Always had a fancy for a bowl fire, and spotted this in a furniture/junk 'cave' locally. A mantle, and later I found the ceramic tube was missing, but I fell for it, and with help from Macburner am glad I did. A clean up and new washers were straight away accomplished with ease. Neil kindly let me have one of his mesh mantles, and advised on protecting the burner tube with something, also showed me his Tilley chimney to aid pre-heating. Many thanks. I was able to replicate the chimney with Green Giant sweetcorn tins, and added a damping cap for the hell of it. All works fine - provided two pre-heating clips are used and one after the other - not both together. A longer more sustained burn is achieved heating the cast iron burner through more effectively which has gained a flare free ignition on this one. The wire of the chimney handle is fencing wire, and the copper coil within the steel tube is stripped electrical wire to take up the gap between steel and brass tube.
Derek. Very kool and looking good. One thing though. You want to get rid of the copper. Not good to get copper as hot as it will in there as it oxidises rather rapidly and it will choke up the burner with flakey black stuff. Brass or steel wire in there would be better. It's about time some enterprising soul worked out how to reproduce the ceramic tube for these. They don't have to be great looking as they are always hidden. How hard can it be to make a clay tube and then fire it at 1200c for a while? ::Neil::
I have one like this how did you estimate the date? I was told mine is later 46~51 and not 35~40 Mine has the guard and the decal these are fine examples of a great heater. but missing the lighting chimney as well
Hi Doron, I guessed mine was from 1930 on as deduced from another on this site, but Neil dated it 1935-40. The lack of holes in the rim for one thing, the burner, and the control tap for another. He will have the details. Derek Edit to add: Brass wire in there now!
Hi Derek reckon the date is about right for your one the reflector control tap XN style is important to help date it but the cast iron burner all point to 35-40 only a minor point but i think the pump is a later pump should have a hexagon fitting in the bottom of it suspect yours is round with 4 holes in as on later x246 series lamps Now Doron your one has the next style of burner not the cast one as dereks also a later control cock GF style but whenever they were made they are both great heaters pete
You always have to be careful dating Tilley stuff by the accessories. Just about anything can be changed. Pumps and cocks for instance are often not the originals and with a bowl fire the burners and guards can be later too. However one thing that can't change is the socket the valve screws into. Pre 1940 lamps and heaters have a much deeper socket to accomodate the long sock filter of the XN cock. After 1940 this was made much shorter so a look at this socket will give a pre or post 1940 date right away. Then you can look at things like the style of button on the cock. The change from brass to black plastic is about 1935. Real early fire reflectors have holes around the rim to hold the guard. Not sure when that changed to the clip over type we more commonly see but at a guess around 1930 ish. 1920s stuff tends to have a hexagonal XN and a squarer cruder looking handle. I just wish someone would go back and tell Fred to date stamp his stuff from 1920 onwards. ::Neil::
