This is a lantern I acquired recently. A Radius 120 in itself is not very common, but this one had stamping on the tank that looked interesting. It turns out it is made for the Sunflower Vacuum Oil Company. I had never heard of this company, but found some information over at CCS here. This lantern is in reasonable condition and has most of the usual 120 features such as the black enamell top hat, the small loop in the handle with a hook, no locating pin for the hood on the globe cage top edge and the pump mounted on the 'edge' of the tank. Unfortunately it has had the vaporiser replaced with one from a 119 at some time. Probably a sensible modification from a users point of view. The lighting wasn't the best for these photos, but hopefully you can see the relevant features. The lantern is fitted with a 'modern' Radius glass for the photos.
Nice! saw a stove with that logo on ebay 3/4 months ago. cant remember the make but was a 1.75 or 2 liter swede.
From what I've found, Vacuum Oil Company (of New York) sold their kerosene under the name 'Sunflower'. The company merged with SOCONY (Standard Oil Company of New York) in August 1931. I'm not sure if the Vacuum Oil Company name continued after this, but I don't think so. That would put the date of this lantern at 1931 or before. This fits with a Radius 120, which I would expect to have been produced in either 1930 or 1931.
Vacuum Oil Company was an early oil company in the US, aquired by Standard Oil Company a major name in US oil history. In 1910 or 1911 Standrad was broken up by the US government due to monopolizing the industry and Vacuum became independent again. I guess it contiued on successfully for a good number of years until it was again acquired by Mobil oil in the 1950s. I believe the Sunflower part of the name comes from the fact that Vacuum marketed their kerosene under the name "Sunflower Kerosene". There are a whole host of items in the US that can be found marketing and advertising Sunflower Kerosene by Vacuum Oil Company. Will
