Hi all, This is the "Semi Pressure Single" hanging lamp made by the New Speciality Mfg. Co. from Council Bluffs, Iowa. This company seems to have started 1903 and from the "History of Pottawattamie County, Iowa Volume 1 1907, one can read....... "( THE NEW SPECIALTY MANUFACTURING COMPANY. Incorporated with F. J. Duerr, president and manager; A. C. Walker! vice-president; C. E. Woodbury, treasurer, and John Gretzer, secretary. The business of this establishment embraces the manufacture of gasoline lamps and lighting appliances, gasoline engine and automobile repairing, general machine work, steel frame pitless wagon and stock scales; also make castings in gray iron, brass, copper, bronze and aluminum, and do nickel and copper plating. Location, No. 43 to 47 North Main street, Council Bluffs.)" .......... That's about what I have of information for this company, maybe someone can add some more to it. This lamp is exterior wise in the style of the contemporary "gravity lamps", but is a "true" pressure lamp. Gravity lamps uses the atmospheric pressure given from a tank above down to the burner part feeding the fuel necessary for vaporizing. This lamp has a pump valve attached to the bottom of the C-shaped mixing tube. A thin tube goes up into the tank and by pumping air into the valve you pressurize the tank and fuel feeding system. I had to solder some small leakage in the tank and get a burner and shade for it, but surprisingly that's all I had to do to make it work. I recon this lamp was made around 1910, but I have no paperwork to proof it. I don't really know what they meant by "Semi Pressure" as this lamp works on the genuine pressure lamp principle. Low pressure lamps I've heard of; often with the old "Arc" style pressure lamps, but semi pressure is new to me. Anyone who knows, and can educate me :-) ? A nice odd lamp worth the effort of restoring. From the same company I have a "Stand Lamp" with the same burner unit as for the "Single" hanging lamp. That lamp needs a lot more restoration before it will run, if it ever will. /Conny
Hello Conny, it's a splendid lamp! This is also the first time that I have heard the term semi pressure, Jeff.
yes, yes, the same system as Marvel or Very Best gravity lamps but they have added a pressure system to force the gasoline. very ingenious indeed
Odd little company with a limited range of lighting. Here is a part of the company history from the PLC. ::Neil:: I suspect the company made and sold a variety of goods and not just gasoline lighting because in the 1910 census Fred gives his occupation as manager of a Novelty company and in 1920 as manager of a manufacturing company. As we have seen just the two lamps listed above if they were making gasoline lighting for about 18 years I would have expected more to have turned up by now. Also because the two lamps are essentially of an old fashioned type typically only made up to about 1912 I would have expected to see inverted mantle lamps by this company from the period after WW1 and the early 1920s when match lighting technology was commonly being introduced. I concluded that whatever Fred was making after WW1 it was not gasoline lamps. It is of course possible he was retailing other manufacturers product but not marking them with his company name so unless some evidence appears we may never know if that was the case. There is no evidence to give a clue of the size of this business except for the Fire service plans of the premises which indicate it was not a large business and probably never employed more than 10 people. From the Council Bluffs City Directories it appears that Fred Duerr and Ole Steinbaugh were the only company officers directly involved in the running of the business. Ole Steinbaugh is listed in the 1904 to 1906 directories as Foreman in the factory but from 1907 is listed as a machinist and in the 1910 census is working in another business so it appears he only worked for New Specialty for two or three years. Fred’s long time partner John Gretzer is shown in these directories as an officer of the company but in the 1910 census he gives his occupation as Fruit Farmer. Charles Woodbury was a Dentist in Council Bluffs and I can’t imagine a Dentist spending a great deal of time in a factory. Albert C Walker was a Real Estate Agent with his own company Walker-Larson Co. and it is a reasonable supposition that he and Fred Duerr worked together in that business before forming the company and I assume he remained in the Real Estate business. A later addition to the directorship in about 1913 was Henry W. Hazelton but he is listed as an assistant Cashier in the Council Bluffs Savings Bank. I therefore concluded that Fred was the guy running this business with Ole initially working the machinery and the other directors were company officers who may have invested money and dealt with the company business but had full time employment elsewhere.
Thanks Neil for the complementary information, I couldn´t find it in the CPL. What do you say about 1910 for manufacturing year? /Conny
