Recently came into this PL-1. With the very kind help of Neil McRae I was able to get it up and running. These lanterns take a very unusual mantle in that the final bit of the burner including the screen is in a separate piece that is attached to the mantle rather than a permanent part of the burner. I was lucky and the lantern still had that part attached even though the original mantle was long gone. The original mantles are nearly round, almost golf ball sized. I first tried it with a Coleman 99 which is really too small and doesn't hang close enough to the generator to keep up the heat. It lit but with the most extreme surging I've ever seen. Every few seconds it would pulse raw fuel into the mantle with the attendant flare up of yellow flame and great clouds of soot. Then I tried a Petromax 500 CP mantle. It is closer in size and shape to the original and proved successful.
Here are some pictures of an original mantle. As packaged This is the burner cap. This one was quite rusty so I removed it from the mantle. I was lucky and one of these pieces was still on the lantern when I received it. Instructions inside the package. Left to Right Coleman 99, Aladdin PL-1, Petromax 500CP As you can see the Petromax is a much closer match in size and shape to the original.
@Reese Williams I just received some old, rusty, shop soiled mantles and generators for this lantern. I will post them in the Reference sections when I get through sorting the box of paperwork out. Cheers Tony
@Tony Press With car, patience and determination you can untie the mantle, derust the metal fitting and tie the mantle back on. I've done 3 or 4 of them. since I first posted this I've acquired a couple more PL-1s. Here's a link to a thread I did comparing different makes of lantern workings and some insights I've learned about PL-1s Aladdin PL-1,Preway L-13 and Coleman 220 comparison - The Coleman Collectors Forum