I don't know if the lamp has any name, but it was manufactured by Gold Bros. P.L. Ltd in Birmingham according to the text above the pump. They used the patent 208 366 of an A. E. Harbord, granted in 1923, which I posted here earlier today. The patent number is shown in the engraved text above the pump and at the burner. It's for paraffin, and has an outer accessed NRV, just as many other early pump apparatus. This one was came with a glass from Coleman. It is hardly the original one, but my guess is that a former owner used this because it looked similar to the original one, even if that one probably was in opal or any other material more glare free than a clear glass. There is a decoration ring for the top rim of a glass with this lamp, and if that one is original it implies a glass similar to the Coleman one used now, which also sits well on the shade rest. A regular vesta shade, or its similar equivalents from e.g Primus or Coleman, all interferes with the cleaning needle lever, so they are absolutely out. One other possibility might be a larger parchment shade that allows the lever to be manouvered on the inside, or such, but considering the decoration ring, I'd rather bet it used a smaller glass which goes free from the lever. Just like the one on Neils advert in his post with BP Cleary which has a similar burner. With the Coleman glass and decoration ring: If you managed to read, and understand, the patent for this burner, you'll see that it's about a burner/cleaning needle arrangement that shall reduce the frequency for cleaning out the vaporiser. I don't know how well this worked, but when disassembling the burner, I can atleast verify that most of the coke actually was inside the hollow cleaning needle rod and at the well of the nut just under it, so perhaps mr. Harbord was on to something after all. Finally I must say that this is one of the most solid lamps I dealt with! Everything is very well made, and I really like that the joints and flanges don't use any washers. Everything has tapered seats which seals well, metal against metal. Practically the only thing that need a new spare (except for the inevitable pump leather, the jet and its needle of course) is the seal in the packing nut for the cleaning needle shaft. Surprisingly both the old cork pip in the NRV and the pump leather worked after a little tenderness! The pump leather was glass-hard, but two days in motor oil solved that, and the cork in the NRV only needed to be used a couple of times to suddenly start to work. The pump uses a piece of leather to seal on the push-stroke, by the way. It don't have the tapered seat as we are used to on many other of these apparatus.
Hi Christer what a superb example i can see by the pics the build quality is superb The only problem with this lamp is would be hard to find a mantle that fits on to the ceramic nozzle/mantle holder and if the ceramic nozzle needed replacing it would be very hard to find
Ah! You got sharp eyes, and you raise a very valid point, but that's already in my plans. Since I don't want to rely on ridgid mantles with their ceramic rings, AND odd varity in sizes, I already have planned on turning a new mantle holder for the lamp. Hopefully I will manage to do it tomorrow since I'm free from work. It's hard to decide the size, though. The original mantle holder is quite small for a regular indoor lamp. I will run the lamp without a mantle just to see what the blue (hopefully) flame looks like, and then decide where I will go. I would guess that a mantle holder for the size of a standard 200-300 CP-mantle would be correct. (I have already tested a variety of different holders from 100 to 500 CP out, and the threads for this burner is just a tad bit smaller than the regular 200 CP)
Rare piece of lamp this and in such fine condition too. I have only seen one in the flesh and they are well made. I borrowed it for a while to take pictures but I was not able to try to run it as it was not my lamp and I was reluctant to dismantle anything for fear of damage. I think thus makes three I know of now. Sadly none in my pile here. ::Neil::
Yes it's really well made. The only thing I don't like is the six bun feet. They are nice as such, but it's hard to get a thing with six feet to stand with all of them in contact with the surface. It jiggles slightly. Three would have been better. If it's so unusual, I guess you, or anyone else, can't help me out with which kind of shade or glass it used? Is there no paperwork seen with this lamp? Which lamps used this kind of Coleman glass, by the way? It's wider at the lower end than the 355, but can it be a later replica for that one?
I didn't manage to get the time to make a new mantle holder/flame spreader today, so impatient as I am I just simply tied a 250 CP mantle directly to the original, rigid mantle holder. There is some corona showing, so perhaps I need a bigger mantle, but the most likely thing would probably be that this old jet is worn. It works pretty well nevertheless, and it's an extremely silent lamp. The sounds of different lamps and lanterns are of course very subjective, but it's absolutely more silent than the Tilley table lamps I got, and I have always regarded them as low-voiced. As I type this, the lamp has been running for more than an hour, and it performs well. It keeps the vaporisation going without any troubles, and it has a steady, calm light even if somewhat yellow. This might just as well be due to the improper mantle or the (suspectedly) worn jet. The cat doesn't seem to approve by the stance of his ears, but he accepts it: By the position of the handle in the first picture, you can see that I had to regulate the fuel amount by partly raising the needle. After a short while that wasn't necessary, and I could run the lamp with the needle fully down, even if it made some of the burning take place outside of the mantle as seen in the second picture. But actually during composing this text, it burns just better and better. There's practically no corona as this point, so now I know that the lamp performs well.
