Pressurized fuel mantle lanterns... who uses them? Please step inside.

Sorry guys, been a busy weekend and havent been able to get out to my toy tool shed and play with test my lanterns.

On top of that, been not feeling right. Wake up in the morning exhausted and just a general feeling of blah all day. Must be some sort of bug or something

Hi,
I’m Chris from Germany. Befor I got infected with LED-Lights I was an enthusiastic lantern collector. Here a picture of a few lanterns i own.

[quote=hungry.knight]
Hi,
I’m Chris from Germany. Befor I got infected with LED-Lights I was an enthusiastic lantern collector. Here a picture of a few lanterns i own.

- Bild: keue9.jpg - abload.de][img]http://abload.de/thumb/keue9.jpg

nice looking Petromax lanterns :slight_smile:

Sorry, had some problems with my internet connection. This is only a small part of the collection. currently most of it is stored in packing boxes.
Are there many Petromax collectors in US?

I'm sure there are people in the US that collect petromax, but I'm not one. I am currently hoarding my PayPal funds in hopes of getting a new matte petromax. I know they are not the same quality as the ones from years ago, but I think I am willing to take the risk. I want a kerosene lantern, and love the look of the petromax. But we will see, I'm known to change my mind after saving up the money for something lol

I think you mean this one?

http://www.zarghami-import-export.de/petromax-lampe/petromax-500hk/petromax.jpg

I know the good old ones and I knew the new models. I can only advise you to buy an old one. The new ones are really cheap built quality.

I don’t have an original Petromax yet, but i do have a nice-running all brass RiverTrail version of it:

In a German Lantern Forum say say that this iss made by SANTRAX in China.

The actual PETROMAX lanterns are all made by SANTRAX

The tiny 150er Petromax Lanterns like yours are known as she-goats :wink:

Here is a link to the pictures of my rarest lantern.

http://www.scherning.de/lampen/Petromax_824_N.htm

Yeah, thats the one I am looking at getting. My thought is I would rather take a risk on something new than something old used and untested. But, I have a tenancy to change my mind pretty quick so I never know what I will end up with until its shipped.

In my opinin the best solution would be a NOS Lantern from the german Bundeswehr. I don’t know the actual prices. A few years ago with some time for finding a good ebay offer you could by one unused lantern with metal box for about 75€.

Of course you have to disassamble an old light and change all the seals. But I had a lot of new ones where a disassembling was also needed.

295 on the left and 290 on the right both on full blast.

Both turned down low. The 295 on the left has off brand quick clip mantles that stay white while turned down .The 290 on the right has Coleman gold top mantles that turns to red/orange when turned way down, though hard to tell in the picture. You can tell if you look at the heat shields at the bottom of the generator

nice pair of lanterns!

I think the Coleman goldtop mantles are yttrium treated (which are said to have their own potential health risks). So please dont eat them! :smiley: Coleman experimented with yttrium for a number of years after they discontinued using thorium. Now they use no light enhancement additives and make what is probably the absolute worst and most fragile mantle that money can buy. I throw them away at the outdoor garbage can before bringing a new haul of lanterns into my work area.

Its almost camping season. Now that you’ve got a great pair of lanterns, I hope they get some outdoor use.

They will definitely be seeing some outdoor use in spring, summer and fall. Don't get out camping as much as I used to or like to, but will be at least a few times.

Time for a thread revival!
i forgot to post a photo from my collection of Gas lanterns. ( taken early last year, so it has grown quite a bit since then.)

Wow. I just rebuilt a 220F that was acquired from someone’s trash on garbage day 20yrs back. Bought a broken globe 220F off EBay for parts. Have a 200A from my child hood that still runs well with a Coleman aluminum tray to store spares. Last Christmas I gave a perfect maybe lit once 1965 200A to my Son in law that was acquired from a thrift shop. I asked about the original box and they threw it out! Got that one for almost free as I donated my running 1980 Toyota SR5 truck to them. Damn I miss that truck.

spied a 237 hanging in a friends garage over the weekend.its mine as soon as it can be safely reached.
he has owned it since 1945.
has not been run in 40 years!
time to polish it up!

Here’s my multi-fuel “frankenlantern”. :smiley: Its a mish-mash of Coleman Milspec, CQ and 237 lantern parts, with an inverted brass candle holder that I turned on a lathe to make the proper fit. The shade is probably German milk glass from an old train station gas lamp (super rare find in this size and condition).

This one sees action about 3 times per week during the winter months (burning kerosene to help heat the house). :stuck_out_tongue:

Surprised this thread is so old. Anyway I kind of split my time with flashlights and Pressure lamps. The old pressure lamps take more fussing to get up and running again but that is kind of the point. Once you get them restored, they don’t take much and can run for hours. In a lot of ways they are the other end of the spectrum form LEDs Fussy, not all that efficient, and make a ton of heat. But also are pretty reliable and field fixable, if your driver burns out, it’s not like you can fix it with a leatherman.

I have close to a 100 of them. 70 % of them are restored, and the rest awaiting hard-to-find parts to restore.