Midnight Oil October 2015 by Historic Lighting Club (UK)

The Midnight Oil October 2015

The Magazine of the Historic Lighting Club

â&#x20AC;&#x2030;â&#x20AC;&#x160;Issue 92

Featuring contributions from John Kidger, Anton Kaim, Phil Harris, Neil McRae and Mike Parker

LIGHTIN

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THE HISTORIC LIGHTING CLUB To encourage interest in the collecting and restoration of lighting artifacts and the research into and study of the history of illumination

Website: www.historiclightingclub.co.uk

Committee

PRESIDENT Ian Caunter Tel: 01752 783565 caunteris@aol.com

CHAIRMAN Ian Smith Tel: 01279 651405 iansmith6666@btinternet.com

HONORARY PRESIDENT David Denny

VICE CHAIRMAN

TREASURER & MEMBERSHIP SEC’Y

Dave Horrocks Whitewall Cottage Milbury Heath, Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire, GL12 8QL Tel: 01454 281095 davidwhorrocks@gmail.com

Mike Parker Tel: 01386 881863 mike@parkers-paraffinalia.co.uk PUBLICATIONS OFFICER John Kidger Tel: 01242 236794

johnkidger@talktalk.net

Note: The Treasurer & Membership Secretary roles are now combined to streamline member communications, save costs and reduce duplication,.

Membership

Article Submissions

Annual subscriptions are due in November of each year. The current subscription rate is £20 per annum. Those members who live outside the European Union can if they wish pay a higher subscription rate of £25, which will ensure that they receive their copies of The Midnight Oil by airmail. Subscriptions should be sent to the Treasurer, and cheques (in UK £ only) should be made payable to The Historic Lighting Club. Members should ensure that they inform the Membership Secretary of any changes in contact details etc. Please send all material for inclusion in future issues of The Midnight Oil to Mike Parker Editors for Issue No. 92: David Burnett and Mike Parker. All material © 2015 HLC Front cover: “Commissioners of Irish Lights 1879” table lamp with ‘Hinks & Son Patent Birm’ burner and Victorian shade with cut glass stars. Logo in shield on the column front. (See page 22) Picture by Peter Loomes

HLC meeting and lamp related dates for 2015–16 10/11 October: Black Country Museum 17 October: Wheels by Lamplight 18 October: Nth Tuddenham 30 October: Leamington Spa Hinks exhibition all weekend at Leamington Spa Museum

22 November: Uffington 13 March: Wythal 10 April: Nth Tuddenham 26 June: Uffington 11 September: Wythal

The Midnight Oil October 2015

Issue 92

CONTENTS A note from the Editor Mike Parker 4 A Victorian penny bottle lamp John Kidger 5 A working Era mantle burner Anton Kaim 6 Donut & ‘Neil the lamp’ Mike Parker 10 Eardington Halt Phil Harris 11 Table Talk Phil Harris 12 Coleman: the hydro-carbon years Neil McRae 16 The Victorian street gas lamp Laura Freeman 19 Commissioners of Irish lights Mike Parker 22 Notices & Special Events Mike Parker 22

Church table lamp, with ruby font & original etched ruby shade.Hinks No 2 Duplex Burner. Courtesy of John ‘the lamp’ Warren. Picture by Peter Loomes

A note from the Editor Mike Parker

Microscope lamp (Courtesy Mike Parker)

Welcome to winter and all the excitement of sharing our lamp experiences in October and November before ruing the drought of club meetings until Wythal in March 2016. Now is your last chance to check out details of the ‘Historic lighting event’ at the Black Country Living Museum, Dudley, October 10–11, 2015, which will include displays and talks by club members. For info please contact: John Kidger, Tel: 01242 236794 or email johnkidger@talktalk.net. Please let John know if you are coming and are able to help in any way. Many members will be attending Wheels by Lamplight on October 17, followed next day by our North Tuddenham meeting on October 18. Don’t forget that The Historic Lighting Club is mounting an exhibition at the Leamington Spa Pump Room to commemorate the career and achievements of Joseph Hinks, the Birmingham manufacturer, who was Mayor of the town and lived nearby. This will take place on the week-end of October 30–31 and November 1. The exhibition will remain on until the end of November. Please do support it if you can (contact the Editor). Whilst I continue to exhort people to share their knowledge, or desire to learn, with articles for both the Midnight Oil and newsletter, I have been pleased with the number of contributions that have been sent me so far. My only caveat is that they tend to be from the same people. Come on folks, your past and continued contact with your lighting hobby, could be a treasure trove of anecdote, queries and knowledge dying to be shared. So root out those pictures, knock up some text and pass it on to your editor. And remember to talk about membership and possible advertising to your contacts, as you explore your lighting sources. We have had one advert, but we will need more if we are to reduce costs. You could easily be meeting potential members, who will only need a gentle push to sign up, or rejoin, after you have waved the re-vamped MO under their noses. It works I know. I did it with five people last year. Remember there have been two membership forms in the centre of the last two newsletters, so you can get them filled in on the spot. Here’s wishing all members a Happy and Prosperous New Year.

