Hi all, Santa was nice to me this year and brought me an early Christmas present. I had to do the fettling and clean up myself, but I got a very nice raw material. This is a very old, odd and scarce lamp, maybe from the very first years of the 20th century. The brand is Empire Light, and the only information I have managed to find about that company, says that it was present at 16, Victoria Square, Montreal, Canada in the early 20th. This company was probably in some way connected to the Kitson Lighting Co.(1901) GB or the Kitson Light Foreign Supply Company (1902), Willesden, London, as this lamp for sure is a lamp made out of patents held by Arthur Kitson. One of the very first pressure table lamp patents was issued by Arthur Kitson as early as December 1897 (provisional patent). That table lamp patent and others that came the years after had a horizontal, overhead generator, with a mixing tube going back downwards to a nozzle and a Welsbach gas mantle in the centre. Others had a horizontal generator low with the rest of the burner unit with mantle on top, but not the kind of vertical generator as on my lamp It took me a lot of research before I could find two patents; one is French (1905) and the other Austrian (1907) which shows the burner on my lamp. The patent show a probable development of the burner as there is a cleaning needle device (control) as well as a centre fuel feed shut of control. The fuel feed on my lamp comes from a device on the upper side of the lamp and support the generator that way. This can be seen in a Kitson table lamp patent from 1901. So……….my guess is that this Empire Light lamp is made around the middle of the first decade of the 20th - 1903-1906. This lamp came with without a shade carrier, shade and mantle holder. I mounted an 1897 pat. tripod shade holder on the burner unit and a shade that often were used on the contemporary wick table oil lamps as Rayo and Bradley and Hubbard. This shade is also found in the first Kitson table lamp patent drawing, so I believe it may have been the original configuration of this lamp. The lamp looks a bit “top heavy”, but with that column shaped burner unit and a high mantle on top of that makes it necessary to fit the shade at that height. The burner unit is detachable and is quite unique as it can be put together with the generator by just inserting it. It is also possible to spin the burner/shade unit round the generator. The burner unit has a pre-heater cup in the bottom with an asbestos filling. The bottom is connected to the air intake, mixing tube and flame spreader/nozzle by a rod. The whole unit is made of cast metal and should according to the patent be warmed up and maintain heat by the pre heating. The nickel plated “bulged” air intake part in the upper part of the burner unit should be filled with asbestos. This for minimizing vibrations and reduce noise when air is sucked into the burner. Mind you that this was important then in the beginning of the century, when the indoor pressure lamps had to compete with the soundless wick table lamps. The lamp has an internal tank/fount that is put inside of the nickel plated tank shell but integrated with the connections for the fuel filler cap, manometer and fuel feed unit. I’m not sure of the purpose for the cup under the generator, but either a drip cup for the burner unit pre-heater, or a pre-heater in it self, or maybe both. The fuel is kerosene/paraffin and the light output maybe 100-150 CP. Any further information of this lamp would be appreciated. /Conny
What a great lamp Conny and top marks for your fettling! The lamp is well over 100 years old and it's working like it was new and 100-150cp., would have been an incredible amount of light back then, Jeff.
Fantastic piece of history and a great lamp to have found and resurected. Kitson is a difficult guy to track down. I have a suspiciion that there were at least two Arthur Kitsons involved in the Kitson business. Either that or he spent 10 years on a ship moving between America Australia and England. The company was called the Kitson Empire Light Co so the name here is as significant as the use of Kitson patents so this lamp surely has to be made by one branch of that large company. Arthur Kitson however was not the first or even close. The first pressure lamp was patented by J. J. Riddle 7th February 1865 US46266. OK so not a mantle lamp but it has a reservoir pump and generator. The light was a flare type of course but it is all there just waiting for a mantle to be invented. Then there was my hero George Washington. He invented an upright pressure mantle lamp with a vertical generator incorporating a pricker Pat applied for 17 September 1896 US576523 and then a year later invented a lamp that in operational design was being copied by Coleman and most of the other American companies by 1914. George was simply about 15 years ahead of the competition because before 1900 he had invented all the major design features for pressure lamps that were made from 1910 to 1920 and beyond. ::Neil::
The first sight of this lamp on the sidebar had me thinking it must be one of yours Conny. Excellent fettle of yet another beautiful lamp.
Good man! That's an absolute stunner. Most really interesting lamps are over hundred years, so congratulations. That little twisted piece in the vapouriser looks exactly like one of many turbulators I have in my wood furnace to force the flue gasses to give away more heat where the tubes run through the water. I guess it works in the other direction here, so to speak: to increase the amount of heat transferred to the fuel by forcing the fuel to take a longer route than just straight up through the vapouriser. I noticed that the pressure gauge was made in Germany, so perhaps it's not the original one? On the other hand, the text on it is English, so they could just simply have bought in these gauges without having them stamped with their own brand name.
