Australian Aladdin 1A This is one of the two lanterns that bought me in search of CPL and I finally felt confident enough to fettle it (couldn’t afford to stuff it up). It belonged to my grandfather and my father and now me. I can remember using it camping and catching crabs in the late 1960’s and early 70’s but it has hung in the rafters of the shed since then. According to my father, Pop never bought anything new and I suspect this lantern was no exception. The cage has had a major rebuild at some time and I suspect dad was involved. As you will see in the photo’s two of the cage supports and the clips to secure the hood on the cage have been replaced. The supports are steel rather than brass and have been turned on a lathe, riveted on the top (to the cage) and threaded on the bottom to take a nut. The hood locks are hammered brass. The lantern as it was when I recovered it. It still had a ¾ tank of kero which I took as a good sign (no leak from cracking). I pulled the lantern apart and gave it a bath in 1/3 vinegar mixture. The tank was originally painted green but the paint just washed off at this stage. I did consider repainting the tank but due to the worn plating on the rest of the components I decided to only lightly clean the tank and leave the patina. Here you can see the carbon build up around the cleaning needle with the vapourised removed. There was a crack in the skirt on the bottom of the tank but it hadn’t caused a leak yet so I decided to repair it. Started by drilling a 1mm hole at the end of the crack to relieve the stress and prevent the crack going any further. Then I fashioned a patch out of brass to fit under the skirt and strengthen the tank. Both the tank and the patch were tinned with 50/50 soft solder before sweating them together. Cleaned it all up with a dremel. The solder filled most of the crack and the drill hole. The hood was badly rusted in places but no holes so I cleaned off as much as possible and treated the rust with phosphoric acid. I have sprayed the hood with a clear High Heat Ceramic lacquer to seal the treated metal. The hood was baked in an oven at 200 deg Celsius to cure the lacquer. It will be interesting to see how the lacquer performs over time. The components inside the hood were a mixture of brass and steel. Note the pump tube is copper not brass. (I believe this to be original) When the paint came away it opened up two pin holes in the joint around the pump tube which required resoldering. Replaces all the seals inc. lead seals on the tank and the vapouriser. Rebuilt NRV and pump. The cleaning prick was missing so made a new one. De coked the vapouriser. And reassembled the lantern. Preheating the lantern on the work bench. Testing without a mantle. Fitted a cheap mantle for its first firing. (Late afternoon) Later that night after 2 hrs running.
Martin Excellent! . It is such a pleasure to see a lantern with such sentimental value back in service. They are a workhorse these old Aussie Aladdins. Cheers Tony
Good to see it up and running. You did a good job with the fettling. Any idea when your Grandad would have bought it? This is of course a lantern with sentimental value and as such should be treasured, but for others looking at the lantern I should point out that the top must have been exchanged at some point in it's life. The enameled top was never offered with the painted tank version.
Thanks for the positive comments everyone. Nils, Thanks for pointing out that the hood is wrong on the 1A with a painted tank. It had not occurred to me as the hood has been on this lantern as long as I can remember. But I think I can correct this. As I said in the start of this post there were two lanterns. The second is also an Aladdin 1A but a later version (2 ?) and Nickel plated. I can’t be sure but it is very possible the hoods were swapped. This is the second lantern (fettled) and as you can see it has the nickel / brass hood. There is a lot of corrosion caused by salt water on the hood as this one we used prawning in saltwater lakes. It had also hung in the rafters of the shed since the mid 1970’s. I can’t date Pop’s lantern but dad said he purchased the nickel lantern for lighting the garage he and mum lived in whilst they built their house. That was 1951/2. Here I have switched the hoods over.
That looks a lot better. The hoods must have been swapped some time in the past. I'm a bit surprised that the enamell hoods were already around in the early 50s. The first nickel plated lanterns had nickel plated hoods as well and I assumed they were introduced in the late 40s. The painted tank version didn't start until 1940 or just after. It's hard to get good timelines on any of the variations as any advertising that can be found doesn't mention any of the changes.
Good job there curious about nuts on cage pillar bottoms, 10+ painted lamps & bitsers here are all riveted and hood clips all have tab to open them. I think your Grandpa or someone did a bit of fettling. Graham
Nils, There is no guarantee the hoods were swapped. The nickel lantern may have had the nickel hood all along. The cage of the green tank has had a major rebuild (as Graham has just commented on). The damage that initiated the rebuild may have also destroyed the original hood and the enamel hood was one they obtained (more speculation). Graham, your right the cage components are handmade. Dad was a machinist (fitter & turner) so making the parts would have not been a problem to him (more speculation).
Looking at the style of handle and the pump knob on the nickel lantern, I tend to agree with your latest theory. From the examples I have seen with the enamelled hoods, they usually have a handle without the small loop and a plastic pump knob. Maybe the hoods should be swapped again.
Nils, as you said earlier details are scarce. Either way they are both going after many years in the dark. Thanks again for all the inputs. Martin Here is a shot of the two old girls operating together.
Awesome. Great story, real family history there. A very fitting restoration, and you got both working. Well done. I had never heard of Aladdin lanterns until about 3 weeks ago.
Great job Martin, love the family history. When I come across old lanterns from grand parents she’d /estates I always ask if there’s a story behind them and usually there is.