Submitting Material Please don’t think that lamp information which you wish to share, or seek information about, is not suitable for publication. If 50p Parker’s stuff gets in there, your’s can. Even if you are worried about presentation, that’s what we have an Editor for. A gentle editorial nudge towards greater fluidity and use of the spell check can work wonders, if that is what you worry about. We want your personal take on historic lighting, whether it is recounting your lighting related experiences, about your collection, or even seeking to enlighten your ignorance - a regular feature for all of us at some time. Text and high resolution images are what we are after. Images are ideally sent separate from the text, but with a note showing roughly where you wish it to appear. Please check that your email program is not set up to automatically reduce image size when sent out. Image resolution should be 300dpi for printing so check your pixel count, ie a 900 x 600 dpi image will print at 3 x 2 inches. Any queries to Mike on 01386 881863.

A Victorian Penny Bottle lamp John Kidger These lamps were made as small bottles similar to ink bottles but with a large font and usually embossed with a lamp related name. Mike Parker wrote a very detailed history of these lamps in Midnight Oil, issue number 31, Autumn 1998. I include this lamp, see FIG 1 & 2. as it has the very rare original tin top. Most tin tops have long rusted away on a lamp of over 100 years old. The standard tin top does not have the reflector of wick wider as this one does. The standard lamps wick is lifted and lowered by a pricker in the wick tube slot. The wick winder here is a tin square to engage in the wick in lieu of the more expensive serrated wheel. The end of the wick winder shaft is just bent over in lieu of fitting a winder wheel. This is truly a cheap lamp for the poor. The font is embossed twice ‘THE FAVOURITE’ and the glass is blown into a two part mould, giving two seams. Wick diameter is ¼ inch. Height, with burner/reflector is 5 ½ inches and font base is 3 inches diameter. I have made replicas of tin tops for my other penny lamps, but now see that the tin top plate is secured to the tin tube by two tin ears bent over, in lieu of my soldering.

Below left: FIG 1. Note, cheap poorly made tin burner with offset top plate Below right: FIG 2. Shows moulding seam

Embossed writing

A working Era mantle burner Anton Kaim

My incomplete and damaged Era-burner.

In May 2014 I was able to add an Era-burner to my lamp collection. This is one of the oldest kerosene mantle burners ever made. It was invented by Max and Adolf Graetz in 1896–97, patented in Great Britain (GB) and produced by Ehrich & Graetz of Berlin mainly for export to GB. It was sold in the period 1898–1901 under the auspices of the London ‘Era Incandescent Oil Lamp Company’ (Era-company), by Falk, Stadelmann & Company, Ltd. (FS&Co). But unfortunately the Eraburner was not a success. The question is: why not? In 1897 Max Graetz had sent some Era-burners to Salomon Falk, managing director and co-owner of the London lamp company FS&Co. In his copy book concerning the period 1891-1904, Mr. Falk gives us some information about the introduction of that burner, but also about its failure. In letter 474 of May 12, 1897, he wrote that the Era-burners were working very well and he was willing to invest in stock. About a year later the above mentioned ‘Era company’ was established. One of the main stock holders was ‘Welsbach London’, maker of gas and kerosene mantles. In 1898 S. Falk mentions some problems regarding the delivery of the burners and the newly developed kerosene mantles. The latter shrank too much and were too brittle. In spite of supply problems some burners were sold. However, in the period before 1900 the mantle difficulties were not resolved and as a result the burner got a bad name. One thing is clear now: if a burner is good, but not always available and/or not able to produce trouble-free lighting then it is a burner nobody is going to buy. This, in a nutshell, is why the Era-burner was not a success.

What do we know about the Era-burner?

Top: Original Era chimney, diameter: 48 mm. Above: Original gallery. Photo: Tom Small.

In letter 385 of June 9 1902, we read that S. Falk was still convinced of the good quality of the Era-burners which he said he preferred to the newly developed Austrian Pittner mantle burners. He knew his business and so there is no reason to doubt his words! This confirms that the Era-burner might have been better than we nowadays seem to think. In the Falk letters one also can read that 40.000 burnerswere ordered and less than 20.000 burners delivered to GB. This is not much and therefore the reason that more then100 years later the Era burner is a very rare object, even between mantle lamp/burner collectors. Moreover, I do not know any collector, including myself, who has a complete Era-burner (i.e. having the correct flame spreader, correct chimney and original mantle). Because this burner is one of the first of its type 1 (the other was the Meteor, made by another German company), a standard mantle burner chimney was not available. Ehrich & Graetz developed a long chimney having a bottom with a diameter of approximately 48 mm (perhaps a little

A working Era mantle burner

less). This diameter gives the current collector two problems: there are not many mantle burner chimneys of that diameter available. Secondly an Aladdin mantle cannot be fitted without modifying the mantle hanger rod, – otherwise, by moving the lamp even slightly, at the least the rod damages the underside of the fragile mantle, but probably breaks it totally. I guess no serious collector having an original Era mantle will ever use it just for testing. Such a mantle is too rare. Another problem is that nowadays nobody seems to have an original Era flame spreader either. We don’t know for sure what this item looks like, neither do we have an idea about the size of it. With no chimney, no mantle and no flame spreader the chance to see a working Era-burner is nil. So although there are some original Eraburners known (see Tom Small’s example), in fact nowadays we are not able to establish how good or how bad this burner is.