Wow Conny now that is one great lamp i am green here with envy wonderful to see it here. This has got to be a Kitson for sure look at the wording on the badge it is very similar to this Now that is on this lamp i have here http://0flo.com/index.php?threads/2505 Now Neil always says you can identify a maker by the burner but the generator on your lamp is the same as this one in the donut above i had never seen another till your post Looks very similar to me conny Now a little i know of the company maybe of intrest to you Arthur Kitson was born in 1848 Son of James Kitson who owned a locomotive works in Leeds UK very wealthy family, Roads and buildings are named after the family to this day!! In 1881 Arthur was sent to australia to sell some of their trains i suspect In 1894 he is back in the UK In 1896 he is in the USA In 1896 Kitson Lighting Company is born with 30 000 dollars By 1902 Arthur is back in the UK In 1903 Kitson Lighting Co Ltd was formed based in Coventry. Companies were also setup in India\south africa and australia New premises in Stamford uk trading under the name Kitson empire lighting co ltd by 1908 The factories in coventry and willesden were shut by 1909 Great lamp Conny take good care of it cheers pete
Many thanks ! It is really a very special lamp and with an excellent built quality. It has withstood the aging process with grace. It also works well, but I wouldn’t think this was a common lamp in an ordinary household. I believe it takes some skills to get it running. Neil - Yes, I’ve read the discussion of early pressure lamp patents here on CPL before and I must say that the coming inverted twin mantle burner lamps are more or less a rip off of that 1897 George Washington patent. But as you say it took many years before it was turned into a useful product. In fact many patents never went into any production at all so in that way I believe this Empire Light lamp is an interesting early lamp historical link of portable pressure lighting that in fact was produced. Christer – I think the pressure gauge is original, possible imported, but has an English text and measures in PSI. In the upper part of the manometer you can see symbols of the PSI, pounds per square inch, that I’ve never seen before. Maybe it is common on the US/GB pressure gauges. Pete – Thanks for the info! It is most likely a similar generator on your Kitson donut. Yours is equipped with a pricker at the end of the twirled part opposed to mine, but the jet looks identical. I recon you have a pricker control device on your burner; is it the lever at the end of burner part? Don’t envy me Pete , you have so many interesting lamps in your own collection. Maybe Santa has a surprise also for you this year! /Conny
Yes, I noticed the psi scaling and also the English text as I mentioned above. It was just the fact that the gauge actually was made in Germany that made me wonder a bit. But it's of course nothing strange that a company buys in ready parts like that, and not necessarily from its own country either.
Hi Conny yes mine also has a pricker does the spiral in the generator on yours have a hole in to pass a wire through it ? The wire pricks the jet and shuts down the lamp by use of the lever on the lamp on the donuts. The two green donuts are the only kitsons i have that have a pricker in all the others i have rely on various filters to keep the jet clean? Dont know what santa will be bringing me this year but i am pretty sure it wont be any lamps anything but cheers pete
Pete, there is no pricker for my generator and no hole for passing a wire through. There was originally a thin 4 cm long pin that was attached to the twirled part, but that pin was broken off and I don´t think it made a big diffrence. Perhaps it was there for keeping it in the middle or upper part of the generator, where heat is most essential. /Conny
Hi Conny. wow really fantastic classic lamp!! I don't know, why did not come santa in korea. look like mixing style (european and old american table lamp) congraturation Conny thank sharing for us. Gunsoo
Pete I wish Arthur was as easy to track as that. In 1900 Arthur was in the census born 1859 aged 41 in Philladelphia with his wife Fanny and a clutch of children and is described as a Gas Engineer. OK so there was a Kitson factory in PA around that time patenting gas lighting and such so I have always assumed this is the same company. Thing is by the 1910 census Fanny is a widow still in PA BUT Arthur Kitson is shown in the UK 1911 census as aged 49 and managing the Kitson Empire light Company. They cannot be the same guy. So two Arthurs? In fact if your birth date of 1848 is correct then there are three because the other two are born around 1959 to 1862. ::Neil::
Hi neil i know this arthur kitson appears to be all over the planet at different times The list i posted is from a article that Micheal key wrote while at the stamford museum Now just to confuse the issue even more this arthur was married in 1881 to linda douglas and had a daughter that year in and a son 1884 also called arthur james douglas so here maybe is another arthur kitson I know there is a lot of ifs and buts regarding this man but thats how Micheal Keys article reads. Where did get the info about Fanny as his wife then? cheers pete Just been looking at the census records on line here neil it says this arthur was born in Leeds in 1849 not 48 He is on the census records 1861,not on 71 or 81 but appears in london again in the 1901 records again so must have been back from australia then. Just looking at the records neil there seems to be a lot of arthur kitsons around And just to confuse it even more there is a patent no.4006 febuary 1911 for improvements on gas vapour lamps with WM Stills and ARTHUR JAMES DOUGLAS KITSON this must be the son born in australia come home with the family now into lamps as well make any sense neil? cheers pete
The Arthur Kitson who maried Fannie was born in 1859 not 1849. They were both in Philadelphia in 1900. The US census lists him born in England but Fannie born in Pennsylvania. They have 7 children Fannie C 13, Arthur Jnr 10, Harold 9, Frederick 8, Herbert 6, Kenneth 4, Ernest 2, plus 5 servants. The US 1910 census lists the family again but Arthur is missing. From the 1911 census Arthur Kitson MD of KELCO is aged 49 so born about 1862. He states he has been married 10 years and has two daughters with him but no wife. I don't believe these are both the same Arthur. In 1910 Fannie is still alive in PA and whilst Arthur is missing he cannot be the same guy from the 1911 UK census as he stated he only has 3 children and if it was the same guy he would have listed 9 or 10 children. I also have doubts that either are the Arthur born in Leeds 1849 because the ages do not come close to a match. Arthur Kitson is a common name and tracking them is very difficult. I have ordered a birth certificate for one of the children born in London which with a little luck will give me both parents names and maybe shed a little more light. Birth dates from census returns are often a year out. The UK census is not from 1 jan and gives the persons age not a birth year. In this case Arthur was born around April 1848 GRO ref Kitson Arthur Leeds 23 540 Apr-Jun 1848 ::Neil::
Yes, I did have a list of the nights over which the various censuses were taken but it's gone adrift now. From memory, though, most were taken in the springtime - usually March or April... Edit - Easy enough to find on the binternet here...
