Here is a very early kitson that has landed here to fettle. Not my lamp only here for some tlc. It is unusual as it has a inbuilt pricker mechanism not seen in later lamp or in adverts post 1915. Some pictures here of my initial stripping down nothing too scary but the jet and pricker will most likely give me some grief
This is a truly old lamp which looks to be complete and in great condition except for the globe and its clamp perhaps. The earliest ad we know of with the four tube arms is from 1912 but by 1915 they were illustrating the same lamp with just two tube supports so this has to be pre WW1. ::Neil::
Yes it's a fine old lamp this I think it's all original with it's nickel plate been taken off somehow. The plating can be seen on the spirit dish and the globe clamping system Neil. There are 2 fixed pegs and 1 spring loaded one not like the usual globe ring on later models. Had little time on it today but it was so cold in the garage I left it till tomorrow. Jet is rusted out way oversize and the pricker gone so that's a task for tomorrow rest of it looks really good for a lamp of this age. A previous owner has had it in bits and cleaned it up some time ago but not damaged it in any way unlike a lot of these old lamps so high hopes of a runner here watch this space Cheers pete
This will be a great thread to watch as the restoration takes. Pete, looking forward to your updates and progress.
An absolutely beautiful piece of kit! One of these has been on my wish list since the moment i saw one running at Ipswich, I can't describe it but these have definitely got it going on. Wishing you great success with your fettle, James
That would have been this one Kitson Do nut which I have shown running a few times at Ipswich. Mine is the two tube type which will be post 1914 I guess. I did have a problem with the jet which is steel and was very rusty which made the burn erratic. I cured it by flatting of the face on an oil stone to clean the hole profile and now it runs perfectly. ::Neil::
Had a play with this lamp yesterday made a new pricker and swapped the jet for one that looked in better shape. The nrv looks strange cap soldered on surely that cannot be right now this should have set alarm bells ringing but it didn't Any way reassembled the lamp felt pretty good about how it had gone but thought I would leave it till this morning for a light up. Nrv ? Shut off valve is different to what I have seen before too The control knob presses on a metal diaphragm to shut fuel off bit odd but works well Anyway I got the lamp filled with fuel this morning hung it up pumped some air in and it's all looking good. In goes the meths for the preheat and let it warm up Next thing bang the whole bloody lamp crashes to the concrete garage floor give me a shock. Now someone a previous owner must have soft soldered the top ring to the hanging frame now thats a new one on me never saw of that coming. So spent today repairing the carnage as best I could have another go tomorrow Why do we do this stuff? Cheers pete
Ouch ! I hope the carnage wasn't too severe. A good job you have the skill to sort it out. It looks like that top ring started life as an eyebolt and someone sheared the end off trying to loosen the nut.
This old stuff catches you out at times henry, yeh I reckon it was a eye bolt now it's silvered soldered to the frame spent 5 hours doing repairs straightening pipes fixing broken metal most of the damage was inside the cowls so it won't be seen , still I could have done without it. Cheers pete
Ouch! I'm sorry to hear about the crash, Pete. Lucky it's in good hands. I hope the rest of the repairs go well. Tony
I was gutted when it fell Tony its fixable and hanging in the garage on two chains from now taking no chances now Another lesson learned Cheers pete
Well finally managed to sort this donut out at last. All repairs done and it runs quite well for a lamp of this age. Had problems with the jet and pricker as usual with old lamps. The shaft that moves the pricker smoked really bad so I put loads of copper slip on the shaft and once it got hot it appears to have helped the smoking reduce. One nice little touch on this lamp is the pin on the pricker control knob it shows the position of the pricker before you light it good idea.