Tilley Lamp Enthusiasts Forum - the giddy limit

dylanwinter

dylanwinter

Well-Known Member
Joined
28 Mar 2005
Messages
12,954
Location
Buckingham
www.keepturningleft.co.uk
just for you died in the wool keenos I came across this

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http://www.classicpressurelamps.com/forum/showforum.php?fid/8/
 
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Oh, all right. I 'fess up. ( hangs head in approbrium )


"My name is OldBilbo and I am a pressure lamp addict."

I have at least two squirreled away, with spare this's and that's, and a shed at the bottom of the garden in which to indulge my luminary vice.

May I raise awareness of the arcane practice of using several matchsticks to light the lamp, when other, better material is unavailable....? Long Swans are best.
 
oldbilbo said:
Oh, all right. I 'fess up. ( hangs head in approbrium )


"My name is OldBilbo and I am a pressure lamp addict."

I have at least two squirreled away, with spare this's and that's, and a shed at the bottom of the garden in which to indulge my luminary vice.

May I raise awareness of the arcane practice of using several matchsticks to light the lamp, when other, better material is unavailable....? Long Swans are best.
Click to expand...

is that really possible

you need to film it

D
 
I will add my confession - my name is Glen and I'm a lamp addict.

I think the current collection runs to 4 Tilley's (one a brass pork-pie model), 4 BiAlladins, a 500cp Petromax (serious light and heat), a couple of Chinese Petromax copies, an Alladin (the one with a wick and mantle) with globe and assorted wick lamps, including a ships lamp burner with patent duplex mechanism.

I've also got a few pressure stoves and one blowlamp which I've not tried yet!

Sitting in the living room is an apparently very rare gimballed mount for a Primus, made around 1931, I've certainly never seen another one. One day I'll find the right classic boat to put it on!

Some of the lamps used to be used in earnest at a Church in MK - it's a C1540 Manor Chappel which only gained electricity a few years ago.

Glen
 
There seems to be money in them, I have been surprised to see how much they go for on Ebay. I was watching a nice looking table-top version that went for nearly £200 and ones like mine and Dylan's regularly fetch £75.
 
glenp said:
I will add my confession - my name is Glen and I'm a lamp addict.

I think the current collection runs to 4 Tilley's (one a brass pork-pie model), 4 BiAlladins, a 500cp Petromax (serious light and heat), a couple of Chinese Petromax copies, an Alladin (the one with a wick and mantle) with globe and assorted wick lamps, including a ships lamp burner with patent duplex mechanism.

I've also got a few pressure stoves and one blowlamp which I've not tried yet!

Sitting in the living room is an apparently very rare gimballed mount for a Primus, made around 1931, I've certainly never seen another one. One day I'll find the right classic boat to put it on!

Some of the lamps used to be used in earnest at a Church in MK - it's a C1540 Manor Chappel which only gained electricity a few years ago.

Glen
Click to expand...

bad, bad, bad man

does your wife know about your collection and how much money it could realise should you sell up

D
 
I'll have to post some pics of my paraffin weed-burner in action for you pressure-burner pervs, its basically a 4 inch dia blowtorch with a half gallon tank and wheels. Fuel consumption (with today's insane price of paraffin) is immense and its a sod to get going but when it's cooking the sound and fury are truly impressive.

It is pretty useless as a weedkiller though.
 
Ah, Dylan, I have the advantage of being single!

Must admit the price of lamps on EBay is surprising, none of the Tilley's cost me more than about £20 or so (and a couple were £10). Even the Alladin, with a relatively rare red globe, was only £65.

Glen
 
I started on Tilleys - at school, behind the bike sheds.

Then a dealer pushed a Vapalux on to me.

I kicked the habit for a few years, getting by on Feurhand but it is a slippery slope.

I still keep an old Vapalux in the shed, along with three grapnel anchors and the Seagulls.
 
You'll find that a modern Tilley lamp is the cannabis of the pressure lamp world. It is liable to lead you onto older Tilleys then Vapalux then Bialladin and on down an ever more depraved path.
Get out now if you value your sanity.
 