Comparing two Era-burners If we compare the two Era-burners, we can see that the galleries are different, not only in shape but also in diameter. The left one is smaller and is an original Era gallery using a 48 mm chimney, the right one is not and has a larger diameter of 53 mm. I guess a former owner replaced this after removing its original. By doing so all the parts of the screw for clamping the mantle hanger rod were removed and never replaced. Was it used as an electric lamp? Together with two forced openings at the side of the air chamber it suggests that this burner was in use as an electric lamp for a long time. My burner was also missing the complete wick transporter, including the rack. To my surprise I could use the complete wick transporter of an old spare 15 line Matador burner without too much trouble. An old wick was fitted and this problem was solved. Now I could think about how to get this burner in working order again.

Making new parts So the next thing to do was to make a new screw for the mantle hanger rod, a small boss and the mantle hanger rod. Small stuff but not too much work on a lathe. After some drilling, soldering and bending this all could be fitted to my satisfaction (see below). My good luck is that the larger

Two different galleries. Top: Tom Small’s burner. Below: my burner.

Far left and Centre: Two views of the newly made screw.

Left: View from the top the screw the mantle hanging rod the Aladdin mantle

A working Era mantle burner chimney holder of my burner allows me to use a spare chimney I had at home. In this case a chimney for a 1922 Candesco mantle burner produced by Ehrich & Graetz! This chimney allowed me also to use an Aladdin mantle without any problem. Well, with all these features, visually my burner seems like a reborn Era-burner though it was still missing the flame spreader!

A replacement flame spreader For this it was necessary to study the old patents again. Three different flame spreader types can be found in three different GB patents but only two could fit into the inner wick tube of my burner. One was hat shaped, the other shaped like a thimble, but having a spreading disc (i) around it.

Which one to choose? In the past I had seen, on Tom Smallâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Era-burner, a hat-shaped flame spreader. Nevertheless nobody could tell me whether this is an original Era one or not. But it might be, so I decided to try to remake one from some 0.5 mm thick brass sheet. Tomâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s flame spreader has five rows of holes below the conical spreading disc and one row of holes above it. The diameter of the inner wick tube where it has to fit in, is 17.5 mm. I made some calculations and found that I could drill exactly 26 holes of 1.5 mm in one row. Thinking the conical spreading disc perhaps might not work properly, I planned to make this replacement as a three part flame spreader from which I could take off the top and the disc to replace the latter with one of another shape and/or diameter. This idea was excellent, because the developed conical disc was too large in diameter and not really useful. I could not get a stabie hot flame to make the mantle glow properly. On the contrary. The flame below the disc heated the complete flame spreader red hot and made the burner too hot to handle. I had to stop this run.

A working Era mantle burner

Making another conical disc is not quite as easy as a flat one and I decided first to make a couple of flat discs each having a different diameter. I started to make a disc with an outer diameter of 23.5 mm. The next ones were, respectively, 24 mm, 24.5 and 25 mm. I had some luck! The smallest disc performed reasonably well, even better then the next one but still it was not good enough. The flame did not come high enough into the mantle. The reason? My flame spreader was too long. I cut off about 2.5 mm. Not enough! Another 1 mm. Now only four rows of holes were above the top of the wick tube instead of five. This did the trick! Without using a mantle I noticed that the top of the mantle hanging rod now became light red hot â&#x20AC;&#x201C; hotter than during any run before. After this test I put the mantle back and restarted. Yes! It was giving out a white light for about 70 per cent of its total capacity. The flame was also stable during the 20 minutes of the test. At the end even the winder wheel could be turned without burning my fingers. A happy day. And so we can now see what Salomon Falk meant. This burner is not bad at all!! 1

See: The Evolution of the Kerosene Mantle Burner. January 2014, by A.Kaim.

Contact: A.Kaim. Gemshoorn 46, 3068 HL Rotterdam. Netherlands. Email: antonkaim@hotmail.com

Above: Steps in the making and installation of the flame spreader

Left: The Era mantle burner in action

Donut & ‘Neil the Lamp’ Mike Parker How many times have you come across a genuine old lamp and rolled your eyes when you find that some vandal has drilled the font, especially a glass one, and driven straight through the burner to electrify it. Yet praise indeed to the dealer, who has matched her or his responsibility for provenance with the needs of the market, and used an electrified duplex burner with wiring access from the side. You should then have some sympathy for being out of sync with current trends, like “Neil the Lamp” in Stephen Collins cartoon below. You can imagine my despair at Drew Pritchard’s response to finding what looked like a stunning, and original donut pressure lamp, in his usually very fascinating role as ace Salvage Hunter. I asked Neil McRae’s opinion and his view was that, though not sure of the model, as it doesn’t fit any catalogue description, he reckoned that it was probably a modified HASAG Polar 5A, produced for W.J. Rudduck in the 1930s. A fantastic feature was the logo “Specially made for W R Ruddock, Stratford, London, East 15,” printed on the enamel reflector. Purchased for £80 the commentator claimed that, after restoration costs of £160, its sale value would be £400. Ironically, a conservative estimate of its value to a pressure collector, “as found”, would easily be just that sum. Even I reckoned that Drew would lose big money by electrifying it, so he obviously has no understanding of the collector market for pressure lamps. But then he is in a “John Lewis” style market and another piece of lighting heritage has been lost.

