I have noticed ( did not pay attention before, other than aesthetics) that British lanterns have the " air tubes" at the top, in a wheel spoke fashion and that the mantle goes through the generator, I find it quite interesting on the engineering level, I tried to find more information, as in cutaway drawings, or more detailed pictures on how it works, I wonder if somebody could post a couple of pictures of the burner section and the air intake?....I am thinking into trying to make a homebuilt "frankie" with some spare brass I have, to play with the idea. In this scientific experiment I may sacrifice a Coleman lantern ( a 1984 model 288,) in the name of knowledge... Werner
Do these help? Or do you need a cross-section? http://www.base-camp.co.uk/exploded%20views/Tilley/SP1.jpg http://www.base-camp.co.uk/exploded%20views/Tilley/SP1.jpg
If you're not too focused on British lamps, but as you say rather the engineering behind this burner type, you have a good cutaway drawing of a Primus burner here Spoiler It's a 1010, meaning a heater, but the lamps are the same, just with an incandescent mantle instead of the wire mesh ("G") you see in that drawing. The difference with the Primus burner from e.g. the Tilley is that the air tubes are below the mantle instead of above it. Otherwise it's the same principle. The entire instruction is found [url=http://0flo.com/index.php?threads/2075 (It's in Afrikaans.)
You might also look at US patents 1231673 and 1231715 which are for the Radiolite lamp burner. This is possibly the burner that inspired Fred Tilley when he invented his burner in the ealry 1920s. ::Neil::
A cross section would be very nice, I was looking at the Radiolite and the Primus heater burner and they look quite similar, I was thinking that a burner assembly like that could work with a Coleman 201 generator, but I am not sure, it could require some "shielding" to prevent generator overheating due of it being inside the mantle, I have been looking at some Tilley generators and they look very thick (sturdier) compared with a Coleman or even a Petromax.
It's not a cross section but I think it'll serve your purpose. Standard burner Under the cap the air tubes screw through both the outside and inside of the burner to mix cleanly with the fuel from the vaporiser. Minus the nozzle you can see the ledge inside that stops the burner from sliding too far down the vaporiser. Here's the U turn. The air/fuel mixture is forced through the holes in the bottom of the burner where they ignite. That's the way this redneck sees it.
Johns comment is very informative, now I can see how the "mixer" works, Now the other question I have, what kind of mantle do they use? I am thinking the Coleman lantern " donor fount and valve assembly" is around 200/220 CP? so an appropriate size would be in that range.
Hello Werner, The standard Tilley burner is rated at 300cp, so other than the difference in the size of your generator and the burner spigot your combination should match up pretty good. Here's a picture of a complete burner with the spigot installed, this particular one is for the table lamp. The standard 300cp mantle ties around the base of the mixing chamber and again at the tip of the nozzle, it's a straight through mantle so the gases coming out of the holes in the bottom of the chamber are inside the mantle. The Happy mantle shown works the same way except it uses a metal ring at the top instead of a string tie. Once the spigot is slid down over the vaporiser the properly heated gases head directly into the mixing chamber picking up oxygen as they go. The mixing chamber and all of it's brass components get very hot during operation. No doubt this helps since these were designed to burn paraffin/kerosene.
Seeing the mantle, I think the experiment would work better with a pre made burner assembly, I doubt the brass I have would stand the heat without molten metal flowing down the generator... I may have to search for a good old Tilley or Vapalux with a bad fount.