Well, I have been given a paraffin blowlamp that has lived in a shed for years. It is a Monitor 1 pint. It is dated 1957 and has a crow's foot mark on it, solid brass tank and vaporiser and pump, of blue overalls and tweed cloth cap provenance, a very handsome beast indeed. The handle and retaining collar are steel. I have taken it to bits and restored all the brasswork to new by applying wire wool and metal polish to take off the tarnish, repainted the handle and retaining collar with bright red enamel paint, looks a treat. SWMBO likes it too so that's a plus.

But it does not retain its pressure.
So I am now going through the process of elimination to find the fault.

These blowlamps are very handy to have around.
They are useful, among other ideas, for the following:

Melting the ends of synthetic rope.
Unfastening frozen galvanised shackles.
Getting rid of wasps.
Getting rid of weed.
Melting paint.
Melting lead.
Heating underside of diesel trucks in below zero weather.
Melting Ice.
Frightening wimpish neighbours.

:D

And they make a wonderful roaring sound like a sort of doodlebug when they get going, spouting a blue and gold flame that is a joy to behold and hear.

:D

Any blowlamp aficionados on this site ?
 
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VO5 said:
Any blowlamp aficionados on this site ?
Click to expand...

"I love the smell of burnt paraffin in the morning...."


Perhaps the largest - and certainly the most fun - 'blowlamps' I've encountered were those used by the RAF to melt and blow away snow from runways and taxiways. Over the years called 'Mobile Runway De-Icers' and 'SnoBlo', these typically utilised retired jet engines bolted in pairs into a wheeled gantry which itself was clipped onto the front of a wheeled refuelling bowser. This assembly would be driven onto the snowed-up Load Bearing Pavements by a qualified and experienced MT driver, assisted by a qualified and usually inexperienced Junior Pilot who operated the jet engines ( usually AS Vipers, sometimes Pegasus ) at a notional 'ground idle' setting, producing lots of hot air.


MRD.jpg



snoblo.jpg



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The fun started when the young pilot, notorious for short attention span and low boredom threshold, would decide to 'enhance' the experience and ramp up the throttles' settings from Ground Idle to Flight Idle, producing thrust as well as hot air. You can see where this is going......

The poor unfortunate MT driver couldn't, for as soon as the mischievous JP discovered his available twin-engined thrust backwards exceeded the bowser's in forward, a shoving match ensued..... and said bowser with driver found itself being reversed. Now, the rig was not stressed for such shenanigans, and more than one broke its back - a rather hazardous occurrence as the bowser supplied fuel to the engines via flexible pipes.....and inflexible couplings!

Of course, all this was good fun to observe from the safe distance of the crewroom windows, and the sight of MT driver legging it for all his worth brought incapacitating fits of laughter from the audience......
 
I am worried. I didn't realise I have a problem. These things have invaded my life and my soul without me seeing what was happening. I thought it was all sweetness and light but the forces of darkness are closing in.

The reason for my terror is I have counted and found I've got two Tilley lamps ( one in the rather fetching gold colour), one miners lamp, one Victorian and quite rare oil lamp I picked up in Afghanistan, and one paraffin oil lamp. I'm on the spiral of lamp addiction and I despite the excellent and warm addictive lighting I didn't see what was happening.

For those who dally with the true lights cousins, I'll see your paraffin blow lamp and raise you one Primus stove still in its original tin.
 
I think I've become infected too.

Never had any desire to own or operate a pressure lamp before. I had a small wick lamp on Kindred Spirit and that was plenty; kicked the habit with ease when we switched to a more modern style of boat.

Now I've just found myself searching eBay for ex-Army Vapaluxes.

Some of the ads say they can burn diesel (I guess that's why the Army like them). Is that sensible? Must make a hell of a stink.

Still no real need for one. We have LEDs nowadays for light, and if for some reason I want my light to come with heat and flames, I have a Camping Gaz cartridge lamp in the shed.

I quite like the idea of getting a Vapalux though.

Pete
 
That Monitor is exactly like the one I have just restored. It is shining like a new pin, a beautiful example of industrial art. The blackened nozzle is brass, quite a job to clean.
SWMBO likes it. She wants it now as a door stop. Wonders will never cease. I now have 12 Tilleys at the end of the dining room, in a row under the window, awaiting restoration.
But she grumbles about that, funny creatures women....:D
 
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