Thanks for making the video I was born in 1964 therefore raised in the 70s and 80s I knew about the concept but never had a actual lamp to use or learn how to operate so my curiosity Was satisfied by the demonstration you made
I sent a link to this video to a collector of carbide lamps that I had come across when I was looking for one to buy. He had a couple of comments: 1. The lamp probably dates from the 30's or 40's and not the 20's as I thought. 2. He felt it wasn't old enough to be called an antique. It was interesting to me that they would have been making carbide bicycle lamps into the forties. I guess it took longer than I realized for the battery and lamp technology to get good enough to completely obsolete the carbide lamps. On his second point: I knew there was some kind of age requirement in some contexts for how old something needed to be to be considered an antique. I didn't know what it was and since all I meant by the use of the word _antique_ was that the lamp was friggin old, I thought it was OK. I have now looked up antique and found that the US customs service and apparently a lot of people that use the word in a more restrictive sense think that something needs to be 100 years old to be an antique. So the lamp is not formally an antique but it is still really old and I might live long enough to see it become an antique.
Hi Gillenz, If heating your hands up is the goal, this beats the crap out of some wimpy LED bicycle light. It is more difficult to operate, puts out a whole lot less light, and requires fuel that is a little difficult to get so there are a few disadvantages as well.
i Think they were made of Metal for a reason lol xD Fun Little gadget from Before my time. why is it that stuff from the past are allways the most fun to tinker with?
The 20th Century Limited i would think it was the excess pressure created by the reaction of to much carbide in the chamber that blew past the ancient and most likely perished O ring seal. I was surprised vaseline worked though as it has no heat and pressure resistant properties unlike gasket goo. Maybe it just allowed him to screw the carbide chamber more tightly onto what was left of the perished seal and actually allow it to bite into it. I was really fascinated to actually see one of these burn as every one i have ever seen was non functional. The light it created did not seem much brighter than a candle to me and had a distinctly yellow cast although this may have been a digital camera colour balance issue.
had one in England my grandad gave me in the 1980's for when i went camping asit gave light and heat, also you could knock out birds in trees with the carbide....or so i hear as it a poaching skill.
I would wait tell you either make a gasket or have one made before someone really gets hurt and have a fire extinguisher near buy,one that will put grease fire ABC one .I love to have one that has been redone to safely work ,there has to be some inter sites out there
Thanks for stopping by Rat. I was skeptical when I bought this one that something that old would work. I had a hard time finding a vendor who would state that theirs did work. But after seeing how simple the things are I suspect a lot of them would work especially if a few minimal things are done like cleaning out the gas tube to the lamp or replacing some gaskets. The hard thing to fix might be the valve that controls the water flow. Once you have dripping water, you're going to have acetylene gas and getting acetylene gas to burn is pretty easy.
Hi Rat, I sympathize. I didn't buy one for a long time because I couldn't find somebody that would sell the pellets in small quantities. I suspect you know the good news, bad news part of what is to follow. Good News: Cheapcarbide.com is still in business and it looks like they are still a good source for carbide in small quantities. Bad News: They don't ship outside the US and they have specifically listed Canada as a place they don't ship to.
Yes. I saw that. It does seem that carbide is relatively easy to get in the US though. Sellers are even on Ebay but not one in Canada. There's even a hiking/caving supply company in the US that sells it for caving lamps. I see that several research chemical companies sell it in Canada but it's very expensive.
Dave Kirkeby ... and second author is a jerk doesn't even knows how to tightehen real thight that thing that could cause a very serious accident to himself and otherwise in the area.
Thank you for explaining this, i just purchased a 1912 carbide light for my flying merkel bicycle which is 1917, i have run through what i thought was a gas chamber at first (now the water chamber) as i come to find out and the drip control still works and the chamber still holds water. My light has no gasket or seal so i am a bit worried on starting it. ALSO mine does not have the main shaft that is mounted on the bottom carbide holder does this mean mine is missing a piece? or did some not come with the shaft I could send pictures if you needed, but i would love to get this lamp operational
I have a few of these, one very nice Solar brand one and a Gammage one i got thats really rough im putting an LED array inside. The solar id like to light at least once do you have any idea where to get the ceramic gas nozzle that the flame comes out of?
Hi Emily, I'm sorry I don't know where to get the ceramic gas nozzle. Are you sure it's ceramic? I believe the one on ours was metal. You might be able to find something in a hardware store that could be modified for your purposes or even find a gas jet from a stove that fit the threads on your lamp. I just took a look at what the Solar brand ones look like that you have. Very nice looking. Maybe you could link to a picture of the one you got?
Thabks fpr this video. Very little info regarding these lamps on the Web. I have just been given one, (has red and green, port and starboard coloured lens on each side. ) Looking to sell?
Hi Mark, I didn't find a lot on the web about them either. I'd like to know what time ours dated from, maybe somebody will happen by with an idea about that. We're not interested in selling ours, but based on our experience with this one it seems like if they look like they're in good condition, there's a good chance they'll work.
Well you tried! If I had a son in law I would try and give him an antique explosive device. It looks like you were using a zoom lens when he tried to ignite it. Lol Just kidding!! :) Those things are amazing. I started looking for one on eBay. Where did you get your carbide pellets?
Link to Lorne's (the collector I talked to about carbide lamps before I bought this one) www.proteanpaper.com/scart_results.cgi?comp=howiebik&part=Shields,%20Lorne Link to a very cool eagle carbide lamp on Lorne's website www.proteanpaper.com/scart_picture.cgi?comp=howiebik&pic=000000000000004606&part=000000000000005714
Hi Jonathan, yes there were and still are carbide miner's lamps although they are probably illegal for mining use in most jurisdictions. Bringing a flame into an area potentially filled with explosive gas mixtures is frowned on. Bicycle carbide lamps were invented around 1896. Miner carbide lamps were invented about 1900.
We made a video of some experiments we did with carbide pellets: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ZTpY3yM-VwI.html If you enjoyed the lamp video you might enjoy this as well, but your mileage may vary.
Dave Kirkeby calcium potassium is a very serious and dangerous explosive to which terrorist can do very serious dammage to people . Last Sunday l was about to buy one exactly the same as the one in the picture .The seller asked me for 35 bucks _____ AND TOLD ME THAT HE COULDN'T GARANTEE THE CARBIDE FUEL ____ because it 8s complettly forbidden to buy or sell that calcium potassium fuel .