Courtesy of Stephen Collins, as published in The Guardian Weekend magazine, 7 March 2015)

Eardington Halt: an oil-lit railway station Phil Harris My local preserved steam railway runs on the Severn Valley line, between Kidderminster in Worcestershire and Bridgnorth in Shropshire, through picturesque countryside. Most of its passengers probably fail to notice the smallest station on the line, Eardington, largely because it is closed and no trains stop there during normal timetable running. The station is only open to visitors during the railway’s twice-yearly steam gala special events. However, Eardington has the distinction of being the only oil-lit station on the Severn Valley Railway, having no electricity on site, and by sheer chance I have recently become involved with restoring some of the station’s collection of vintage oil lamps. Whilst out cycling, I came across the station one Thursday afternoon this autumn. A small but dedicated group of working volunteers visit once a week to tend the gardens, maintain and preserve the site, and prevent further deterioration to the station’s nineteenth-century buildings. I got chatting to the volunteer group’s leader, Steve, was given a guided tour of the station and the lamp collection and, to cut a long story short, ended up joining the volunteers and have just completed my first full day as station lamp man! The volunteers need decent lighting to be able to extend their working day during the winter months, so I decided to tackle the station’s motley collection of Tilley X246 storm lanterns, and today I managed to restore two X246 Guardsmen, an X246A and a pair of X246Bs to good working order. Today was cold and wet, but the Lamp Room were soon made warm by a coal fire, and bright as the lamps were lit. As darkness fell we were able to take a few photos. As time goes on, I hope to be able to report on the many other station lamps as I tackle their repair and restoration.

Table Talk Phil Harris

Matthew Cranmer’s display of Tilley lamps at Wythal

Meetings of the HLC are lively events, in large part due to the superb displays of lamps put on by members. I’d like to give credit to those members who plan and stage their extensive displays, designed to show to other members a specific selection or type of lamp from their own collection, and the care, time and effort involved is clearly considerable. Each exhibiting member is invited to give a short ‘table talk’ in order to highlight some of the exhibits and explain their choice of lamps on display. The only people who benefit from these always enlightening and entertaining displays and talks are, of course, the members and visitors who actually attend HLC meetings. After discussion at the Wythall meeting on 22nd March 2015, the Club has decided to run a series of articles in the Midnight Oil, focusing on one or two of the exhibitors at each meeting, and featuring some of the lamps on display, to help reach a wider audience. It is hoped that what you read in the M.O. will encourage more of you to come along to a future meeting, and see for yourself what you’re missing! It was also agreed that a member would volunteer to choose the featured display, talk to the exhibitors, and write about one or two lamps in particular. For some reason, I found myself being the first volunteer, so I felt I should share with you the reasons for my choices. I must stress that it is purely a personal choice based on my own lamp interests, and not in any way intended to pick out one display as being ‘better’ than another. Hence my choices included a display of Tilley lamps, as I am very much a pressure lamp enthusiast myself, and a display of acetylene lamps, as I knew very little about them. Future writers and I hope others will be tempted to put themselves forward - will be encouraged to make their own personal choices, so over time we hope to see a broad range of lamps featured in this series, which we have decided to call simply ‘Table Talk’. WYTHALL, 22ND MARCH 2015 At least nine members displayed lamps at Wythall, covering a wide range of styles, types, shapes and sizes and of course including some real rare gems. I decided to talk to Matthew Cranmer about his table full of Tilley lamps, and then to our President Ian Caunter about his huge display of calcium carbide acetylene lamps. MATTHEW CRANMER Matthew’s presention of nearly a dozen lamps in beautiful as-new or restored condition included seven unusual Tilley lamps. Matthew describes himself as primarily a Tilley collector, but he also enjoys restoring and collecting

Table Talk

lamps of other types that appeal to him aesthetically. He spotted the rare Tilley SL61 Hospital Lamp on eBay and decided he “just had to have it”! It came in as-new, unused condition complete with all accessories, labels and instructions in a wooden carrying case. Matthew said he had lit the lamp, but used a different hood in order to maintain the pristine state of the original. The second lamp to catch my eye was the Tilley FL5 floodlight. This is one of the later type FL5s with the burner having twin air-intakes, which dates it to around 1936. Tilley floodlights share the same operating principle as all Tilley paraffin vapour lamps, based on the 1922 patent, although with a different mantle. Matthew has undertaken a complete restoration of this flood lamp, a job which he modestly described as having taken “about a weekend” but the results are stunning. This lamp, another eBay find, has been lit and gives good results. Another beautifully restored lamp on Matthew’s table was a Tilley AL15A inspection lamp, dating from around 1960. A very accurate

Above: Tilley SL61 hospital lamp Left: Tilley FL5 floodlight Below: Tilley AL15A Inspection lamp

Table Talk match to the original paint finish has been achieved using a readily available Ford car paint, professionally applied using a spray gun. I asked Matthew if he has a favourite lamp within his collection; he replied that his pair of Tilley FL1 Vase Lamps in Saxe Blue and Old Gold were way out in front! Most Tilley collectors would love to own a VL1, so you can see the enthusiasm that he has for this classic marque. I really enjoyed this display, and the quality of Matthew’s workmanship is first class.