Hello Christer, that's a good runner! If you try running it with the glass fitted, it may get to it's working temperature faster and stay at that temperature, which will probably cure the initial problems that you had with it. If the cat is not pleased, then put the furry beast outside! The link below shows the type of Coleman lamp which that glass was used on, Jeff. *broken link removed.*
The cat went out himself Jeff. I didn't even need to toss him out. Regarding your Coleman, I think it originally should have the 355 I mentioned earlier. Atleast that's the one you usually see on Colemans that also shall have a larger shade. The 355 is bulkier and narrower at the lower part than mine and yours. That's why I wondered if this perhaps could be a later made replica, or spare, for the 355, which your lamp probably prooves. I wonder if your lamp originally not should have the more bulky 355?
Hello Christer, there are variations to the style of those Coleman glasses, some were made in the USA., others were made in Canada and others are marked made in England and some are not marked at all. The 168K would probably have had the original style of 335 glass fitted to it, but it's possible that Coleman only shipped the lamps from Canada and had the glasses made in England to cut down on breakages.
I have 4 of those Coleman glasses and there are minor differences even between the first 3, (from left to right), the fourth glass must be the original 335, but it's unmarked. At least 2 of these glasses turned up at a local auction and they were fitted to caravan gas lights, Jeff.
Now I am not bothered about the lamp. Send me the cat. I could do with another rodent control officer living here. He reminds me of Bonzo. He was a huge ginger killing machine who could take birds in flight and lived off the local population of rats rabbits and mice for 11 years. If it moved he would have a go at it and he never brought me any gifts either. They were dinner and not to be shared with a mere human. ::Neil::
That sounds like my cat. He's a real killer. Anything from gigantic water voles to tiny shrews. And birds, of course, which is unfortunate but hard to stop. Once he came with a jackdaw!
Bonzo used to wind up the three dogs from next door. He would sit on a wall until they noticed him and then when he had their full attention he jumped down and ran back across the house fronts with three big labrador types in full chase. Then he would stop and give them a lesson in feline armoury and send three canine bullys whimpering home with blood streaming from three damaged noses. Then he just slowly stalked home satisfied. This was his little joke he played when he was bored. Very sad because he got shot by some dull witted guy shooting rabbits and then with two pellets in his back got hit by a car as he was dragging himself home across a busy road. I miss him still. ::Neil::
Yes, so am I, Jean - I'm particularly looking forward to a decent bit of turkey next Sunday. Chicken, duck, whatever - bring 'em on...
Actually I did, Trevor. I bought it from a man just an hour drive south of here. Very fortunate. I'm so pleased with this lamp.
I think that has to do with the Swedes being collectors of all kinds of stuff. They never throw anything away, they always say that it's good to have in the future. You never know when it might come in handy... But seriously, that's a gorgeous lamp!
But I managed today! I decided to make a holder of the same size and appearence as the one used on Primus 1020 so that I could use the spare gauze (No 6336) for those. Here's the old rigid mantle holder next to the newly made one which will allow me to use regular soft mantles which are readily available. The gauze is as mentioned a Primus 6336. This original Primus gauze is cupped when you get it, and after dropping it into the mantle holder, you just press it flat, and it will get caught into the groove and sit firmly as illustrated in these two pictures before and after flattening it. Then I tied a 350 CP mantle on to it and gave it a new test. This lamp has a lot of solid metal in the burner, and that's also shown it how much meths it need to get started! It's just barely one brim-filled cup is enough, and that is a large cup in the first place! Well, surprisingly it turned out that I managed to get everything right. No more corona, and a well filled mantle that just kept on burning without any pulsations, black spots or other disturbances. It gave a bright white light, which of course is impossible to show in pictures where you also want some other details to be shown: I also wanted it to have a more complete look, so I just simply placed an Aladdin shade (amber) on it since it sits perfectly on the shade rest: And finally the receipt of a well performed test run! A decently shaped mantle without any black spots (the dark thing you vaguely can spot at the lower part is just the concentration of fabric where the mantle is tied together at the bottom): This lamp is most certainly a winner which will have a place amongst those that often will be taken out and used here.
Christer, A fantastic job done and a fantastic lamp ! It will certainly have a place among your other rare goodies! /Conny
Thanks guys! I'm very pleased with the outcome. Now I got a fully functional lamp, and that's how I prefer them. Just need to get a decent glass looking somewhat like the one in Neils BP Cleary ad. Another thing is to make sure that the original ceramic mantleholder don't get lost! It's most important that it stays with the lamp since it's the original part, so I will probably fix it with a thin steel wire somewhere where it don't show or get damaged.
Probably with the ferry between Harwich and Gothenburg. I asked the seller why he had this strange lamp in the first place, and it turned out that he bought it some thirty years ago in an antique shop somewhere in London! I'm just glad he spotted it before any of you Brits did.
I wish I'd been collecting 30 years ago! I bet they were chucking out VL1s etc. like there was no tomorrow...
Hmmm. Well I was and no they were not chucking V1s in quantity. Not that I ever found anyway. ::Neil::
