Anybody that has got one of these, any chance of you putting on a picture of the heat reflector, together with measurements. I have cobbled one up for this, but it is obviously wrong looking at Neils. This one has got a brown and white hood, Neils appears to be black - why the difference ? Cheers Ian
This is one I got (via Santa Claus) from Base-Camp some years ago. They're not listed now but it still may be worth asking. I don't think it was more than a fiver at the time. Anyway:- The main part is steel, 6" square with the corners cut off 3/16" at 45 degrees. It's about 0.8mm thick. The folded bracket is about 5 1/2" long, 1" wide and 1/8" thick. The longer arm is 3 1/4" and the shorter is 2 1/4" (both overall and measured on the outside of the curve). The rivets are 2" apart - the inner hole is exactly in the centre of the plate; thus the outer hole is 1" in from the edge. The vertical part has its corners cut off by 1/4" at 45 degrees. The slot for the screw is 3/16" wide and angled upwards about 10 degrees at a guess. The bracket itself is also folded upwards about 10 degrees. Having it that way means you can mount the handle facing forwards i.e. as Tilley intended, directly above the centre of gravity of the lamp, thus reducing strain on your wrist. Hope that helps...
The hood colour change is just a date thing. Later versions from the late 1950s used the black 449 hood. You have to be careful with these because they were mainly used by the Railways and a lot of the lamps were fettled with mis matched parts. So it is always possible to get the "wrong" hood fitted. ::Neil::
Thanks for the measurements and pictures David, much appreciated. I rang Basecamp yesterday, but they didn't have any of the shields. Neil : What do you reckon the earliest date of the hood could be then ? Ian
Not sure. My AL8 is early 1950s. Black painted tank and black 449 hood. In the gallery it is as found and not restored. These lamps also turn up with gold painted tanks and I suspect the Gold versions had a brown hood and the two versions may well be contemporary. So either colour could be correct. The brown type goes back to the early 1930s ish. I don't know when the black 449 was introduced. That kind of detail is often not mentioned in the industrial catalogues. ::Neil::
iani - Your lamp has what looks like a Bialaddin/Vapalux pre heater fitted. A nice idea but I'm a little concerned that it isn't high enough in the up position and that you risk cracking the globe by using it. In Bialaddin/Vapalux lamps it goes up inside the globe in the raised position, such that the flames don't hit the glass. If I were going to use this idea then I would have a spacer made so that it sits at the correct hight.
Well, if you were using a normal Tilley pre-heating torch you couldn't get that inside the globe either...
True David, but you would usually set it so that the wick and by that token the flame is up inside the globe rather than licking around the base of it....
In practise though, it wouldn't make any difference - the globe would easily handle the heat (or at least, they all have for the past 15 years or so...)
Yes Gneiss Bialaddin/Vapalux pre heater Its one or the other I am not sure which - its has got Patent No 807427 on the articulated bit. Anybody have any info on the patent ?
Those of you who are interested in detail, the base of the tank is stamped Made in England in a straight line