Carbide-fuelled acetylene lamps displayed by Ian Caunter at Wythal

Ian’s impressive green ‘Imperial Light’

IAN CAUNTER HLC President Ian Caunter can always be relied upon to display something of interest, and this time he brought along an impressive display of calcium carbide-fuelled acetylene lamps, which he described as representing about one-quarter of the acetylene lamps in his collection. Ian collects a wide range of lamps, including candle lamps, and those fuelled “by paraffin, petrol, acetylene, naphthalene, colza oil - you name it, we’ll burn it!” I asked Ian how much space he had at his disposal at home to house what must be a vast collection. Ian replied that he keeps a small number of lamps on display, but most of his collection is carefully packed away in safe storage. I admired the large green ‘Imperial Light’ acetylene lamp which Ian had been demonstrating earlier in the day. He said, “This was designed as a general purpose industrial or road-working

Table Talk lamp. The tank is of galvanised steel construction and has a bell-shaped gas container which sits below the level of the water, which is contained inside the tank. Beneath the bell is the cartridge loaded with calcium carbide. The whole lot is immersed in the water; the water permeates into the carbide and produces the acetylene gas which holds the water back from the carbide charge, so it’s essentially self-regulating, but the water acts as the gas seal as well.” The gas flows through the rising tube to the gas cock and burner, which in this case featured two jets angled at 90 degrees to each other, creating a fishtail flame. Ian explained: “This burner produces a fishtail flame creating an intense, white floodlight, but some lamps have as many as three coinciding jets, depending on the design.” The acetylene gas pressure in the carbide chamber is very low, only a couple of inches of water gauge, but due to the high calorific value of the fuel the jet orifice is very small. From my school chemistry days I recognised the operating principle as being similar to the Kipp’s Apparatus, but Ian explained that not all carbide lamps share this principle. “Many of those you see on the table have regulated water drip feeds.” I asked whether carbide lamps required a great deal of attention whilst in use: “Mainly, you needed to wash them out at the end of each day. If you didn’t wash them out, lime could build up and cause corrosion internally, but as long as the operator washed them out thoroughly, cleaned the jets and put the lamps away dry, they would be in good condition for the next time.” Calcium carbide fuel is still readily available from caving equipment suppliers as carbide lamps are still used by cavers. Ian continued, “I used to be a member of Cornwall Mine Rescue Group, and I had some acetylene lamps and used them myself on several occasions. Acetylene gives a good white flood light and can therefore be more effective than a spot light for caving.” Other lamps in Ian’s acetylene display (right) included, amongst other fascinating exhibits, a South African railway carbide lamp; a carbide lamp with a solid zinc body; a baker’s oven inspection carbide lamp having an extended gas tube with burner and reflector at the end to (safely) illuminate the interior of a hot bread oven; and a carbide lamp in the style of a traditional Hurricane lamp. All together, Ian’s was a most interesting and informative display of this unique form of lighting. Thanks to HLC Member Dan Durickas whose idea it was have a portable microphone at meetings and to focus on one or two table displays, singling out individual lamps and interviewing the owners.

A fishtail flame is created by theses jets featured in the ‘Imperial Light’

The Swiss Connection

Coleman: the hydro-carbon years Neil McRae

cont’d from Midnight Oil 91

In August 1907 the Hydro-Carbon Light Company ceased to exist and all assets were sold to The Hydro-Carbon Company. This new company applied for charter 29th August 1907. William must have acquired complete control because none of the 1906 shareholders have any interest in the company by then and only 50 shares were set aside or sold to a new board of directors. I suspect that the Covalt family interest was bought out by W.C and the shares held by George Coleman were always intended to be returned to W.C once the lawsuit was resolved in Oklahoma. That was settled 20 August 1907 with the sale by auction of the company assets in Lawton and 9 days later on August 29 the company was sold to the new corporation The Hydro-Carbon Company with W.C. Coleman as 80% majority shareholder. The new 1907 Hydro-Carbon Company was valued at $26,000 in $1.00 shares and charter was applied for by W.C. Coleman with 2115 shares, W.R. Dulaney and J.F. Shearman with 10 shares each and Frank Peck and G.H. Cassidy with 5 shares each with 20 shares retained by the company for sale. On October 3 1907 W.C. Coleman stated under oath that he was SecretaryTreasurer of the company and that $3,000 cash had been paid for shares and that the assets of the Hydro-Carbon Light Company, of which he was sole proprietor, had been sold to the new company which was valued in excess of 20% of the total share value. The new board of directors was William R Dulaney President, Jay F Shearman vice president and W.C. Coleman secretary & Treasurer. Jay Shearman and W.C were both deacons in the First Baptist Church Wichita and most probably William Dulaney was also a member. So a couple of local business friends of William invested in the company and took over the leadership for some years. It is unusual perhaps that the William was not president but maybe Uncle George had persuaded him to concentrate on running the factory and have some experienced local businessmen and friends manage the board of directors. The title does not really matter because with about 80% of the shares he was still ‘Owner’. In 1912 Jay Shearman took over as President and the Rev George Cassidy of the First Baptist church became vice president. Also in 1912 the company increased its capital to $100,000 in 2000 shares of $500. Share distribution was 1435 W. C. Coleman: 175 Judson Wilson; 70 Mary Wilson; 70 J. F. Shearman; 70 G. W. Cassidy; 35 Jessie Shearman; 145 Treasury Stock. So William still owned about three quarters of the shares and his Sister Mary and brother in law Judson Wilson appear in the list of shareholders. The company name was changed from The HydroCarbon Company to the Coleman Lamp Company on

