Hello, all! Been lurking here for a while & finally took the plunge on setting up to participate - thanks for having me! Have a pair of Petromax 827/200 HK lanterns that I'm just starting to dig in on. These lanterns are new'ish territory for me (coming from the Coleman "universe" lol!), but I'm getting a crash course now :-) They look to be a fairly complete military field set up?? Possibly "spoils of war" (??), as front address label is addressed to/from a U.S. Lieutenant Colonel. Fuel gauges on each, which I haven't seen on very many other lanterns. Tons of "on the fly" spare parts! As to dating.....after digging around through many, many postings here I'm guessing that these are circa-1940 based on: 1) the E-within-a-G logo (pre-1947), 2) the red enamel tops(1937-1940), & 3) the presumed date printed on the front of the instructions (12.40). I *think* I see date scratchings on the base of one of the lanterns, but haven't been able to make it out yet. I sincerely welcome any further information you might be able to share! Thanks for checking them out!
Great WW2 box. Indeed "spoils of war". Looking at the amount of mantles: be aware that those are radioactive and radiate all the time.
Welcome to the Forum, @GrtNorthWET Fine specimens you've got there. Possibly captured from one of the War fronts from the Wehrmacht forces?? Example, Normandy, if they ever brought along these over there??. Or simply retrieved by the Allied Forces or scavenging souts from whatever that was abondoned. If you could trace or find any notes or records showing evidence or proof about the set ever being used in the War, that'd be truly significant. Their real story would be very interesting. Do you plan to collect and make them functional? If the founts are intact, most likely you'd be able to get them working. Parts are still available if you dig wider and deeper. Even if they're leaky, repairs are usually possible. They should only be fueled with kerosene or similar non-volatile fuels. Do not attempt to use petrol, naphtha/Coleman Fuel in these lanterns. (They're not designed for volatile fuels).
Thanks for the information! Yes, I was aware that the mantles were probably radioactive, similar to the old Coleman mantles. Not sleeping with them under my pillow or storing them in my pants pockets - lol! The lanterns themselves have been used, yes. One more than the other. Founts look to be solid and intact, so that's good. Having the original instructions with schematics, parts diagram, and lighting/fuel instructions is a HUGE help. I'll probably wipe them down and tinker with them a bit, but will simply display as a super-cool conversation piece for now. Not polishing them up to pristine, as I personally feel that their age and service should be "worn" on the outside to stimulate conversation. Just my take on history :-) As to provenance, not much to go on. Box lid stenciled with " 2 Benzinlampen (Tp)". Nothing special there. There's a paper label on the front of the box referencing Lt. Col. S.S. Morse, who sent this from himself at Camp Swift, Texas to his home (presumably) in Manchester, New Hampshire. That's all I see on/in the box. I've done a little internet searching on the name to see if I could find a service record that might give a clue to where this came from, but came up empty. Appreciate the generous sharing of knowledge! Thank you!
The rapid lever,handwheel and hood cap point to the years 1940/41 . They're German petrol lanterns.They're meant to drink petrol,nothing else. I can't see anything military on the crates , neither a military affiliation nor the imperial eagle with a swatika .One can't rule out that they were used by the military anyway.
In that case, then it should be petrol instead of kerosene. Such that they should come with straight generators/vaporizers instead of having the Preston loop design.
Ok....Just took a little 0000 steel wool to the bottom of the tanks to expose the date scratched into them. I *think* both are marked with " 5 4 7 ". So that tells us that they both date to 1937 then, correct? Here's a pic of the bottom of the tank & the burner with the globe removed.
I think it's more "5 4 1", so it would perfectly match the above post from Reinhard who dated the lanterns to 1940/41 and the printers mark on the paper from 12.1940.
Ugh! I *thought* it was pretty clearly 5 4 7 but now you’ve got me wondering if that last number might be a “1”! I’ll take out the 0000 steel wool again & do some light investigating to confirm.
1947 would have been already after the war. At this time there was some production of lanterns, but they looked quite differently: olive lacquered tank, black lacquered globe cage, and green enamelled hood like this one. These lanterns were mostly manufactured as reparation items in the old factory of Graetz in Berlin, which became VEB RFT (volkseigener Betrieb Rundfunk- und Fernmeldetechnik) shortly after the war.
