My friend Tim's dad owns a racing cam company called "Isky Racing Cams". His dad has recently passed away and the man was a little bit of a collector of things and the shop always had very interesting stuff in it. Kind of grew up fooling around the shop... working on cars .. You know doing things in cars and driving around fast. Anyway... They have been kind of cleaning up around the shop and cleaning a warehouse out and he just text me this... "Hey don't you like Coleman like lanterns... You want this? I said of course... But I don't know what it is. I think it's a mining lamp but it's really old... It looks like kero but I'm not sure....
Isky has been well known and highly regarded in racing circles for many years. You were fortunate to get to hang around with such knowledgeable and interesting folks. The Wolf lamp is a Davy type Safety lamp used to detect explosive atmosphere in coal mines, closed spaces in ships, sewers, industrial tanks and the like. Sometimes also used to detect oxygen depleted atmosphere. They often, but not always, have locking devices (Key lock or requiring a special magnet to open) that prohibit their opening by unauthorized persons, but the lamp could be relit with the sparker on the fount bottom. The lamp is made to burn naphtha. Coleman fuel works well. They do not make much light. Many, mostly British made reproductions are found, and those fakes are usually made to burn kerosene.
@burndout ok I really appreciate it. He said that it's empty but didn't mess with it to much. I'm going back to the shop on Wednesday to pick it up... Glad to hear it runs on Coleman fuel...I might have thought it was kero but I have never seen one. Regarding Isky's shop.... I've been his sons friend for a really long time. His dad Ed used to drop his son off for sleepover on the weekends with us every once in a while so I've been his friend before we could drive... bicycle era hahaha. Ed was a very cool guy and I was very fortunate to not just be someone they know but to this day treated like family and can come and go in the shop without a care. Ed lived to be well over 100 and he still smoked cigars (though he cut back) and liked meatball subs and cheeseburgers so I guess there's something to not eating right and still being fine. The car in the shop is his brother's which is also passed on...Eds car is in some NASCAR museum or something like that in Nebraska at the moment... valve cover says "Iskendarian" on the flat 4.
@Julian Whittaker ok so I just picked it up... Needed a square wrench to open it but came apart ok... I'm assuming it's a rope wick and naptha?
Isky was a real Legend, and a gentleman I believe. Sorry to hear of his passing Cool little safety lamp, looks hardly used. Any idea of time period for it? Alec.
@Rangie he was definitely a really friendly guy but had a system that was funny to remember names. People like me he knew so that's not a problem because he saw me often. But others he started calling "pal" so whenever we heard this we knew he forgot that person's name hahahaha. He was also a pack rat and had junk everywhere... Still went to work in his 90's cutting cams for friends... We are cleaning out the shop and trying to find important things for a museum there. Some personal photos... And a photo of Burt Monro's bike "the world's fastest Indian" that's original as he was there... The lobby at the shop has become a depot for stuff... And a rather crappy photo on Ed's desk of me and his son Tim goofing off in the yard of the shop getting a mustang running... I'm on the left... Whenever we needed anything for a car we pretty much could find it there at the shop in a box haha. This photo is from the very early 1990's or late 1980's. He took it of us and never knew he did. Lantern? Well no idea actually... asking his brother (eldest son) he said his dad probably bought it to look at it as he liked to tinker with things he didn't know to reverse engineer it or just see how it worked. No idea how old but others like this are dated in the 1920's but don't know for sure on this one.
These great ol' shed-genius fellers passing on, - Isky, Phil Irving, Bert Munro, Norm Trigg. Thousands like them... the wealth of practical knowledge they're taking with them, lost forever, and the following generations are in practical hopelessness, thinking AI will rescue them? Ha!! (Good thread Remus, thanks).
Well I never saw one of these before but I think I got it fettled! Used a wick from a bunch I had left over from a French Vesta stove project. Saw that most trim the wick down flush so did that and the flame came down to a nice candle flame. It's actually adjustable.... surprised me. Kind of a pain in the ass to blow out as you have to take the windscreen off to blow on it. It will not go out even with compressed air. Runs on naptha... Used Zippo flints and it strikes and lights on the first or second try. Kind of cool... @Julian Whittaker you aren't kidding... No body knows how to fix anything anymore. I recently bought a truck that's from the 1990's. Doesn't have any kind of computer screens or anything like that and I can wrench on it. Works for me haha... But know what you mean.
The fount should be full of cotton wadding and fueled like a Zippo, only until the wadding is saturated but no liquid will come back out. This lamp was not made for illumination, but rather for gas detection and when used for that, the flame is adjusted to just a small button and the flammable gas, if any is seen as a blue arc hovering somewhat above the small yellow lamp flame. Some lamps have lines scribed into the glass to help indicate the strength of the potentially explosive atmosphere that is being tested for.
@burndout yeah I figured that was the problem when I tried to fill it and it would leak when turned over. Saw a video with someone replacing the wick and they pulled out cotton wadding... I don't have that but I do have a wife hahahaha and she has cotton balls that are 100% cotton for her eyes so I pulled the little brass screen out of the tank and packed it with cotton balls. I can fill it and turn it over and it does not leak. Interesting about the gas detection lines... This one doesn't have them. I think we will use it for something like a night light or what you would use a candle lantern for (wife likes soft light to talk around with a campfire) With the adjusting part I can make a decent candle light out of it...or just keep it at home and use better things for light at camp. Personally glad it works!
