Greetings All At time of purchase, I knew nothing of this style of lamp, having previously only tinkered with Tilley's and Bialaddin's, but I had read lots about Petromax and decided I needed one in my life! As luck would have it, this pairing of a Hipolito H-502 Automatic and an Anchor 909 came up on everyone's favourite auction website, and the deal was sealed at about £40! It took me a while to figure out what I had, what I needed, and for the rebuild to begin. The Hipolito I shall cover later on another thread, this time I would like to share my experiences with the Anchor. I rebuilt both lamps in parallel, and it was immediately obvious which was the better made! I did a fair amount of research, and took lots of advice along the way, but ended up using mainly Petromax parts, also converting from the original 909 350CP up to the "full fat" 500CP. Oh, the hours of fun I had sorting out the Pricker height adjustment, Nipple and Carburettor sealing, J-Tube adjustment, Gallery sealing and finding a replacement Ceramic Nozzle that actually screwed in tight without falling out. And then of course the corrosion on the fount, Although it turned out to be solid, the standard of the plating on the fount was appalling, par for the course I now know, but back then I could not believe how bad it was! Anyway, much sanding, filling, sanding, filling, sanding, high build primer, sanding, primer, then eventually topcoat ensued. I think it looks quite nice in a metallic Gunmetal, but unfortunately I lost the "Anchor" engraving around the side under all the filler and paint! So, about two years later, it now runs reliably and stands proudly shoulder to shoulder with all my other lamps. The only thing I miss on this one is a Rapid Starter, not fitted to this one, but I have seen 909's with them fitted, and of course the Hipolito has one - Which I find hilarious to use! Not sure of the age of this particular lamp, of course I can find no identifiers on it, the only thing I can notice is that most I've seen have bright red controls, this has a dark red / brown knob to the pump, and a black control knob.
Anchor lanterns work well enough once they are fettled properly, but they need to be kept dry. Rough ones are useful for parts especially if the glass is intact.
Kein Problem.... I've forgotten most of the German I knew from back then, but the occasional word of German springs in as well as a smattering of French. It drives my wife bonkers when I use multiple languages in the same sentence.!
