The Amish made HC Lantern has been produced in Amish country Pennsylvania for many years and offered with 2 different fount options, a third with a 2 liter steel tank was just recently produced. Unlike camping lanterns , Amish lanterns are made like household appliances , for continual use for decades. They must function as a dependable light source for Amish farm families in communities shunning electrification. This demand seems the reason why this lantern is so heavily and well built of all steel and brass. Its very bright and features the only twin 500cp 2 mantle burner available on a production lantern.
And they say the petromax 500cp is to bright!!! That thing is not for wine and cheese...thats a WORK LANTERN!!
Nice piece of kit, expensive? i presume there's quite a few available if googles quoted Amish population of quarter of a million people as of 2012 is correct unless they like to keep hold of them as they are so useful.
It is in the same price range as the new Vapalux models. Available in kerosene and white gas variants through member MrWilson on CCF. Service parts are quite inexpensive.
The cost is $289. There are not many of these in circulation as far as I can tell. The Amish seem to use a variety of lighting types these days so demand for the lantern maybe quite low. HC Lanterns is not on the internet you contact them by phone or snail mail and place your order. Too as Phaedrus is saying a Pennsylvania based lantern hobbyist is acting as a dealer for the lanterns.
Sure , I have this one and another HC model. They are really much like the Nite Hawk , especially the 2 mantle 720 . The new HC shares the same fount as the latest NH model.
LOL. You are absolutely right this lantern is at home in a barn or outdoors as a utility light . Its noise and heat over powers a small room. Its definitely a work lantern.
I have spent a lot of time In Lancaster coming to know the lamp community. The HC lantern has been around for quite awhile just now reaching the outside or English.The Amish are turning from petroleum based products to battery LED. Most of the Nite hawks go out of community to collectors.Same I think will happen to the H C.
USDAN57. Yes I think you are right , from what I have heard Amish lighting solution choices have been changing for some time . Yet one look at the 2017 HC Lantern catalog shows they sell a wide variety of gpa lighting / accessories not just the HC 500 so there must be a market, if diminished , still for gpas among the Amish. A Pennsylvania based member of the forum, Doug Eisemann, wrote very perceptively about Amish lighting in years past , his posts are in the archives. HC and Lancaster Lanterns produce SUPERIOR lanterns and we can only hope they continue to do so for an ever widening group of customers. Its a win/win for them and lantern hobbyists . HC and LL can sell, service and spare part their lanterns so ownership is worry free and testimony to their future going forward. With so few new lantern producers currently ,we need to support the unique ones that make a quality product like HC and Lancaster and further positive reception among lantern enthusiasts can make us all a bit more optimistic about their survival even if Amish lighting trends are changing.
