I'm in the process of fettling a rather old TL10? table lamp. The control cock has a brass wheel and the gallery has internal springs. The burner has hexagonal bushes on the slightly angled air tubes. It is also slightly longer than the later burners. But it is completely worn out. Apart from period-correctness, what are the pros and cons of replacing the burner with the later type as found on the X246 Guardsman?
@phaedrus42 I see no practical problems with that. I hope the gallery hold up.... Have fun with this. I'm looking forward to the finished product. Cheers Tony
Thanks, Tony. I suppose what I really want to know is whether there is any difference in performance between the old style and later style burner. After cleaning, the gallery seems to be in fine shape although I will have to replace at least one of the spring steel strips. It took me three days to loosen the grub screw on the control cock wheel. Repeated heating&quenching and soaking in penetrating oil eventually freed it. The packing on the control cock shaft was graphite and not the usual o-rings. In retrospect, I could probably have left the knob on
@phaedrus42 I've had one of those larger Tilley burners (unusable: completely worn out) and a few of the older ones that have the taller dome. My experience is that it's difficult to notice any change in output between the different burners, except that caused by wear and tear. Cheers Tony
Thanks, Tony and Jeff! Notice the little cloth filter sock on the control cock? Am I correct in thinking this lamp was built during the 1920's? Also, what is the time line on this fount style vs the pork pie fount? Was this fount originally painted, lacquered or naked brass? It looks like the column was lacquered.
@phaedrus42 The control cock will help date your lantern, as it was replaced with the more modern arrangement at some point (I think 1930s. The tank will help, also. Let me check a few references and I'll get back to you. Someone else here might know the answer off the top of their head. The pork pie tank is mid 1940s; the column was polished and lacquered. Cheers Tony
I have seen an electricuted one and the owner said it was originally painted. They won't let me have it.
@phaedrus42 The TL10 was made from 1922 to about 1946 (when the pork pie tank came in). Niel McCrae identifies the fluted column on the second version of the TL10 in a 1938 catalogue. He also says there were three tank treatments: polished/lacquered; painted gold; and chromed. There's a post here somewhere about the change over of the control cock. I have a 1942 Tilley catalogue in the Reference Library that has your control cock crossed out and the new "improved" one illustrated. Cheers Tony
@phaedrus42 In addition to my other comments above, in this thread @JEFF JOHNSON says that the XN control cock was replaced in 1940. Cheers Tony
That is great information, Tony! Thanks for looking it up. Hard to understand why Tilley "regressed" from this very elegant fount shape to the pork pie fount. The pork pies undoubtedly have a charm of their own but to my sensibilities not as aesthetically pleasing as the rounded shape. I'm leaning towards the polished/lacquered finish atm.
@phaedrus42 That style of XN control cock was pre 1934. The second XN went from 1935 - 40. But I can't find the post by Mackburner and i don't have the information in the correct format. Nice find
yes rob 1934 latest but last ones had Tilley lamp B stamped on the control wheel I think its 30s notice it has a screw opposite the control wheel so later type 20s type has no back screw and a single button control wheel see one I posted in gallery from around 27-28 nice lamp whatever age it is pork pies are tough but not as elegent cheers petr
That looks like one of the older fixed nozle burners. Not in great shape but also not common either. Might never work well again but perhaps worth keeping. ::Neil::
You are correct, Neil. Unfortunately this burner has a hole burned through on the side and the gas ports are very badly worn. But I'll pack it away safely as you suggest. The parts are cleaned now, so the only the polishing and reassembly remains to be done. I'll post the progress here. Thanks all for the input regarding age.
Well, I finally managed to get it all together tonight. The final hiccup was that I had to use the bushes from the modern burner because its air tubes are a little shorter than those of the old burner and the hexagonal bushes of the old burner are a few millimeters shorter than the knurled bushes of the new burner.
@phaedrus42 Great to see it up and running! Will you put a complete set of photos in the Reference Gallery (including the old bits that aren't serviceable)? Nice job! Cheers Tony
Thanks, guys. With the Veritas globe I should probably use a 169 vaporiser. I'll take some more detail pics and put it in the Reference Gallery as you suggest, with a 182 globe fitted.
First washed with caustic soda to get the gunk off, followed by sponging off with citric acid. Then polished by hand with Autosol and buffed with a soft cloth wheel. I'm a bit wary of polishing founts with a hard stitched cloth wheel as I think the vibration may stress the brass.
Well it did a good job, i might have to look into some caustic soda, i bought some citric acid which doesn't do a bad job all things considered, so far all the polishing i've done is by hand with Autosol and it works quite well, pretty sure i shouldn't be trusted using something powered by electrickery to buff with!