Here is my Gloria 379. From Australian advertising material this lantern was produced around 1937/38. It is likely the last style of lantern made by Gloria in Australia. It does not have any markers name, but I have seen @Lamp_Doctor's lantern which is identical and carries a Gloria name badge. This lantern uses the same fuel and burner system as the Gloria Table Lamp shown here. The fuel pickup and control block: Note the little nipple under the fuel control block. It is the allows the pre-heater to function. The eccentric arm that operates the pricker had been badly mangled and required a bit of re-facing. The pump is shorter than on the Table Lamp, but the same design. I left the original mantle on (it shattered after lighting, unfortunately). The vapouriser (generator) was fairly beaten up, and the pricker missing. The spring is brass: The preheater etc: All brass burner (same as the Table Lamp): All brass tank, nickel plated: The bottom of the tank appears to have been tinned or coated with solder. The hood (vent) was pretty rusty. Note the brass clip for the glass. The glass was cracked. The red knob controls the pre-heater. The black knob controls the fuel flow to the vapouriser. The brass clip for the glass. Up and running. For some reason some of my photos have doubled up as thumbnails... I'll do some fettling notes later. This is a sturdy lantern, and a high quality build. Cheers Tony
Another one that turns me green ! Very nice score ! You’re older than me can you leave it too me in your will ?
@phaedrus42 The preheater is indeed a fine piece of thinking. It took me a while to work out how to use it, but now it works very well indeed. Cheers Tony
This post from @JEFF JOHNSON shows the Gloria 379 in an advertisement in 1938: https://classicpressurelamps.com/threads/1938-gloria-379-advert.1533/ Cheers Tony
NOTE: At the beginning of this thread I said: "It is likely the last style of lantern made by Gloria in Australia". This comment was made based on information previously discussed here on CPL about the Gloria Light Co. of Australasia, its eventual purchase by JB Chandler in the 1930s, and the attempted sale of its Melbourne lamp manufacturing plant in the late 1930s. In the latest edition of Neil McRae's Pressure Lamp Catalogue, he refers to research by Matt Purtell indicating that Gloria revived manufacture of pressure lamps during World War II, and may have continued manufacture and/or sale until about 1950 (?in league with Collins Bros). Thanks for the research, Matt and Neil. Tony
As far as we can tell from the evidence Collins Bros managed the distribution of the 1940s Gloria production. They had nothing to do with manufacture but we think possibly managed sales to the military and may have acquired the surplus and flogged them off after WW2. Cecil Collins worked for Gloria from at least the early 1920s so there was a Collins asociation with Gloria production but that was Cecil NOT Collins Bros which was a separate company. Cecil's position probably gave Collins Bros an inside track on where the WW2 product was going and perhaps aided location of surplus which would have enabled them to slap a Collins label on the product and get them out to a retailer. ::Neil::
Very nice lantern there, Tony. Looks pretty American from the outward appearance. Australian-made items are usually sturdy, and made with comparitively heavier-gauged metal.(I mean in general, besides lanterns). Interesting preheater design. How does that work?
@MYN The red control wheel, from what I gather, releases a tiny jet of gasoline vapour into the perforated brass tube. This is lit and it heats the generator. It is closed off manually when the lantern is lit. See the tiny jet in the photo of the fuel control block (above). Tony Edit: crossed with @Henry Plews
@MYN With fuel and pressure in the tank, when the red valve is opened, petrol vapour passes through the nipple shown in images 9 to 12 to the pre-heater tube where it exits from the small slits giving pin-points of flame. These are not easy to capture on camera but here's an image of my example. Henry.
Thanks @Tony Press and @Henry Plews . This's the first time I came to know of such a preheater design. Extremely neat and different.