Actually that is not important here. What is significant is the Arthur in PA was married to Fannie in 1900 and she is in the 1910 census without Arthur but still status married not widowed. In the 1911 census Arthur CEO of KELCO stated he has been married for 10 years so either he is a bigamist or not the same Arthur. This is in fact the main evidence that there are two Arthur Kitsons both born in England around 3 years apart. Now then from the Prospectus of the Australian Company there is mention of product from both the PA company and the English one. From which I conclude these businesses are conected BUT it tends to suggest that the Arthur in Australia could have been either of them. From passenger lists I can find travel between the UK and New York but only a tenuous possible from the UK to Aus and from the age given that suggests the PA Arthur. Given the companies were linked and seem to have had at least three Arthurs involved it is easy to see how it might be possible to confuse them and assume the wrong one went to Aus. We may never resolve this because I suspect only details of company minutes will tell us who went where amd when. ::Neil::
Interesting history for sure but we are not done yet. We have been working away at this and are still not sure. We know that Aruthur Octavius Kitson went to Austalia in the mid 1870s and there married Linda Elizabeth Douglas Leroy 4 August 1881. They had two children but we only know about one which is Arthur James Kitson born 2 June 1882. She seems to have been abandoned there and came back to England around 1892 and then became ambroiled in a legal dispute with the family. There is as yet no evidence that Arthur and Linda ever lived together after about 1890 and perhaps not for some time before that. Arthur Kitson appears in Phildalphia in 1885 and married Fannie Aschenbach in 1886 and forms the Kitson Hydrocarbon Light Co and seems to be the guy who patented lots of gas lamps Etc. Same guy? Maybe? He dissappears in 1901 and Lo an Arthur Kitson appears in London by 1911 managing Director and owner of the Kitson Empire Light Co. By 1910 Fannie is divorced and Arthur in 1911 is saying he has three children and been maried 10 years. Same guy??? Might be but if so he is on wife number three. So again a definite maybe but we are working on it. Some sources say Arthur died in 1915 but then in 1917 he gave a lecture on banking reform in Birmingham. He then dies again in 1937 but has managed to drop 12 years off his age. I am sure you are all confused and I know I am which is irritating as I am generally pretty good at genealogy but this guy is very difficult to track. ::Neil::
Main problem with this is finding a link other than the lamp one between the uk arthur and the usa arthur they both existed it is documented or maybe they same bloke but a link is now what we need to find this is proving very hard pete
Oh I don't know. In the Times 1928 July 7 reporting on his discharge from bankrupcy it states that he brought out a gas lighting system which he sold to a corporation and then floated several companies in the UK and colonies making gas lighting and he went on to form the Kitson Empire Lighting Co. So the Times seemed to have been sure of the link and I see no reason to doubt it. He has been a nightmare to track down though but I am alsmot there now. Born in Greenwich London around 1860 to parents James and Sarah Kitson. Went to the US and created the Kitson Hydro-Carbon Heating and Incandescent Lighting Co. Married Fannie Aschenbach in 1886 and left her in 1900 because she was too extravagant. By then he already had a company in London to flog US made lamps and he liquidated that and reformed the company in London as The Kitson Lighting Company of Great Britain in 1901. He lived with another lady Gertrude Horgan for a while and they had three children although she had mental problems and was probably in an institution by 1911. Arthur in 1911 formed the Kitson Empire Lightng Co and established that company in Stamford Lincs. He then went bankrupt in 1925 due to falling sales and inflation. The compay seems to have lived on though as they are still in the London 'phone books in 1930 and Kitson Lights Pumps and Refrigerators. He died in 1937 and there is an extensive obituary in the Times detailing some of his career as a lighting engineer but also as author of several books on banking reform and general money matters. I still have some minor issues to look in to but by and large I now know who he was. Not sure about his parents and I suspect that maybe Arthur Octavius Kitson was his uncle and that his son, the other Kitson involved in lighting, Arthur James Douglas Kitson is therefore a cousin. ::Neil::
