Here is a rare beast. Radiolite model 15 lantern made by The Radiolite Mfg. Co. Cold Spring and Tenth, Milwaukee Wisconsin USA. Most probably around 1920 although this company patented the burner and such for this in 1914 and 1915. It is a 300 cp kerosene single mantle lantern with a generator running through a two tie mantle. I have never seen another of these although a few table lamps have turned up but always in or near the Wisconsin area and I suspect they were pretty much sold locally and never shipped any distance. I have shown it running here and used a Tilley mantle which fitted the lower nozzle end OK but I had to remove the steel band from a happy mantle and stitch the cord through to make it big enough to fit. Works very well given the rust and such on the mantle. I got lucky with this because it was rough looking but actually sound and had hardly been used. This was because some former owner had stripped the cogs on the spindle so it would not operate the rack of the pricker rod. I bent the cogs back into more or less the right shape and it now works sort of OK. ::Neil::
Hello Neil, is this the lantern that we thought was made by the Best Company, when it was listed? Great find anyway! Jeff.
Jeff. Yes it is. Took me a few hours to realise what it actually was. A very rare beast that I knew about from the flyer I have but I have not seen another and I don't know of any more with collectors. I have seen a very few Radiolite table lamps and they seem to turn up not far from where they were made. I know several collectors from there and none of them has a lantern. It has been on my wish list for years. ::Neil::
Well they might now because the dealers on the Bay will have seen what this one sold for. Several fools alopst bid as much as I did. I know the seller is determind to go looking fo rthem now and he is in the right area. Yes kero and it takes about as long as a Tilley to fire up. Perhaps a tad faster but not much. I used a Tilley torch on it which worked just fine. It actually does not work too well but this is partly because a Tiley mantle is really too small and the one I used has rust marks which don't incandesce very well. One thing I did not remark on earlier is the filler cap. The seal is lead and the original lead in there works well and gives a good seal. THey must have been issued with a special wrench to lock them down and if you look you can see there is a slot visible on one side of the cap. There are two oposing slots and I reckon there was a corresponding wrench. ::Neil::
Hello Neil, the rust marks on the mantle will disappear after the lamp has run for a few hours. Perhaps a Tilley 500 series mantle would be better or a Vapalux mantle. A wrench makes sense, Jeff.
Hi all, sorry to dig up an old thread but I had the pleasure to see an operational one of these at our recent Wisconsin gathering. It ran well in excellent restored condition, completed by Dr. Marsh. It was found by a fellow collector near me.
