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The Amazing Things I See On YouTube

Started by 19and41, July 31, 2019, 02:08:56 PM

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19and41

A restoration of a hurricane lantern.

This video of the restoration was interesting.  The end is a real hoot.  If you can't sit still for the full thing, the funny part starts at 17.41.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81_AqBZ2f8g
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
— Arthur C. Clarke

twocvbloke

Erm, did they just fill that thing with an alcohol fuel?? That's one heck of a dangerous thing to do in an oil lamp!!! :o

FABphones

Quote from: twocvbloke on July 31, 2019, 05:44:32 PM
Erm, did they just fill that thing with an alcohol fuel?? That's one heck of a dangerous thing to do in an oil lamp!!! :o

You need to eat more Fondue!  ;D

In the UK, for the heating flame, Meths used to be placed in the little (similar style) burner that goes underneath the cooking pot. In France we buy Alcool a Bruler. Much nicer stuff, and no odour.

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19and41

Alcohol is customarily burned in a spirit lamp.  A lamp with a tubular collar and a round wick.  That lantern was intended for kerosene.  Alcohol is great for clean heat in the proper burner.  This fellow also does a restoration on a bicycle type kerosene lamp.  He must've learned his lesson with the alcohol, as he used naptha as the fuel in that lamp.  Someone must've been watching over him.
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
— Arthur C. Clarke

countryman

Agreed that is a kerosene (french: petrole, german: Petroleum) lamp.
That's why it does not give much light with alcohol ;-)
Filling it with naphta or gasoline (essence, Benzin) would be extremely dangerous.

19and41

It would be unfortunate if someone were to be injured due to such instruction.
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
— Arthur C. Clarke

countryman

Quote from: FABphones on July 31, 2019, 06:24:54 PM
You need to eat more Fondue!  ;D

In the UK, for the heating flame, Meths used to be placed in the little (similar style) burner that goes underneath the cooking pot. In France we buy Alcool a Bruler. Much nicer stuff, and no odour.

When camping in Sweden we used to use "Trangia" spirit stoves. The swedish burning alcohol was denatured so bad, even by touching first the bottle and then the food you could spoil the whole dish. Drinking alcohol was (and probably is) expensive in Sweden...

19and41

Denatured alcohol is horrid stuff.  I can't even stand the fumes. 
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
— Arthur C. Clarke

countryman

later I carried that stove to a couple more countries but the swedish stuff was unbeatable ;-)

twocvbloke

Denatured Alcohol, or Methylated Spirits here in the UK, contains stuff that is meant to make the stuff nasty to drink, as people desperate for alcohol would drink the stuff, it's commonly known as Bitrex (not to be confused with some bitcoin thing called Bittrex), but the chemical name is Denatonium Benzoate, it was mainly added to stop people drinking it during prohibition in the US, but also in other countries for taxation purposes as it's mostly ethanol (plus other alcohols such as Methanol, which is toxic)...

But, yeah, don't use alcohol in an oil lamp, could be a potential fireball disaster waiting to happen...  :o

andy1702

He even got it wrong in the title, calling it a 'petrol lamp'. As others have said, a lamp with a wick is an oil lamp, definitely NOT a petrol lamp. It will run on kerosene (or at least what we in the UK call kerosene), paraffin, lamp oil (best for indoor use as it doesn't smell much)  or bog-standard dino-diesel. However it will NOT run on bio-diesel (it cloggs the wick), cooking oil (same as bio) or petrol.

Interestingly a vapourising lamp such as a Tilley lamp will run happily on bio-diesel as there is no wick to clog.

My wick type oil lamps normally run on diesel while Tilley's etc run on bio-diesel, which is about 40p per litre cheaper!

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19and41

Beware, in the US paraffin oil is only for the candle-like oil lamps.  If one uses it in a flat wick kerosene lamp it will extinguish any flame and cause the wick to smolder.   One can save the wick by removing, wringing and cleaning it with naptha or other suitable solvent, then drying thoroughly.  I guess petrol could be confused for gasoline in Europe and that would be outright dangerous in a kerosene lamp.
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
— Arthur C. Clarke

Key2871

I agree that mistakes such as you are talking about can lead to serious consiqunces.
But I don't see YouTube admins policing these things. I'm sure that would be a daunting job.
But making a comment to their video would be better, or can't the title or content be changed if an error is found even by another user.
KEN

19and41

Just read through the comments and a number of commentors pointed out the fuel problem.
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
— Arthur C. Clarke

andre_janew

I remember buying lamp oil in a hardware.  When I read the ingredients, I found out it was mostly alcohol.  This stuff actually burned brighter and smoked less than kerosene.  However, each time you used the lamp, you had to turn the wick around or else the wick itself would start to burn.