Aladdin No.23 Loxon mantle lamp...

[19and41]

Those things seem to be making themselves difficult.  I still have to get mine, I purchased a different collectible today so it will have to wait a week or two.

[twocvbloke]

The main issue is that I'm a relative newbie when it comes to mantle lamps, and not being quite as careful as I should, and as such am paying the price (literally) for my errors...

It's weird though, the old mantle is now lit up perfectly, with no real issues with sooting up like it was before despite the imbalanced flame caused by the hole in the lower rim on the mantle, kind of annoying that...

[19and41]

I finally ordered a mantle and a wick cleaner.  Now to go to the hardware store for some lamp kerosene and I ought to be ready for halloween.

[twocvbloke]

I got another thorium mantle, it's already in pieces....

Think I may just reduce the lamp's duty to just being a heater for now, as that's what I've mostly used it for since I got it, bedroom gets cold, light the lamp...

I actually used my Aladdin 37 heater today, was out in the shed taking my old washing machine's tub apart (a story in itself) and it was cold enough out there that I needed to light it, and it's amazing how instant that thing is, been sat since, I'd say march, unused, some fuel left in it, and I topped it up and lit it, no problems whatsoever, Aladdin made brilliantly simple and very useful kerosene-fuelled appliances, that's for sure...

[19and41]

You have me concerned about how mine will hold up.  There weren't any of the good old radioactive mantles I could find.  I think I now see how a company that made such good lamps kept business going.  It's the mantles.

[twocvbloke]

The golden rule is "Be careful", when it's lit, don't bump it, don't knock it, don't move it, don't place it on something unstable, and for goodness sake, don't let me anywhere near it cos it'll be guaranteed to break just by looking at it!!!

I'm just not that careful and am paying the price...

[19and41]

 

[twocvbloke]

The vintage mantle's still falling apart, but is still illuminating without sooting up (much, but that's user-error!), but, I've bought three more mantles, mostly because they're Brazilian mantles, but mainly because they were £10.99 a piece, as the seller had found them in a closed-down hardware shop and was selling them on, there were five for sale it seemed, but by the time I found them there were only three left, so, yoink!!! 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/252130965852

Rather amusing to see them too, the boxes for one are bi-lingual, in English and in Spanish(?), and one of the mantles is actually shorter than the other two, about the same height as the modern ones, so that'll be the last-ditch spare mantle if I ever come to use it from being so clumsy with my lamp...

EDIT:
Looking at the pic on the listing, and the box on the left in my first pic, it seems that I have the mantle pictured in the listing too...

[19and41]

You did well.  With these NOS parts, being able to wait is a great asset.

[twocvbloke]

To be completely honest, I wasn't actually looking for mantles at the time, they popped up in the side of a separate ebay search as one of those "We think you might like these" things, it was just sheer luck I spotted them, and glad I did too...

[twocvbloke]

Finally bought some gas for the CampinGaz lamps, they work nicely, but, £38 for 5x cans of a propane/butane mix, it ain't cheap...

Still, useful for heat & light if winter turns into anything awful, but, given all the stuff I have now, winter won't happen, at least not here...

[twocvbloke]

So far I haven't broken the latest mantle, nor has it fallen apart in use (or when it got shoved over and bumped a couple of times when placing my new-to-me laser printer on the same desk), so may have finally learned how to handle the lamp...

But anyway, I finally got it a Loxon chimney, as the heelless chimney it presently has always looks askew, and always needs re-seating to prevent unwanted airflow around the base of the chimney when I use it, so I finally lucked out and got a reasonably cheap Loxon chimney, made with Hysil glass (basically the british equivalent of Pyrex), so now I can remove the heelless adaptor to put the proper chimney in place...

Edit:
Forgot the link & price (£12.40 total):
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/322035084710

[19and41]

I must get mine set up.. I was led astray by my radio console.  They have more attractive etchings on your chimneys than ours.

[twocvbloke]

That's one of the plus points about that chimney, some of the cheaper ones (sold at higher prices) had poorly etched glass, and apparently were made of substandard glass that prematurely broke in use...

[twocvbloke]

Well the Loxon chimney arrived today, needed a bit of a clean, but has polished up nicely, and of course fits like a glove after re-adjusting the tabs on the gallery, had to light it too just to make sure everything was all working...

Some before & after pics: