Hi spent most of today taking this latest find apart, is a difficult lamp to take apart and quite a few parts are made of cast iron so its no lightweight at all. The burner is a much longer than usual blanchard type first i seen like this 500cp should think at least. Short of the bottom reflector but everything else is there and i have sorted the burner so got hopes of running in the coming weeks. Mick\ian had to post it could not keep this quiet!! cheers pete
Thought it might keep you out of mischief for a couple of weeks! What date do you think we are looking at Pete?
Hi ian yes been on with it most of the day just taking it to bits! So be a while yet tho i enjoy the work on this stuff. Now the REGD No. on it is 53866 so mick reckons that could be as far back as 1910 possibly but there is a illustration in a leaflet of one similar to this one 1380 300cp from 1914 so must be around that period old anyway to say the least and any more info on this lamp at all i would love to see cheers pete
Nice piece of Blanchard. The 1600 series are 600 cp so a tad more power than you thought. Knowing how well Blanchards can restore it may well do that as well once you get it sorted. Mind you I am envious because I only have half of one here. No burner at all with mine and never likely to be either. ::Neil::
Yes Neil these Blanchards always seem to give a good light 600cp impressive, I see you have one listed in the PLC from ebay a green one i have no traces of paint on this one was going to paint it black on the steel\iron parts any chance of you emailing me any pictures you have of the ebay one and your one help me put this one right please cheers pete
Hi Pete, That is a nice Blanchard 1600 series 600cp lamp with not a lot missing from it. The burner dose not look to bad from what we can see in the photo's. You say the burner is much longer than the usual Blanchard type?, are you saying the whole burner shell is over all bigger than a standard Blanchard, or just the burner head is much bigger?, and there for come's down lower than say the burner in your Model 800 Blanchard which is a 150cp cheers Jim
Pete. OK done. Not sure the lamp body was green although it might have been. All the enamel is green though. Blanchard seem to have mostly left the tanks in the copper so they were probably lacquered originally. Black would be OK though. ::Neil::
Hi Neil\jim thanks for the emails i will try get some pictures of the burners posted to show the difference this evening cheers pete
Hi a few more pictures of the burner here looks a bit bigger casting and the air tubes are definately bigger diameter. The injector tube is longer than on the 300cp burner in the pics, its also soldered to the spirit cup and forms the inner diameter of the spirit cup so cannot be removed. notice in the 1922 price list numbers 14\17 are not for 1600 series lamps tho i think the wall lamp i have was also made this way. I was suprised to find the newer style pricker rack inside the burner that has the little cap on the end so this must have been replaced at some point cheers pete
Pretty kool stuff. Be nice to see it restored and running one day. When you have that burner unnit all cleaned up I would appreciate some decent shots of it please. I have never seen one of these bigger burners so an image or two for my archive would be good please. ::Neil::
Hi neil i am pretty sure it will be running sometime soon barring a total disaster getting in my way. Will sort out some pics cheers pete
Had some time today so done a bit on the lamp all clean now grease muck tar all gone cannot make my mind up if to polish or not am leaning towards not polishing just leaving as is now anyone any thoughts on this. I wire wheeled the cast iron base and briwaxed it looks great i think as you can see new reflector needs painting tho cheers pete
Thanks Henry Yes the level gauge is much the same as the FL6 ones we see identical in fact except it says Blanchard Patent on the face, I would think all these blokes working out of london at that time in the same bisness of lighting would have met up and talked lamps believe blanchard had something to do with tilley in the early days first world war time. cheers pete
Well finally have the lamp running is very bright couple people came in the garage and said they cannot look at it its so bright and it is so. These would have been hung high up in a station or engine shed and would have lit a good area i should think. Overall am well pleased with the outcome need to work on the reflector some more i just put it on to see if the paint got burnt off really. Had it running for around 6 hours now and have not had to touch it great lamp. Now the last picture is not a before and after one i took it to remind myself how much i have done on them. The one on the left is serial no.835 on the right no.836 so they left the factory together been on their travels for near on 100years and still together here nice bit of history that, will do the other the same or maybe let someone else do it cheers pete
Hello Pete, it's great to see a fine old British lamp restored to working order! I'm sure that there would be a place for your spare lamp at the Friar's Wash museum! Jeff.
Thanks jeff thats how i feel about this older stuff and its a matter of preserving what things are left too, so little left really. This lamp i have spent hours on days anyway, mostely cleaning it burner only needed a cleanup and all the cork seals on the filler cap was still in good condition did not have to replace them even!!! Reflector not 100% finished bit too shiny dont suit it, even more work to do still. Maybe no room for it at the museum!! cheers pete
Well I don't know about having room for one, maybe I would like one but more importantly I would surely like to see one in action some day. One thing I have learnt about these old Blanchard lamps is the damn burners seem to live for ever and nearly always give serious light once cleaned out. Very nice to see one preserved and running. Great job. ::Neil::
Well done Pete, stunning job. I wonder how many have been sadly melted down over the years. Have you decided what colour the tank is going to be?
Thanks Neil yes great lamps these as to seeing it running if you can find something to hang it on at newark i will bring it and you can see it working for sure as long as we both get there of course pete Thanks Henry like all this stuff along came electric in the bin with the lamps, we are the same even now, more so these days new telly old one to tip tho i cannot see old tellys being that collectable in the future? and of course there is the scrap value lot of wieght here. The tank would have been polished lacqueared copper some traces are still there on the back and underside but to polish this massive lump up would maybe make it a bit too new looking for me so its just had a rub with oil and wax that will protect for now. Once polished takes a long time to age again that reflector and the new paint looks too new will have to tone that down somehow tho. cheers pete
Thats true but now its old i want it to look old as well for now anyway never know maybe shiny again one day cheers pete
Well done Pete , you have done a great job on this Blanchard getting it going once again. I did not think you would have got it going so quickly. But I did not think it would have taken you long as the burner looked to be in a very good condition. Blanchard's have always given off a good bright light, and your one is no exception. You did not tell us you had two of them Is the second one in the same condition as this one was?, only missing a reflector and globe?. If the speed you got the first one going, is any thing to go by, you should have the second one running by Sunday Well done mate Cheers Jim
Thanks jim i am well pleased with the way its turned out, the burner was really good as you say the only thing wrong with it was the brass screw cap on the top of the pricker rack was jammed in the steel plug above it so when the plug was un screwed the brass bush was in it. I just freed it off and opened the hole slightely now its fine i suspect the other one will be the same as it also has limited movement maybe they was fitted wrong who knows. Yes i got two here thought i would let you know later, i did put a clue in the pictures see if anyone spotted it look at the fuel level gauges cracked at first then different gauge no cracks in it but no one noticed. The second lamp is the same as this one all bits there except reflector\globe\ and a knob for the pricker is missing so pretty complete as blanchards go i should say often loads missing on them. I dont know about how fast i got this done i have had 2 weekends on it and some evenings during the week but maybe getting other one done for saturday is pushing my luck wi her indoors cheers pete
Reckon your right there Jeff but this one can always find something for me to fix\paint\ sandpaper or move around so garage a nice retreat for a while cheers pete
