Hiya, Although I've resprayed this Sears, Big Hat double, it was the usual 'blue' colour, prior to the refurbishing; so it did arrive untouched & 'as was'. I think Neil told me, that the dating seemed to be a bit skew whiff, as with the date mark on this one (4-1966), should by all intents & purposes, see it wearing a red coat of paint ? The black, on/off valve wheel knob, pictured, is what it also arrived with, so though there seems nothing to note there, could there be some benign clue, or further detail to be uncovered here ? I can vouch that it was the original factory spray works (as there was no sign of any base coating, & not a fleck of red upon it, anywhere) that I stripped away from the fount. This one is a bit of a mystery, the sellers details of this eBay purchase, seems to now not be available; but it's possibly longer than a year back, since being delivered. Having matched the blue, the nearest I could find, I then had to shelve this project, 'as I found myself trying to spin too many plates', due to curiosity, gluttony & dinner plate eye's desires; but I finally got 'go for launch' 20.00 hrs last night, & then had a lot of tricky trouble, lighting up the maiden flight. Half a box of match's later, I decided to turn it over two full turns, counter clockwise, which then correctly brought the necessary amount of fuel through, to alleviate . . . . .. . and encourage .. . ! I popped on a couple of Sears 'smallish' mantle socks, the Rayon type, & the lanterns been absolutely no problem at all, for touching 3 hrs now. As near as crikey, it seems that almost all the lanterns from the US, I've had a go at, tend to be just too bright to look at. This is incredible, I'm hardly ever disappointed with the light output Being extremely chuffed with how it's now behaving, & then also owing to all the work input I've spent with this one, I'm certainly 'well happy' that it's looking so great again. I'll load up the "before's", within this new reference model topic, a bit later. Hope it's enjoyed, cheers. "THUNDERBALL" by Sir Tom Jones, "what a belter of a ditty" ! Can ya see the Walther PPK ? Jon .
It can hardly be seen, but here's the dating numerals, from the base (it was clearer to see, before the new respray) :- The four (presumably for April) isn't as obvious, but the 66' on the right side, makes it a sharper looking 48 year old, than yours truly! The following shot, shows the lantern 'as was' before the fettle, & the rest are extra's, maybe of some interest. . . . . Extra's :- The 'over head' shots of these black gloss BH vents, can be morphed into neat works of art; this one 'looks' more like a standard vent, but some of the others I had a fiddle about with, ended up looking like the front end end of Thrust 2. . . . Jon .
This is intesting. 74070 was sold by Sears From Spring 1964 to Spring 1970 but changed the colour from red to blue somewhere in there. The catalogues don't mention colour much so the only references I have are from spring 1964 where cat number 7406 and 7407 are stated to be red and from Spring 1970 where 72212 is stated as Blue. In between they do not mention colour at all. I therefore assumed that the colour change was consistant with a catalogue number change from 7406/7 to 72212 in spring 1968. This is obviously not correct as this lantern is clearly from Spring 1966 and blue. So 7406 and 7 were made in blue from at least as early as 1966 two years before the catalogue number change. Useful info. ::Neil::
Hi Neil, It can be looked at again for confirmation (in Ebay.com), but I still don't have a pickled egging clue ! I'm looking for the "blue" with regularity, & have been for months but have never seen one under the hammer, dated to 65'. I've also never seen a red 7406/7 'without' that white star centered valve wheel, or vica versa, a red with the full black wheel (I obviously haven't seen them all though). I don't know, but could this be a possible lead to try and unearth some other clues, as to what actually did happen during the colour switch period. You know your onions, so from between as early as 64, up until 1970, is it that you suspect there could have been an earlier stamped 64 model, but in the blue ? I'd changed the model n.o, in the PC's, My Pictures' Sears folder, over to 476 72212, around the time this was being looked at before, within CPL; but I changed it back to 74070, when I realized recently that the collar info, told the model variant n.o. (completely forgot that). Check out a "No International Shipping" (yes, one of those ) lantern, currently listed down in America's Mr Bay (but mistakenly headed under 'Coleman Lantern'). It's dated on the base the same as my own, exactly; but if this one had the numerals 476 740'6'0, would that not signify anything more clearer ? I just can't fathom why the '6' later became a '7', with the middle distance blues; could it be that we'd not find a 'red 7', and only ever find the collar marked 'blue 7's', as the reds were '6's'. Could this have any helpful baring, possibly, I wonder ? I might just purchase the earlier red one, or the next time one's listed, message the Seller for the collar info, with the interest to buy, ect. Jon .
74060 is the narrow hood and 74070 the wide type. I dare say that by studying dates in the lamps we could tie down the date for the colour change better. The red one has always been harder to find and may only have been made for one season. Wants a survey I guess. ::Neil::
I have a small top 74060 marked on the collar as 476 74060 and on the fount as 1 67 this is blue with a black ventilator. No doubt that it is blue from manufacture.
Hi Gavin, The 74070 currently in US ebay, is in tidy condition, but the seller reckons it's never been used. That isn't quite right, you can see that its been burned, as the mantles are attached & obviously 'lit'. I asked if he could post it to England & he said "No problem", though the base is a bit rough (paint scuffs/ loss), that Big Hat looks to be possibly perfect ! Not much point in buying another one, my side, but I would like to own one of the lesser made, Sears 476 74070's or '6's', but the 'red' version. It might sound a crackpot reason (never been keen on Red, the colour itself ), but I want to know what that white star valve looks like, close up & also how or what it's made from, particularly the 'white star' ? Can't help being pedantic, ya see , so I'm looking out for either the '6' or the '7', with the red finish; & at a pinch, I reckon the small hat' would look nearly as good the bigger lid does. Cheers, Jon.
Some of my best info has come because someone has told me where I have made a mistake. I have told many people to please prove me wrong but make sure you can PROVE it. This string has corrected a misunderstanding which is great. ::Neil::
