Took some serious fetting to get his one up and running. I got two from a friend who had given up thinking about making a complete lantern out of the bits. With a few parts from friends in Sweden and Australia I managed to complete one. Cost me the other in trade but it was worth it. This is what they looked like when I acquired them. And now I have a working lantern.
This is a very interesting model from Radius. I have seen one other 118 (in Sweden) with this type of construction, though it had the level gauge on the tank and no quick starter. Radius also used the 118 number for an alcohol version of the standard 119. This model is rare, but does turn up from time to time. Another lantern identical to Neil's has also turned up in Norway but with the number 116. This construction must have only been made for a couple of years. The patents for the quick starter (Revolto) are from around 1935 and Radius introduced their own quick starter in 1938 on the model 115. What I think is even stranger is that this design ended up being sold in Australia as the Aladdin model 12A or 14A, but as far as I know was never offered with a quick starter.
Hi ! I found one of these lamps in australia ten years ago when I was trawling round every scrap yard or tractor shed I could find ! As you say " it did not have its revolto starter " but the red bakerlite knob arrangement was all there. found it up in Toowomba on NSW /Queensland border. Was going to send it back to England but a few weeks later I was staying at Bernie holmes house in melbourne and when I told him of my find he was desperate that it should stay in australia.That was fine by me so I swapped for several rare tilley spares and dropped the lamp off at his Sydney store when next going that way. .....mick
Here's a Radius 118 I once had - exactly like a 119... Second picture next to an unusual 119 with radius branded manometer.
The problem here is that Radius used the 118 number for two different lamps. There is the one that this post is about and then there is one which is an alcohol version of the 119. This was before Radius started to make the alcohol conversion kits. Outwardly the alcohol 118 is indistinguishable from the 119 from the same era, except for the number.
My 118 was with standard 119 jet and no restrictor. It was also new boxed so it came like that from the factory