Coleman: the hydro-carbon years 9th November 1912 and the change approved by the charter board 18th June 1913. In 1915 W.C. Coleman became president again of his company after an 8 year period of taking a secondary role on the board of directors. W.C. Coleman throughout this period was the only company officer actually working in the business so he would have managed the office and factory. William Dulaney had a local Real Estate company and Jay Shearman was US District court clerk who later became a US commissioner and handwriting expert. Both these men also invested in other local businesses so we may suppose they were investors and directors rather than managers of HydroCarbon. In 1914 Coleman bought out Incandescent Light and Supply of Wichita. They had been retailing other makes of lamps but more importantly had a significant mantle making facility in Wichita and an experienced management team. Frank Reed, Charles Parr and Alfred Foley who were owners of Incandescent Light and Supply in Wichita became officers or managers of the Coleman Lamp Company in Wichita and Chicago after 1914 when Coleman bought out IL&S. So whilst the company was not of great significance as manufacturers the owners became important people in the Coleman management team from 1915 to the late 1930s. The next few years saw some significant changes in the directors and massive increases of capital stock. • 1915-1916: Pres & Gen Manager W.C. Coleman, Vice presidents G.W. Cassidy & Charles E. Parr, Treas J.H. Graham, Sec F.A. Reed. • 1918: President & Gen Manager W.C. Coleman, Vice president Charles E. Parr, Secretary/Treasurer J.H. Graham, • 1920 September 17: President W. C. Coleman, Secretary Chas E Parr. • Increase of capital from $100,000 to $600,000. Consisting of 2,000 shares common stock at $50 each and 10,000 shares of preferred stock. W. C. Coleman subscribed for the 10,000 preferred stock which is fully paid. • 1921 March 4: Increase of capital from $600,000 to $1,250,000 in 13,00 shares of $50. • 1922 December 29: Increase of capital from $1,250,000 to $1,500,00 in 5000 shares of $50. These increases are a response to the huge success of the Quick-Lite range of lamps. They do however show a reduction in W.C.s holding from around three quarters to just over 50% of common stock but he still owned a significant amount of preferred stock in addition. An application to change the company name from The Coleman Lamp Company to The Coleman Lamp & Stove Company was submitted on 6th May 1926 and approved 9th October 1926. THE FAMILY William Coffin Coleman was born 21st May 1870 to parents Robert Russell and Julia N Coleman. They were farmers in Chatham New York but with Robert’s brother George Jethro Coleman moved to Labette County Kansas in 1871 where they purchased adjacent plots. Robert was born 31st May 1828 and died 3rd June 1882. Julia was born 14th March 1840 and died 28th April 1897. Both are buried at Mound Valley Labette county Kansas. William had two older sisters, Evelyn B. born 1859 and Mary C. born 1861. George Jethro Coleman married Harriet A Bushnell 10th September 1851 and they had four children; May Alvinette 1852, Kay Bushnell 1854, Dean

Coleman: the hydro-carbon years Shepard 1864 and Fanny May 1866. Of these four only one, May, had no part in the Hydro-Carbon company. Kay married Emma McGregory 8th May 1884 and they had two daughters, Ethel S. Coleman and May C. Coleman. Dean married Mrs Helen S Lund in 1904 and they had two children Francis in 1904 and Clark in 1908. Helen died about 1908-1909 because in the 1910 census Dean is a widower. He then married Florence Clark and they had a daughter Margaret in 1914. Fanny May married William Benjamin Covalt 10th June 1896 and they had a son George Jonathon in 1900. Robert and George’s parents were Benjamin Coleman and Sarah Dean. They had five other children, William, Henry, Mary, Joseph and Edward. Benjamin’s father was Jethro Coleman born 1755 in Nantucket. William Covalt’s parents were Jonathan Covalt and Margaret E. Stites. They had seven children and their daughter Margaret born 1880 worked for Hydro-Carbon from 1903 to 1907. After the partnership of Coleman and Covalt was dissolved William became manager of the Compressed Air House Cleaner Co in 1909 and in the 1910 and 1920 census is listed as a farmer. William Covalt died 6th August 1931 and is buried in Arlington Pennsylvania. After William Coleman’s father Robert died the family relocated to Parsons Labette Kansas where W. C. was educated. He graduated High School and later from the State Teachers college and after teaching for a couple of years he enrolled at the Kansas Law School paying his way as a travelling salesman. Lack of funds meant he did not finish law school and he became a full time Typewriter salesman. He made the switch to selling light in Kingfisher Oklahoma and from this small beginning in 1900 leasing light and then later making and selling lamps the Coleman company was born. Business must have been good because within a year William married Fanny Lucinda Sheldon 1st January 1901. Fanny was born 9th Sep 1872 at Ottawa Franklin Kansas. They had two children, Robert Sheldon Coleman born 15th Nov 1901 at Fort Worth, Johnson, Texas, and Clarence William Coleman born 24 Mar 1909 in Wichita. William C Coleman died 2nd November 1957. Robert Sheldon Coleman (Sheldon Snr) married Georgia (Galey) in 1924 and they had two daughters Virginia Lee born 1927 and Carolyn born 1929. Sheldon Snr died 21st September 1988. Clarence William Coleman married Emrys Ione Ingram (Betty) in 1935 and they had two daughters Rochelle born 1937 and Pamela born 1939. Clarence died 13th December 1992.

