My Anchor lantern started to show symptoms of a vapouriser requiring de-coking, something I should have done earlier A ‘halo’ outside the mantle yet the jet wasn’t worn, and tailing-off of its ability to continue vapourising the fuel during a session were clear indications. I removed the vapouriser, removed the jet nipple from it and got it up to red heat with a blowtorch, allowing it to cool in air and not quenching it in water, since I wanted the deposits to remain powdery and not form a wet slurry. A flat-head screwdriver was a clearance fit in the vapouriser tube up to the Preston loop and was long enough to reach that far, acting as an effective reamer to scrape off the more stubborn deposits. Finally, my compressor blew out the powdery residue. A dramatic improvement in terms of brightness and reliability of vapourisation for a prolonged firing. John
I couldn’t access it with wire, but hopefully the heat/tapping/compressor treatment contributed. Certainly there’s no suggestion of compromised vapourisation due to it.
