A complete restoration of a 1960's gasoline lantern.

Other Types of Lights Non-LED Lanterns, Incandescent, and HID Lights
1

its not only flashlights i collect & build, but everything that produces light without a cord.
i seem to be able to find more old vintage lanterns than i can flashlights, and have restored a few classics like these.

This old vintage Coleman gas lantern was in very rough condition when i received it.
It is a Coleman Model # 236 Major larger single-mantle built in Canada in 1962, ( rated at 600+CP or equivalent to a 100-watt Incandescent bulb at the time.)
it spent the last 10 - 20 years beat-up & corroding in a wet barn.

I acquired this lantern with some others, and worked on it to restore it. I stripped this lantern down to every single part, cleaned, polished, straightened, and fix everything to perfect working condition, and with some generous donations of a couple of hard-to-find parts from members of the CCF Forums the lantern now glows life to illuminate the darkness again like it did half a century ago.

Below are the before and after photos of the 236 Major:

Before…

After…

Now if i could only find as many vintage Flashlights to restore like i find these historical lanterns! :slight_smile:

2

O.o Insane this is Insane you did some Big efforts there :heart_eyes:

3

Thanks. its a lot of work and cleaning but its worth it in the end.

4

Nice restoration, great work.

5

Nice!

We get a few resto type reality shows over here - wonder if we’ll soon see “American Lanterns” :smiley:

6

That looks awesome! Light it up please! I want to see how it works. :bigsmile:

7

Coin Collection Family forum??

Great restoration! That 'Benz-O-matic' lantern in the background of the first pic looks very interesting also (nice basic shape, I like that, and a great brand name!)

EDIT: a google search revealed that it is actually BernzOmatic and that the brand is still alive and very common on the other side of the ocean :-)

8

You have done an orsm job on the restoration. Thanks for showing us something that was once junk turned into an as new lantern.

9

now fill that shiny base with 18650 cells and put some XHP70 in it and light the skys

10

That’s pretty awesome, DBSAR.

11

Wow! :heart_eyes: :heart_eyes: :heart_eyes:

So shiny-perty! I wants one!

BTW, still loving the steam-pipe light in your avatar. That is one cool tool. If you ever need to find it a new home… :bigsmile:

12

such a fine job :open_mouth:

13

You must have travelled back in time to ’62, bought the lantern and came back.

Awesome job.

14

CCF is ” Coleman Collectors Forum ” :slight_smile:
The BernzOmatic is one of the first propane-powered dual-beam lanterns ever built in the 50s & 60s.
It too is currently under a complete restoration. and will post it soon.

I also have the first consumer propane portable lantern model, its the one in the photo below along with the matching BernzOmatic stove from the same era. (1940’s)
Both i restored last year.)

15

lol if it was only that easy i would be rich now.

16

Looks like that Propane can is old, too. What would happen if you installed a can of MAP gas in one of those instead of the Propane can it was made for? J)

17

This looks like new, never thought that the result could be so perfect after seeing this bashed up before picture…

18

Nice work! I have used kerosene pressure lanterns and stoves but never dared gasoline.

19

Great job with the ol Major, DBSAR! Your lantern shelves look as busy as mine. :bigsmile: Here’s a few of my 237 restorations helping to heat the house during winter.

20

Wow nice video of the 237s! :slight_smile: that must be radiating a ton of heat there. Great to see another avid “lantern” collector here too. (I’m surprised your not a member of the CCF forums.)