Rayo lamp

[NorthernElectric]

While researching the Aladdin No. 12 lamp I got last weekend, I kept coming across information about Rayo lamps.  These are similar in many ways to the early, central draft Aladdins except they don't use a mantle.  Like the aladdins, they draw air through slots in the base and up through a tube that runs through the center of the font, and like the Aladdins have a circular wick and flame spreader.  From what I can gather, they are supposed to be quite a bit brighter than flat wick lamps though not quite as bright as Aladdins and other mantle lamps.  So a Rayo was added to my want list and I didn't have long to wait to find one.  I spotted this in a shop I stopped into this afternoon and it followed me home.

I couldn't resist cleaning up the top of the font a bit but otherwise it's as found.  Though it has a few dings, the nickel is not too bad and should look respectable when I finish cleaning it up.   I believe it's complete except for a chimney and I think that Aladdin 'heel-less' chimneys will fit and are very similar to the originals used on this lamp.

I will post a comparitive review when I get this and the Aladdin up and running.

Mods, I think we need a 'lamps and lanterns' sub-forum.   

[twocvbloke]

Looking about on google images (borrowed a couple below), the chimney they use is a relatively short, bulbous one, unlike the tall and slender chimneys of the Aladdins, using the latter may soot up the chimney prematurely, and potentially crack the glass which wouldn't be good... 

I'm guessing the bulbous shape is to allow the flame to spread out within the lamp gallery, unlike the Aladdin design which is made to draw a lot of air through to heat up the mantle like blowing on embers to get more heat to light a camp fire, it'd be interesting to see a side-by-side comparison of the two though, along with a nasal comparison, as I'm now spoiled by my odour-free Aladdin 23 (and speaking of which, I bought it a Loxon chimney today!)...

[NorthernElectric]

Looking about on google images (borrowed a couple below), the chimney they use is a relatively short, bulbous one, unlike the tall and slender chimneys of the Aladdins, using the latter may soot up the chimney prematurely, and potentially crack the glass which wouldn't be good... 

Though the chimney on the Rayo you posted looks short and bulbous compared to the Alladin, it is taller and slimmer than most of the standard flat wick chimneys.  There is a company in the US that sells a number of different chimneys for the Rayo, one which looks much like the one you posted, and a couple of others taller and slimmer, one looking very much like the Aladdin, with heights up to 14".  From what I have read, a tall slim chimney (and the taller the better) will help a center draft lamp to draw more air resulting in better combustion and less chance of soot.  The only lamp that I read about that the bulge shape is critical on is the Kosmos which doesn't have a flame spreader.  These center draft lamps are new to me and I am only going on the research I have done, but I am going to try them out with chimneys I can obtain locally and see how it works out.

Also, there's a guy that posted a youtube video that runs his Aladdin without the mantle to heat and light his boat.  He experimented with raising the flame spreader and claims it makes nearly as much light as with a mantle.  Sorry I didn't save the link.  Not reaslly apropos to this discussion, just thought you might be interested.   

[twocvbloke]

Yes, I've seen the video of the fella on the boat, it's here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVBCWe0t5Jg

When I first got my lamp I thought of trying that out myself, but I wanted to see the mantle in use, and I'm more likely to break the current mantle if I tried to remove it to try it out as a mantle-less setup...

As for the chimneys on the Rayo, it's kind of difficult to see the perspective between the sizes of the two lamps, I was basing it on the size of the tanks, which I guess means the Rayo has a larger tank than the Aladdin, but looking the Rayo up, it was sold by Standard Oil (Exxon/Esso today) and apparently they're fuel guzzlers (the Aladdin will run for about 12 hours, so it's not exactly lean on the fuel either!), but people like them, and given they're mantle-less they'll be a lot cheaper to run (especially for clumsy folk like me!)...