The Victorian street gas lamp Laura Freeman – Article courtesy of the Daily Mail When the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge next have an evening engagement, they might consider dismissing their chauffeur and setting out from Kensington Palace on foot. For on their doorstep is one of the most magical walks in London. The long avenue of Kensington Palace Gardens, lined with embassies and the mansions of billionaires, is lit only by gas lamps. Their glass heads are a constellation of stars. It is one of the rare places in the city where a walker can imagine what it might once have been like to walk the capital at night. These glowing sentry posts are among the last Victorian gas lamps in London. In a city blazing with electricity, with office lights left on all night, these 19th-century survivors offer a glimpse of the city as it was when Charles Dickens wrote his dark and smoggily gripping novels. There are 1,500 gas lamps left in London —but hundreds of thousands of electric street lights. Westminster alone has 14,000 glaring electric lamps. But who keeps London’s gas lights burning? If you were to stand on Lord north Street after dark, around the corner from the houses of Parliament, you might see a man in blue overalls at the top of a ladder, silhouetted against Big Ben. You could set your watch by it; he sets his lamps by the clock face. There are just five lamplighters left in London. Once, there were hundreds of them, pacing the city at dusk with long, lighted poles to spark the gas running up the iron posts. That the gas lamps have survived is partly a tribute to English Heritage, which has protected and restored them. But the greater share of the glory goes to the lamplighters themselves. The five remaining lamplighters are actually British Gas engineers. You won’t find them servicing boilers or reading meters, but at the tops of ladders across London winding mechanisms and polishing the glass lanterns. Their efforts are almost entirely unsung. I only came to discover the lamplighters thanks to my peculiar habit of exploring the city after dark. When I asked if they would take me on their rounds, they were kind enough to say yes. They are evangelical about the particular beauty of their charges. Iain Bell, who oversees the operation, runs his hands over the posts like an antiquarian examining a classical sculpture. Fellow engineer John Blanchard insists that the title ‘lamplighter’ doesn’t go far enough. ‘We are,’ he says proudly, ‘the Guardians of the Lamps.’ Victorian periodical The Westminster Review wrote that the introduction of gas lamps had done more to eliminate immorality and criminality on the streets than any number of church sermons. To understand what London might have looked like in those early decades of gas, the lamplighters lead me into the centre of St James’s Park. Here the gas lamps glow with a soft, parchment-coloured light. The light given off by an electric lamp, by contrast, is a harsh, fierce white. You don’t notice how ugly it is until you’ve walked in the park and come out the other side on to electric-lit Constitution hill. Iain Bell jokes that at the time of the Olympics, the lamps in this part of town were the cleanest in London; the lighters kept finding excuses to clean the lamps on horse Guards Parade, the venue for the (bikini-clad)

The Victorian street gas lamp beach volleyball matches. ‘The lamps,’ Bell says, ‘were so clean you could eat your dinner off them.’ When there are less enticing attractions, his lamplighters visit each lamp in London on a fortnight’s rotation. Their services are paid for by each of the councils in which the lamps stand. Unlike soulless, identical electric lights, the gas lamps are temperamental. Their mechanisms have to be wound and checked, the glass polished (‘We use Mr Muscle,’ confesses John), and the ‘mantles’ replaced. These are teardrop-shaped elements which look, from the ground, like bulbs. But from the top of John’s ladder they are revealed to be tiny, bell-shaped, silk casings coated in lime-oxide, which becomes white-hot to give the lamps their glow. While some lamplighters change the mantles of the lamps outside Buckingham Palace at four in the morning to avoid the tourists, John likes to be up his ladder at the busiest times, revelling in his role as Lamp Guardian. The Palace is happy to let the lamplighters shimmy up their posts, but our politicians are more precious. The Houses of Parliament look after their own lamps. Hyde Park, too, has its own lamplighters, but otherwise, Iain and his team maintain 1,300 gas lamps from Richmond Bridge in the West to Bromley-by-Bow in the east. The oldest lamps light up the inside of Westminster Abbey; the newest frame the statue of the Queen Mother near the Palace. John helps me climb level with one of the lamps in Smith Square. What strikes you as you open the glass window is the rush of warmth — welcome on a drizzling evening in November. In daylight, each lamp burns with a tiny pilot light — if you look up on a grey and overcast day you can just see the flicker. At dusk, a timer fitted to each lamp moves a lever to release a stronger stream of gas which gives enough power to light up the mantles. It’s a wonderful trick. John manipulates the mechanism to show me the moment when the gas shoots up. The four mantles come on one at a time — flash! flash! flash! flash! until the whole lamp shines. In nearby Pickering Place, a gloomily Dickensian courtyard with halftimbered houses, Iain talks regretfully of the sheer waste of light in London. In Carlton Gardens, he points out the smart offices of an aerospace company. The desks are deserted, but lights are on at every window. For a man who cherishes gas lamps, the careless second-hand wasted light from the offices is an insult. Each lamp is marked with the crest of the monarch in the year they were erected. During the great smogs of the 19th and early 20th centuries, it was possible for a man to find his way home by spotting the glow of the lantern, then feeling the markings on the post to work out where he was in the city. Outside the five-star Savoy hotel is a rare example of a ‘sewer lamp’. Its post is hollow and extends beneath the pavement to the great sewer below. The lamp was designed to extract foul smells and burn them off before they could reach the delicate nostrils of guests in the hotel’s suites. Since the 19th century, almost all the lamps have been extended to raise their lanterns above the height of traffic. Modern delivery vans and lorries are rather taller than horse-drawn carriages and sedan chairs. When a lorry does drive into a lamp, which they do regrettably often, it is re-cast and put back exactly as it was. The lamps that stand today have survived the coming of electric light, the Blitz and the best efforts of London’s lorry drivers. Their survival is testament to the care of generations of lamplighters.

