I couldn’t resist this QL/QL327 with an Arc Lantern collar. This is the first QL type lantern I’ve had the opportunity to buy without paying silly postage fees from the US - and it also introduced me to a seasoned collector who lives 5 mins down the road! It has a few nice early features as per the ICCC book (closed ventilator ball nut, hexagonal bail posts, nickel plated brass vent with tabs, no baffle plate), and ‘The Coleman Arc Lantern’ collar is a very nice bonus! I’ve noted it as QL/QL327 because I’m not entirely sure which mica chimney it would have come with (without the door QL, or with the door QL327). I’m dying to get it going, but experience tells me to go slow and steady and not try and force it - the valve wheel is jammed and I can’t yet undo the generator nut to pull it all apart - I’ll keep giving the generator nut a bit of WD-40 until I can get it free without too much force. It seems pretty straight forward (but it always does until I do something stupid), but there’s already some great info on here in the Reference Gallery to help with the fettle - so thanks for that as always!
I would think you need a door in the chimney, as the cage has no door. The door in bottom of cage was a holdover from torchlite days, and you are matchlite. No stamped patents on the air intake makes it pre 1919 I think. Strange it has the Arc collar. But it was said Coleman wasted nothing. A little heat will loosen most anything there, and there is little to go wrong if the fount is sound. clean the jet and preheat the loop. Presto. Congrats on an oldie.
Yes, pre 1919, if there is no date on the air tube. Nice find and these WWI era Coleman’s are getting hard to find!
Nice acquisition, @Buckaroo the correct mica would be the wide reflector with swinging match lite door, the dimensions for this type was originally 5” X 5” that is why the three tabs were in the vent base to steady the mica when operating the match lite door. Does the gland nut behind the valve wheel take a 3/8” or 7/16” wrench ? Larry
Thanks Larry @coleman54 - I’ve never seen a swinging match light door mica! Now I have been able to tease it all apart I can tell you it’s 7/16
//////////::::::::::::............. Thanks @Buckaroo , the earlier valve with the smaller 3/8” gland nut had no built in stop, so the valve must not be opened more than one round for safe operation. The swinging door mica was introduced as standard equipment with the new model “QL” which the “327” was the mica identifying designation from the beginning. The burner frame for these continued for many months at least through late 1917 with the torch lite door in the baseplate until a more economical frame without the door was produced exclusively for the “327”. There was even some early advertising that the user could lite this lantern either way by match or torch if desired. The original “323” frame with torch lite door continued to be used on models IL(LSN),NL(LS), and GS into the 1920s, so it was not a holdover or Coleman using up old frames on the earlier produced “QL327”. Larry
Great stuff! You outbid me on that one haha. Great to see it's gone to a good home anyway. Enjoy Cheers
