has cleaned up to a very acceptable standard! The fount has lost most of its nickle, the resulting surface being like the surface of the moon. It had a session of autosol and wire wool to remove the corrosion and a light polish to preserve the surface. The only proper way to do it would be to strip the nickle off completely and have it re-plated or polished brass. The overall condition however didn't lend itself to such extravagance... The cage and collar were rusty under a layer of silver spray-paint. They went in the electrolysis tank to remove the rust and paint. Traces of the original (tinned?) coating remain here and there, quite a lot on the collar. It was a toss-up between VHT silver or VHT clear-coat, I went with clear-coat as it matched the overall patina. The hood was a blackened mess, it was lightly boiled for a while in a tartaric acid solution to remove the bulk of the filth and then given a light polish to protect it. The spindle was seized and the pricker rod missing, it was gently coaxed/lapped out and the shaft cleaned/straightened. I managed to source a pricker rod. The burner was full of spider carcasses and the gas mixing dome missing. An email to Fogas later and a mixing dome, nipple and cleaning needles were on their way. The threads on the spigot for the mixing dome are quite worn/burnt so I gave them a wipe with exhaust paste on assembly, seems to have sealed it all nicely. I assembled it and gave it a test fire to make sure everything was OK. That bloody mantle was a swine to fit, what a pig of an idea I got globes which appear to be 130x130mm, advertised to fit 1001/1050 lanterns but it is a very sloppy fit in this cage. I lan to get a couple of Mica ones made up slightly larger to suit it. Alec.
@spiritburner I'm not sure why the burner image has popped up as the main image, I hoped the running one would? Alec.
Nice work, @Rangie. I always set the main image by loading it first, and clicking “full size”, then loading the rest of the images. Cheers Tony
Hi Alec, I have one in more or less the same condition. Well done on your fettle she certainly looks nice! Cheers Jacques
I know you shouldn't really have favourites but I love a Primus 1001..... Photos from 2025 Running with the enormously thick (3mm) replacement glass supplied from some sources: Running an original Mica Globe: Comparing the hours I have run it versus the number of photos I've taken/posted, it just goes to show what a tremendous workhorse it is, it just gets on with it Alec.
Bit of a faux pas last night, it was running nicely and then the light output changed slightly. Hmm, thinks, must need pricked... Err, no. Whoopsie: Went back to it tonight do the necessary, fresh mantle burned in without any glass/mica: Noticed a tiny weep from the spindle, it will need re-packed. As I recall it only just nipped up after it was refurbished, so it'll need fresh packing. The spindle was also bent like a banana and straightened at the time, so its perhaps still fractionally out of alignment. TBC. Alec
