This rare lamp landed here Saturday. Made by the Provincial Incandescent Fittings Company, PIFCO model 987 which is illustrated in the 1924 and 1925 PIFCO catalogues. Most PIFCO product was bought in and retailed but this appears to be unique and I suspect was commissioned by PIFCO. I had thought it might be a Nulite burner unit on a Coleman tank but this is not the case as the parts are not quite right for those Nulite although the tank may well be a Coleman with some minor modification to the way the cones and fibre handle are fitted. It has a built in pricker which is a one piece rod and needle inserted into a thin brass tube which in turn is inserted into the generator. As the needle was broken I made a new rod from a cut down Anchor pricker and then turned down a HASAG pricker to screw into the top. 1924 is early for such a pricker arrangement and not at all common in a match lighting lamp of the period. I had to re tap the bottom thread as the Anchor was too wide. Just managed this by crowding an 8BA die. It only just grabs the eccentric block thread but seems to be secure enough. As the Anchor rod is thicker I could not replace the inner tube. The filler cap has a needle valve with a cycle pump thread. This is not a later mod as it clearly shows in the catalogue illustrations. The needle valve is steel and badly rusted so the threads have failed and it will not shut off so to run the lamp I have screwed a Schrader valve into the cap. As ever I have fettled it to run before attempting a major clean. I did however clean the burner tubes as this is part of the fettle to run rather than cosmetic. As far as I know it is the only one in captivity as I don't know of another. Probably more out there though as yet unfound. ::Neil::
Good work neil,nice to see it up and running,glad its gone to a good home,look forward to the after clean up pics maybe with a shade?tony
It did not clean up well. The plating was too far gone so whilst I have cleaned it there is almost no difference. I ted to show lamps like this without a shade because it hides so much detail. Not sure I have one that will fit but I will have a look. ::Neil::
Pifco were certainly capable of commissioning (possibly 'making' but deemed unlikly) unique items. I've not seen this petrol Pifco stove or similar by any other manufacturer: PIFCO Petrol Stove
OK here is an after clean shot. The plating is rough but I am reluctant to take it off as I prefer to leave stuff in original condition if possible. Sign of its age. ::Neil::
Yes, Jeff, I'm sure I'd be able to find space for it, too! When I was a lad in the late '50s and '60s, Pifco wasn't a brand name held in great esteem due to the amount of cheap and nasty-ish stuff they imported from the Far East. Perhaps their fortunes had waned by that time. BTW, Neil - it's about time you got around to ironing that sheet!
Hello David, i recall that Pifco sold a range of battery torches in the 1960's, but i'm not sure what the build quality was like. The link below shows the results of a Google search for them, Jeff. Link
I have recently been looking at this lamp because a few months ago I discovered the same lamp advertised in a TEROSO catalogue. Knowing that neither Pifco nor Teroso actually made lamps I was discussing the details of the tank construction with an American friend and we concluded the tank was not a Coleman construction and then Larry made a discovery which I should have spotted and missed which was that the Lampe Dome made by Lilor in Paris used the same burner and valve/pricker unit. A search of Lilor paper came up with a parts detail for the Lampe Dome and it is clear that whilst the handle and dome shade are different all the rest of the lamp construction is exactly the same as my Pifco table lamp. Here is the page from the 1924 Lilor Catalogue which clearly shows the burner construction. I have to conclude that the Pifco and Teroso lamps were imported Lilor Product. ::Neil::
That's solved that mystery then! The link below is for the Pifco catalogue. https://classicpressurelamps.com/threads/1925-26-pifco-catalogue.2589/
Neil, the Lilor parts list and catalogue info is already there on my 2011 post of my Lilor Dome Lamp No.1988. Your PIFCO lamp has obviously the same burner setup as the Lilor Dome lamp with one exception….the air intake tube is not curved on the Lilor lamp, but a short straight one. Hasag table lamp No.97 seems to be a copy, or the original??, to the Lilor Nr 1988 Dome Lamp. /Conny
Yes I found the Lilor info on the Dome model 1988 post but only after an eagle eyed American had spotted the burner arrangement on my Pifco was the same as the Dome. It was a detail I had missed. I knew Pifco hadn't made the lamp and whilst the same lamp was advertised as Teroso they didn't make anything either so finding a manufacturer who made that burner was significant. Minor variations such as air tube shapes are not really that important as that can be easily modified for a particular model. The main burner parts and the tank are identical so there can be no doubt they were made in the same place. The earliest catalogue listing I have for this type of burner is Lilor 1924. The Hasag Catalogue with the same lamp is 1928 so I suspect Lilor designed and built it first. Mind you since both Lilor and Hasag had the ability and capacity to make the range either is a possible manufacturer. For now I will go with Lilor since that is the earliest evidence I have info on and I have to go with the evidence I have available. ::Neil::
