Today's flea-market find, unfired in the box with wrench (and built-in pricker) and spare mantle in the fount's kit tube, along with a documentation sheet. Note, installed mantle is *not* original.
Parts list, along with a spare aluminum generator found in the bottom of the lantern's box. The generator has a *very* small orifice, and the generator is filled w/fiberglass stranding.
Original box. Obverse side contains pictorial diagram of lantern and its components - similar to Coleman's documentation for the Model 252A lantern, which suffices to provide directions on how to change the lantern's aluminum generator (which did not seem to have a 'Protector Cap' or 'Protector Screw' as detailed in the 252A's manual).
This is not a Coleman. Title should be SMP for State Machine Products. As such it has no model number. ::Neil::
Well the box and paper work call it an SMP, but if you have ever seen military maintenance done on these. They take fifty of them apart at a time. clean everything up and supposedly bring them up to spec. Then they throw them back together with dreams of that weekend leave coming. It is not at all uncommon to find Mil-Spec stuff with mixed parts.Dan
i certainly do not want to mislead or post bad info! this is the first Milspec i've run across, so I will defer to the experts! the 4-sectioned globe is fascinating! each curved plate of glass slides into a track... why was the glass spec'd like this? so it won't crack if hit by rain while running? and the aluminum generator is interesting as well - in order to clean it (use the pricker), you have to remove it!
Ah well that would be because the lantern is a Coleman. You did not tell us that it was marked in the base so all I could go on was the print on the box. I should have known anyway because 1965 was a Coleman year for the Milspec. The first SMP was 1979 so the box has to be at least 14 years later than the lamp. ::Neil::
aha! thank you! that answers it! maybe it's best to remove the pic of the box and parts sheet? thanks again, willie
I believe you called the quadrant glass correctly. It is much thicker than a standard globe therefore harder to break. A standard globe of this thickness would be unweildy and probably pretty expensive to boot. A cleanable generator on these would be nice, doesn't make a whole lot of sense to have to loosen and tighten an aluminum flage over and over. Although they were probably pretty inexpensive to make. I guess it's not a bad design overall considering how many manufacturers made allowed to make it the same way. Albeit they are a bit finicky at times.
finally got around to firing this one up... did a rinse (was a little rust around inside lip under the fill cap - fixed w/a little wet/dry paper), added a pint and a half of Coleman fuel, burned the #21 mantle, then followed the directions of the esteemed Mr. Papo on how to light a Milspec: http://coleman.pressure-lanterns-il.com/light_a_lantern_tip.htm got a nice light going - picture was taken in daytime... more interesting: after turning off the lantern - which burns for a much longer time until extinguishing (due to generator size?) - the thick outer glass quadrants were merely hot to the touch - i could press my fingertip on the glass and leave it there! looks like i have working lantern - have been watching it run for the last hour on the lanai! thanks to all for the heads up on the lantern/box mismatch, and thanks to Mr. Papo for the instructions - i would have otherwise overpressurized the lantern.
I know a lot of guys mount the quadrant frame on 220's to use when claming. Those lanterns get surf splashed a lot and the regular globe explodes when hit with cold ocean water. Dan