The Victorian street gas lamp In 1939, the journalist H. V. Morton wrote a book called the Ghosts Of London, which lamented the loss of the lamplighters who were once seen on every street at dusk. There were 412 of them then. ‘We’re the last of the old brigade,’ one of them told Morton. Today, there are just the five lamplighters left. It is thanks to them that this remarkable part of the city’s history has endured and that in a few squares and parks and alleyways, it is still possible to walk the glowing streets which, long before electric light pollution, Dickens himself would have walked. Before such men existed, London was a dark city. In the 18th century, it was a brave walker who ventured out without servants to lead the way with a lamp in one hand and a cudgel in the other. Those who could not afford to keep servants would pay a few coins to a ‘link boy’, named after their ‘links’ or torch wicks. These wild street urchins, the sons of harlots and thieves, would walk ahead, carrying a stick with a rag dipped in tar and set alight. Some were cutpurses, leading their customers into courts and alleyways and stealing what they could in the darkness. Yet they were preyed on in turn. The link boys were vulnerable to the attentions of unscrupulous men who would have their way with the boys for a few more farthings. Those who couldn’t afford to be guided in the dark took their chances or rushed home before sunset. Then, in 1807, an extraordinary conjuring trick was performed on Pall Mall. To celebrate the birthday of King George III, Frederick Winsor, an engineer, lit the most spectacular of candles. To gasping crowds, he instantly illuminated a line of gas lamps. Each one was fed with gas pipes made from the barrels of old musket guns and all Winsor had to do was apply a single spark to light up the whole street. The Mall was almost impassable with spectators until after midnight. Over the following decades, thousands of gas lamps went up across London. Many panicked about the new-fangled technology — explosions were alarmingly common in the early days — but for the first time in its history, London was safe, relatively speaking, to walk at night.

Notices and Special Events HLC Lamp Exhibition The Black Country Living Museum, 10–11 October 2015

HLC Hinks Exhibition Leamington Spa Art Gallery & Museum. Launched on the weekend commencing 31 October 2015 and continued throughout November.

Members Book Service: The list of publications will appear twice a year in the Newsletter and copies can be ordered by post from John Kidger. Email: johnkidger@talktalk.net or call him on 01242 236794. Two copies of the publications are brought to each HLC meeting. Left: BARBER’S SINGE LAMP Illustrated on pages 41 & 42 of Ruth Smith’s book, Miniature Lamps – II. Described by her as a Jeweller’s or Barber’s singeing lamp. Cobalt Blue round glass in a metal holder; embossed on top of the font Pat. Sept 14 1880 and March 14 in 1893’. She also says, ‘Not to be confused with oil miniatures. 5” inches from bottom to top of extinguisher.’ (Courtesy Mike Parker)

THE COMMISSIONERS OF IRISH LIGHTS (from cover) To this day the Commissioners of Irish Lights are the General Lighthouse Authority for the whole of Ireland, both the Republic of Ireland, and Northern Ireland. They are one of three lighting authorities with the British Isles and Ireland. The other two being Trinity House, covering England, Wales and the Channel Isles, and the Northern Lighthouse Board, covering Scotland and the Isle of Man. They are responsible for lighthouses, buoys, and the other various navigation, warning and direction finding items associated with the sea, and marking of wrecks and the like. The constitution of the board dates from another organisation in 1786, while the task they undertake mostly dates from 1810, but they were not known as the Commissioners of Irish Lights until 1867. Mike Parker

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Look what’s coming in future Midnight Oils • RESTORING GAS LIGHTS AT MALVERN – John Kidger explores how New LED Lamps, mimicking a gas lamp, are preserving Malvern’s street lighting architecture. • PARAFFIN LIGHTING AND ART NOUVEAU – Mike Parker seeks to relate the appearance of art nouveau in paraffin lamp design, linking this to more mundane everyday items, which shared the influence. • RUSHLIGHT HISTORY – explored through a medieval re-enactment group. • ARTICLE BY A.N.OTHER – That’s the article that YOU keep meaning to finish and have never got around to completing. • MORE TABLE TALK – Phil Harris introduces us to more lamps that have caught his eye.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;He made the night a little lighter, wherever he would go, the old lamplighter of long, long agoâ&#x20AC;?