This is my oldest pressure lamp. It's an early Lux, made in the same manor as their predecessor David Kempes Lampa, just pressurised with air instead of CO2. EM1 is the polished brass version. EF1 was nickel plated brass and EP1 was made out of tinned sheet metal. AB Lux was formed in 1901 out of the reconstructions of that company (D. Kempes Lampa), and kept their old style lamps for a very short period. My lamp still has that old style burner from 1897 when D.Kempes lampa was constructed, but the 'newer' regulator valve from the 1901 patent here. The burner is therefore not of the kind we are used to when it comes to Lux with the vaporiser ball above the flame. That later kind of burner with the ball, called the Lux burner, was also invented in 1901, but not necessarily put into production immediately. But at least in 1902 it should have been in use, so that's why I stretch my lamps period to that year. Both burners, however, used an upright, rigid mantle. The lamp do unfortunately miss the gallery with its globe rest. You just have to imagine a round globe on it for yourselves . On the second last picture you can see the valve of 1901 to the left on top of the air tank. It is a spitting image of that patent! I can tell since I have gone through it thoroughly (Actually, all I had to do was to exchange the dried up diaphragm). All this is normally hidden under the cover you can see in the first picture, but there is a slot in that cover which allows you to use a loose key to manoeuvre the regulator valve. On the second picture you can see the two tanks separated. The fuel tank (always paraffin!) is to the right and the air tank to the left. The attachment for the air pump with its bayonet fitting can be seen best on the second last picture, opposite to the regulating valve. (The cleaning needle device is also missing, but you can see relics of it in that picture. The patent for that gizmo is also from 1901-the year of the Lux take-over of David Kempe).
Christer, This is a”stunning” lamp consider its age and the engineering behind it. I often see Neil using the words “over engineering” about lanterns and lamps with unnecessary parts for functioning, but in this case I only see smartness and invention creativity. As a Swede I may be biased, but I think “our guys” were in the front line at the turn of the 19-20th century. /Conny
Yes Jeff, that's my plan. Shouldn't be so hard since I already fixed the most complicated part- the combined air release- and regulator valve. The thing is that the air tank has stress cracks in it, and even if they are sealed, I'm a bit afraid to pressurise it. I have done it, but not very high. Only high enough to check if the regulator worked as it should (and that one was adjusted to the lowest possible value).
I hear you. And I agree. I can of course appreciate lamps that are as simple as possible, and also prefer them when it's a thing I need to rely on to be working in any circumstances. But complicated stuff fascinates me! That's probably why I like these earlier lamps since they are so full of smart gadgets. And of course for the age itself. I want these things to be as old as possible, and they don't get much older than this one.
Hi Christer. i hope see really this lamp light. this lamp's mechanism is beautiful thanks sharing for us. Gunsoo
Christer such a complicated and fascinating stove. I guess during the early years they never thought of K.I.S.S. but rather overdo the whole "smoodle" when it came to lanterns. As I said there were engineers that were "way before their time". Some amazing gadgets they truly invented. Ron
A little update on this lamp! A friendly collector (thanks Björn!) gave me a copy of a 1902 Lux-catalogue, and it confirmed that this lamp was available in 1902. It was not seen in the 1904 catalogue that another friendly collector gave me a copy of (thanks Conny!) I have no reasons to believe that the lamp was available in the missing year of 1903 either, for reasons I already explained initially, so my dating of 1901-02 still remains. I just wanted to show you this nice illustration where it's being "pumped up". A handy little pump as it seems:
Christer, that confirms that the Swedes were busy pumping already on the first years of the 20th century. A great contribution to Swedish lamp history is this -02 catalogue (Thanks Björn!). /Conny
This is not over engineering. It is some clever guy trying to figure out what works and solve the problems to produce a working product for sale. For the time it is a neat lamp with some interesting features. No question there was some serious inventiveness in Sweden around 1900. The over engineering comes later in the 1920s and 1930s when lamp companies knew very well how simple it could be because there were plenty of examples out there but they still made seriously complex products. Mind you given that these things can delight and amaze us now their efforts were not wasted. I stand in awe of the Aladdin model A made in the US in 1934. This is such a bizarre example of eccentric engineering that gives me great pleasure every time I look at it. The deigner had to be mad as a box of frogs to come up with it but they still made and sold them. Evil swine of a lamp to light too. ::Neil::
