HI everbody . I'M Gunsoo. This is my four sweden carbide lamps. primus 1021, primus 1031, punker 80, gvf 30. and all i did fixed. so these lamps gave to me beautiful light on. thanks Gunsoo
Wonderful serie Gunsoo! I love carbide lamps, and also have those four models you show here. They work very well. Nice and simple lamps that gives a more cozy light than the pump pressure lamps.
Hi Crister . Thanks your reply . You know You give me deep impression your lux lantern to me. Very beautiful design and mechanic . I am happy to see your collection this site. Thanks . Regards Gunsoo
Thanks Gunsoo! Lux are fabulous lamps. Unfortunately the nicest of them are gravity lamps, so they don't really fit this forum. The Autolux represents the apex of all paraffin lamp constructions (in my humble opinion, that is ) Do you have any more carbide lamps, or are these four the ones you have? The designation G.v.F. 30 on one of your lamps is actually just a control sign that shows that the lamp has been approved by the authorities to sell to the public. 30 is a running number that show that this lamp was the 30:th approved lamp of around 500 different types manufactured only in the last years of WW1. (As a side note, Lux was the first company that came with an approved carbide table lamp for the public, and thus has the stamp G.v.F. 1 )
Hello Gunsoo and Christer, I recall the old carbide bicycle and motorcycle lamps and I assume that all carbide lamps work in the same way? The method which I recall, was water dripping from an upper tank onto carbide powder in the lower tank, which produced carbide gas, which vented up a tube to a small burner where it was lit. The motorcycle system had a brass or copper tube which connected the front and rear lamps. I recall that those lamps had a strong odour, is that also correct for the house lamps? Jeff.
Hi, I think Christer is too humble in this thread of Swedish carbide lamps. Christer has a fantastic carbide lamp web site -www.karbidlampa.se -, where among both interesting historical and technical info he has a stunning gallery of Swedish carbide lamps. Unfortunately for you that don’t know Swedish the info is not in English but the gallery speaks for it self. He is also a moderator on this forum so if he objects to this link or wish to remove it he has the permission to do so. /Conny
You're much too kind Conny. I wouldn't call it a fantastic web site, and I haven't been in there and updated it much. I have some more interesting lamps that really should be added, and the history page needs a good text. Oh no! there are a couple of other systems than the drip water system you described, even if that one was the most common. I like the system where you lower the whole carbide container into the water and let the pressure that forms when water enter it also regulate the lamp. And then we also have a system with a floating gasometer that works the other way around: it portions small pieces of carbide into the water via a clever mechanism. Copper is forbidden to use in contact with acetylene, so the motorcycle tubes were probably of brass, as you say, or rubber. I'm not very familiar with those. I try to concentrate on table lamps and lanterns. About the odour, there shall actually not be any when everything works as intended and the lamp is running. You can get some smell during the start up, and also when you extinguish the lamp, but if it smells when you use it, it indicates that something is wrong and should be rectified. Some of the bad smelling things are very poisonous (fosfin), so better fix the problem rather than just assuming, and accepting, that the smell is a natural thing with carbide lamps, eh?
Hello Christer, thanks for the information and you are correct, the connecting tube for the motorcycle lamps was made of brass. Those systems are somtimes displayed on classic motorcycles at rallies, Jeff.
Hi Conny . yes i saw the christer's carbide lamp web site. i think those carbide lamps is treasure of sweden. and fantastic web site Gunsoo
