Monstrosities, Steampunk disasters and other lantern abuse.

I like Graham's statement, however... tougher restrictions on the items that can and cannot be sold on eBay and other similar sites runs the risk of making it impossible and potentially illegal to sell any old or previously used items, including liquid fuelled lamps and stoves! In the UK, the Post Office still have the right to crush and dispose of any item they 'feel' is dangerous with little or nothing the buyer or seller can do. This has already happened on a few occasions.

Each year the restrictions on what you can and can't do mount... like the recent UK proposal to ban domestic wood burning stoves because of the pollution, never mind the miniscule proportion when compared to industrial pollutant output.

I hate what people do to pressure lanterns when they electrocute them (and blow lamps and stoves) but I don't want to make it any harder to buy and collect vintage items.

 

The Post Office refused to send a rechargeable battery the other day despite my assurances that it was a dud :/

 

What! Good grief it's getting worse.

 

Just wondering: how do they determine this ?
If you pack a piece of electrical cord and a led bulb with the item and state it is a steampunk thingy.
Would that do the trick ?
Off coarse any residue and smell should be cleared with toilet refreshment spray ;-)

 

I’m blaming you, @ColinG. My brain hurts.





Images curtesy of the Bay of Evil.

Tony

 

Good grief.... literally stick a light bulb on anything and it's a work of art!

Sorry @Tony Press

 

To be honest, I find the electrification not the most offensive thing there. Just my two penn'orth and YMMV...

 

There is an intersting aspect to this: If you are converting something from an old - let say for argument's sake, a Tilley lantern, to an electric lamp, it follows that it should conform to modern safety or manufacturing standards, as you are essentially manufacturing a "new" electric lamp. One can see in these pictures that all metal lanterns are being converted to electric lamps, and have no earth wire or connection. (The two pole torpedo switch gives it away) Modern electric lamps are of course either double-insulated (in which case they need have no earth) or they have an earthing connection and three core wire.
Manufacturing standards are not retrospective so an original Edwardian metal body electric lamp with no earth is still legal.

So your converted Steam Punk "art" may kill you and has never been so edgy ?

 

AND ....... the winner is ........ vomit
@Tony Press The red monstrosity is truly cringeworthy. Time to take 2 aspirin and have a lie down ......

 

@ColinG

Your fault!



Tony

 

Well ok, it is not a lantern abuse but tehre seems no border or limit to what you can convert into a lamp:

 

@WimVe
O’ my God, what a laugh, what does it look like!
Light my way!
Hahahahaha

 

I’m sure what type of website sells weird masks....

 

Converted gasoline lamp according to description:

 

How could anyone do that to a poor wickie lamp?

It would have been much quicker and easier just to chuck the effin' thing into a skip...

 

You're a heartless man David! What did the skip ever do to deserve such treatment.

I can just about understand collecting this style of wickie lamp, but old roadside paraffin lamps? ...and the prices they fetch is mad - almost as much as pressure lanterns!

 

1/ Nothing to prevent cord being damaged/cut by thin metal sheet. 2/ No earth to exposed metal (if cable is cut by sharp edge) elecrocution hazard +++more

 

Yep, any PAT tester in the UK would need to take only one glance at it and condemn it - wouldn't even open his tool bag.

Not only awful, but awfully dangerous...

I think Cybermen like them though:-

 

Sadly, one of the rare early types wher the guard springs into six holes equally spaced around the reflector rim...

 

No lanterns were harmed in the production of this lamp.

 

What was this poor thing before it was ruined? Looks like a Pinchard.

lampe ancienne en cuivre | eBay

 

Some days a search of “Tilley Lamp” is sorrowing.

 

To quote Brando in Apocalypse Now, "The horror, the horror!"

 

OMG, “THEY WALK AMONG US!”

 

I am not sure it belongs here, but can be a rare Tilley :

 

Wow! - ingenious but so wrong... A Tilley from a parallel dimension perhaps ?

 

No limit to what the lack of intelligence can do… hope I didn’t offend anyone, sorry.

 

This was described on the local FB marketplace page as "Victorian" and the asking price, IIRC, was £395:-



Well, excuse me but the genuine ones I've seen are copper and usually bear all the knocks and scrapes of a long and hard life. So what this is, I've no idea except I wouldn't be giving it houseroom...

 

In the old days before scuba gear, this was part of the gear divers use to wear! The rest of the suit was just as bulky! This is a real collector’s item now. Most of the ones I’ve seen were a copper color.