Hi all, After several French radiator restorations I'm back to the early beginning of American "pressure lamp making. This is the No.1 Arc lamp made by the Superior MFG Co., Ann Arbor, Michigan, in the very first years of the 20th century. This company was founded by Halstead Harley Seeley and his two brothers Dana E. and Roy R. Seeley. The company seems to have been started out making pressure/hollow wire lamps in the year of 1900 ; " In 1900 he met the inventor of a gasoline firepot, which was the basic principle for all blow torches and also offered the key mechanism for a gasoline lamp". If this No. 1 Arc lamp was among the first line of lamps in the year of 1900 is hard to tell, but at least it was present in the 1904 catalogue (I found a 1904 catalogue page of this lamp online on the Net). In another undated online downloadable catalogue (?1900-1910?) and in an 1912 catalogue provided by Neil, one can also see this No.1 Arc lamp present all the years with the same price tag. In 1911 the company started making windshields for cars and in 1922 they merged and started making a fuel supply gauge ..." They formed the King-Seeley Corp. in Ann Arbor, and started production of the gauge in 1922". I'm unsure of what happened to the lamp making by this company after 1912, but searching the Net I found an ad in a copy of the magazine Popular Mechanics 1915 for the Superior MFG Co. of the Radiosene table lamp. So at least at 1915 they still manufactured pressure lamps. This lamp is a gasoline fed 700 CP lamp with an upright mantle and an under-generator. Many of the early Arc type lamps were over-head generator burner lamps with an U-tube lamp frame/harp, consisting of a J-shaped mixing tube and a plugged reversed ditto. With an under-generator the frame on this lamp serves only for holding the reflector shade and making it possible to hang. The burner has a manufacturer logo and "pat. app´d for" stamped on the burner cowl. I've search for the patent but haven't been lucky yet. This lamp came with most parts intact, but three out of four steel stripe frame ornaments were missing and so the screen cap for the flame spreader. I also had to make a mantle holder rod and also the lower part burner cowl. It was new to me and interesting trying to copy the steel stripe ornaments and I only used hand held basic tools to work the steel metal sheet; hacksaw, pliers and file. I then used linseed oil and a blowtorch to get the oxidized finish. After a good clean up the original oxidized copper, "japanned", finish was restored and I must say that the built quality of this 110 years old lamp is excellent, well... maybe except for the detachable wobbly glass shade holder/upper part cowl. All in all a masterpiece of early lamp making with a museum quality to it. I'm happy to add this lamp to my collection. /Conny
I wish I knew where you got all these great lamps and lanterns, Conny! Another cracking restoration...
Yep. You just need to search eBay some more David. And perhaps open up your wallet. Great lamp Conny. And nice flame pattern. It must be a pretty big lamp if the rated 700cp should be true, right? Cool look, though a bit strange. And for some reason I want a cup of coffee now. Can't understand why...
It is such a cute and fine lamp. Congratulations. You did a nice job restoring it and specially the flaming on the tank. I have only seen that on guns. Sayings is it is to be done with leatherstraps, your linseed-oil and heat? Sayings is also that it disappears over time from metal no mater what you do to protect it. Neighbour is a weapon-smith. And If so - did you find your stripes clearly or were they fading? Wellsaved Conny and thanks for sharing. Claus C
