who likes to have the story behind what their lamp was used for in its previous life? what if the lamp could talk? ive often thought of what hey have "seen". got any stories to go with your lamps?
You never forget your first one. When I was a kid in the years around 1970 I collected butterflys/moths and my doctor from back then did also. He was a old wise guy and we drowe out in swamps and lightened up his Petromax 828 and walked around observed what was flying for hours. When we took a breake we sat down and drank coffee and ate almondcakes. The Petromax was hizzing and I some times thougt it would be nice to have such a lamp - at least to warm your fingers at. But it was so advanced and remote for me to achieve as a 14 year old kid, that I didnt even dare to hope for such a complicated wonder. On fine summernight we went of to a location, we unpacked the Volvo 240 for stuff to use and the old doctor, Bering, presented me to a almost new Hipolito 500 and he complained and said "Here you are - you can have this so you dont run around me catching all the good butterflys from me". I thought at first it was a lamp I could loan for the evening but realize when we went home for the evening it was for me to keep. It was his old lamp I got until he could affort "the real one" a Petromax 828. I was exalted and I still have this lamp - still looking almost new - and still going strong. Ever since I have had a soft spot for Hipolitos. Back memory lane Claus C
aww thats nice! my first coleman was my Grandparents' lantern that was used some and then hung in the basement. a little rusty but nice it was a coleman 228F a later model that was a transition lantern between the F series and the H series. wouldnt ever get rid of it, but then i never would sell any of my lanterns!
super story Claus, its one of the memories that i cant really see being repeated in these more 'modern' times. My first memories of pressure lamps were the many many tilleys lighting the beaches of norfolk during the late sixties and seventies by anglers cod fishing,,,still use my lamps for this but modern led lights have replaced tilleys for many anglers,,,,and yes the fishing then was better than it is now.
Thanks The Hipolito turned out to be a ignitionkey. I still registrate moths and butterflys and the use of the Hipolito became rarer. Regardless of Honda-generator powering the mercury vapor-lamp the Hipolito is still the only thing to use in certain situations. So I still use it and my kids had the same desire as me, so one of them bought his own lamp when he was 14 yeas old from a collector-friend of mine - doing his own deal, so I had to buy a Tilley 246 for my youngest so he could keep up in the summernight. For several times I was cursing the lamp when in use over the years and until 2005 I considered the Hipolito as a workingtool when in the field until a friend of mine accidentally saw I and was fascinated by the lot. He started collecting as a madman and his first lamp was a Petromax 828 because I told him what the old doctor had said. This made me look at the lamps in another way and I finally wanted to have this Petromax too, while the doctor back then said it was the superior lamp. Today I collect lamps of different brands - like a madman but the Hipolito is still in serious use at the moorlands, the bogs and forests around here. The Hipolito made 4 persons collect Claus C
So here is one from yesteryear : I saw my first pressure lamp in a second hand shop in a town nearby. Realizing I had seen the brand name in a Conrad catalogue (yes I know now) which stated world famous old German brand. Me going back and buying this old world famous piece of technique. That was and is the way I look at them, and I got my first petromax. But not knowing what and how and internet had to be born I had to find out the hard way that I was missing something. (Here is a cap in my memory about how.) But I found out that the old owner of a hardware store in the village I grew up knew more about these Petromax lamps. there I was asking the young girl in the shop and surprisingly she said yes, wait a moment so I can call the owner. He brought my to a barn behind the shop and I was told I missed the complete inner burner. But he was the man so he could repair it and some days later I was "sworn in" into the league of paraffin lamplighters. Over the next years I visited him regularly and found out he knew also some things about gas lamps. Time went on and the shop was sold to an, one in a dozen household shop and gone where all the parts you could buy there but the barn was still there as was the old man. Until two years ago I got an email from his son telling his father was to old to maintain the barn and he wanted to sell all the lamp parts that where still there. Over I went and bought the last remains including the memories. Some months later the old man made his last great journey and all that remains are memories. I still have the lantern, I cherish the old man's home made cabinet with lamp parts, the memories. Some things in live you see coming some you don't. I am happy to have met him and learned the first steps in lamping.
What a nice way to get the fever. Reminds me that one shouldnt think about collecting - that part is not a problem. One should think about securing the collection the day you catch the harp, so it dont end up like the 2 Tilley FL6 wich got electrocuted by a ignorant. Claus C
