Bialaddin 315 Manufacture Date

Can you date a Bialaddin 315 by the dots that appear in rows above and below the Made In England marking on the bottom. I know they were made between 1958 and 1965 but I noticed in the gallery pictures a 315 that had 6 dots above and 5 below. Could be 1965, but mine has 3 above and 3 below which doesn't make sense.

 

I can't see any dots on mine or any writing for that matter...

 

Here is a picture.

 

Ah that explains it, my tank has been resprayed by the previous owner...

 

Might be a date code I guess. We need more examples to see if it works as a theory. ::Neil::

 

Yes, something you look at a thousand times but never actually 'see'. I'd never realised there was any variation in the number, position and size of those dots - I just saw 'dots' and supposed they were merely part of the design (if I actually thought anything about them at all.)

It's a pretty ephemeral way to mark a date code although in practice, they seem to have survived quite well...

 

Who knows.

 

If it is a date code then judging by the one above, the small dots are likely to be months and the larger ones, years. November 1964?

If it is years on top and months below, then those two would be May 1966 and March 1963. Peter Sunderland's information (FWIW) gives the production period of the 315 from 1957-1966 so the theory is still holding water - just!

Two of mine I have to hand both show no dots on top and 4 and 8 dots below, thus April and August 1960? I think the fact that there can be no dots on the top line is crucial to the theory to represent 1960. No dots on the bottom line would bring it all crashing down!

As a footnote, the April 1960 lantern is an Imber Research 315 and the August 1960 has a blue Rothman's two-piece top on it. I'm not sure how either of those dates fits in with the 'conventional wisdom' surrounding those lanterns...

 

Here's mine for comparison, this would make it June 1963.

 

Looking good for a date stamp then, apart from the one with 6 dots if they were only made until 65, but as I think they were actually made until 67 it's all looking good for the date stamp theory at the moment.

 

But what about pre 1960??

 

Or even 1960, no dots up the top?.

 

1957 - 7 dots
1958 - 8 dots
1959 - 9 dots
1960 - 0 dots

See my post (#37186) above - I presume burntofferings has me on his banned list...

 

Sorry,my mistake, I missed half of your post.
haven't had a drink yet.

 

I was thinking more of the post above mine which mentioned 67 and would put a spanner in the works if they ran into that year..

 

Until 1967 not necessarily including 1967.
But whatever how would they have known when production was going to end, maybe they had already set a 10 year production period.

 

Not at all - they'd probably just have put the months on top and the years below / started from the RHS / used squares instead of circles / used a different colour ink / whatever. Primus faced the same problem in 1956.

Also the same problem with car registration numbers - in my lifetime they've reversed the letters and numbers, then added the suffix, then reversed that and later introduced an entirely new format of letters and numbers.

 

Couldn't let that one go.
Actually they didn't have any problem. If they had decided to keep producing as they had, then there were still many options left. 1956 was only AV so still a few letters left before AZ and then they could have started with BA etc. I don't have any idea why they changed the method of dating, which actually started in 1954 and both systems were used until 1956.

 

So the search is on for one that doesn't fit....

 

Thanks, Nils - I wasn't sure of the exact year but I knew something had happened with Primus around the mid-50s.

But it underlines my point, which still remains - as with Primus, it wouldn't have posed a problem to either Aladdin Industries or Willis & Bates to devise a different dating system for 1967 should one have been required. In the event, of course, a new one wasn't needed because the 320 series was visibly different to the preceding 315s...

 

Based on this hypothesis, my two 315's have 8+5 and 8+6, thus meaning May and June 1958. Up to now this does seem feasible.

 

August 63 ,so its holding up ok

 

Saw one at a boot sale today marked with four big dots at the top and one small at the bottom.

 

This one would be January 1967 then? Steve

 

Possible, but we need far more examples to know - maybe they changed the ink colour to blue from black to distinguish 1967 from 1957.

Still, so far we haven't found a pattern that defies the theory...

 

Fascinating stuff .
I am reading this and a text arrived Do I know when they stopped putting the green label "Tilley" on the meths jars , No I do not ?

 

....There is a Bialaddin 320 on ebay with 6 top dots and 2 lower dots in Grey lettering.....

 

Of the lamps on display:

I have one 305, it has no markings.

I have three 310s two with no marking and a third has either 990 or 066 ink stamped on it.

I have a two 315s one with no large dots and seven small, the other has 3 large dots and 3 small.

I have two Bialaddin 320s, one has been resprayed prior to my purchase, so there are no marks, the other is marked with 7 large dots and 5 small.

I have three T10s all have labels but no stamp

I have one T20 it had no label and no stamp before I resprayed it, but I suspect it had been resprayed before.

My Vapalux 320 has no markings, it's circa 1972 according to a label on the box.

I haven't checked the Bowl Fires.

I have some more lamps and tanks in the parts bin, but they will have to wait for another time.

HTH

HD

 

This is going to get confusing if information is posted on either of two threads...

 

Hi David
Where would it be best to post the findings.
Andrew