This is not quite a pressure lamp, but it is an interesting piece of the Australian Gloria production history. This gasoline iron was made by the Gloria Light Company Pty Ltd (Australia) in the 1930s. It has a Patent Applied for date of 1936. The Patent was applied for on 1 May 1936 and granted in early 1937. The basis for the Patent is the design of the pricker/fuel control mechanism. The patent was applied for by John Beals Chandler, who at the time was Managing Director of the Gloria Light Company Pty Ltd. I'll place this and additional information in the Reference Library. The iron was for sale at some stage for 32/6 (32 shillings and sixpence): https://classicpressurelamps.com/threads/gloria-brochure-australian.14144/. Note that the handle is set up for a right hander. The box it came in: The paperwork (insect damaged) included instructions, a guarantee and a service chart (I will publish these in the Reference Library). Up and running Apart to preheat and light by putting alcohol in the base of the iron. Now with the control valve open and the burner alight. Fully open. Closed and ready to iron. It works well! This is an interesting piece of Gloria history, but will now be a shelf queen... Cheers Tony
Well done Tony and a well documented fettle. I enjoyed reading your achievement with this fascinating Gloria iron. Cheers Pete @Tony Press
Nice write up and demo, Tony, great to see how it all works ; those 'jet-lets' look to really give more of an even heat and remind me of the pre-heater ones on the Tilley stove? Does look very swish with all that chrome ; mind you it translates into over £60 in today's money? pb
@podbros The average Australian male blue collar worker’s weekly wage in 1940 was £4/16/- (or 96/-). Female wages were about half that. That makes this iron a substantial investment. Tony
@Tony Press It’s looks great Tony. I thought of this iron last week when I visited the Powerhouse museum. The Ideal Home exhibition included a Coleman gasoline iron and an English made alcohol fueled iron, but no Handi or Gloria!
I managed to get two accessories to go with this Gloria iron. I had to buy another Gloria iron to get them, though. 1. The Gloria iron trivet: 2. The 1/2 fl. oz. (14 mls) spirit measurer for priming: "1/2 oz. meth. measure for Gloria Pumpless Iron" Cheers Tony
@Tony Press Nice iron Tony. These are scarce in good condition like this, especially the handles. Gloria had a tradition of making irons and this is at least the fourth model in the line that I am aware of. The accessories are a bonus but I don't think the trivet will set the world on fire. As an aside, the petrol irons often did set things on fire. A shelf queen is a good idea.
The 1936/37 Patent Gloria iron appears to have two variations. I have seen an ad dated September 1939 that has this price listed. Curiously, there are two variations of the 1936/37 Gloria iron. The differences in this 'other' variation are: a filler cap with four ridges and no manufacturers mark a rounded, non-nut fitting under the tank rather than the hex nut type a more rounded fount on the edges and sides the locking knob shaft has no shiny steel ferrule on it. I say curiously because the earlier Gloria founts were a different shape totally and this iron could only have run for a few years judging by advertisements. In the following images the 'alternative' variation to the iron in this post is on the left. The softer edged fount (L) versus the sharper fount (R) Note also the different filler caps. Base of alternative (L) and base of posted iron (R). PS I wonder whether the two irons shown earlier above in the third post by @Tony Press have founts with the same profile. It is very hard to tell but the left looks like it could be more curved. It could also be my imagination. The picture I am referring to is this one. Courtesy of Tony Press. Anyway Gloria products are interesting. Iain
I’ll check the Gloria irons in the collection as well as another couple in the shed, Iain. Cheers Tony @Sedgman
