Anyone else have an Aladdin lamp?

[Redstone]

I have one going now; since it's 12 degrees outside, the heat that it puts out is keeping the room nice and warm, and that nice, soft light is just right to read by.

Redstone

[elshiva]

1. Inevitable question:

What are your three wishes?

[Redstone]

2. I sure wish it worked that way. If it did:

1) All the freeps and other rightwingers, including the bushyboy crowd, have a change of heart and become human.

2) All the people with physical and /or psychological troubles feel better.

3) No more hungry and / or abused kids.

There's one more I'd really want, but can't figure which of the above to subsitute it for: Every man who beats a woman or child dies. Massive coronary as soon as he swings his fist the first time.

Redstone

[tigereye]

5. nice list Redstone!

[Redstone]

10. Thanks. Still can't figure where that fourth one should go.

Redstone

[politicat]

3. We have several kerosene type lamps....

I never thought of using them as heat sources. Duh.

Of course, we also have cats and I worry they would knock a lamp off a table....

[Redstone]

4. But are they Aladdin lamps? There's a big difference.

The regular kerosene lamps with a wick are inefficient, dim, and deposit lots of soot on your ceiling.

Aladdin lamps (that have a mantle) make NO soot and are as bright as a 60-watt incandescent bulb. And they put out so much heat that you can light a cig by putting the tip of it over the top of the chimney!

Redstone

[GoddessOfGuinness]

6. I'm intrigued...

Is that the brand name of the lamp? Do you have a pic?

[Redstone]

7. Go here:

http://www.aladdinlamps.com/store/dynamicIndex.asp

That's the manufacturer's website.

I remember these lamps from when I was a kid; the farmers outside the village where I lived used them to light their houses, because they didn't have electricity back then.

The basic ones are not too expensive, but let me advise you that you do NOT want to buy one that doesn't have a shade; they're bright enough that thay can be painful to look at.

But they're great to have. When we have a power outage, the neighbors think that we still have electricity because our house is so brightly lit from having two or three of them going.

Redstone

[GoddessOfGuinness]

8. Are they pretty fuel efficient?

[Redstone]

9. Yes; most of the reservoirs hold about a pint of lamp oil,

and they'll burn for 24 hours or so (3 to 5 days of normal usage) on one filling.

The technology is old but amazingly efficient: a circular wick burns the oil (kerosene) to release a vapor, which is re-burned by the mantle, producing an astonishing amount of both light and heat.

They take just a bit of tending (let them get warm for five minutes before turning them all the way up, and take ten seconds to clean the wick every month or so), but it's worth it. You get both light and heat, and the damn things are gorgeous with the glass shades.

Buy one. You'll be hooked.

Redstone

[RevCheesehead]

12. I have an antique one that belonged to my grandparents.

The base is transparent black. Gorgeous, and one of my favorite posessions.

[politicat]

13. type, but not.

They're older, inherited. They're not the typical kerosene lamps with the fat white wick. No soot, not in the least bit dim and they'll go weeks on a fill if we're using them a lot.

No brand names anywhere on them, so I don't know who made them.

[Kali]

11. Hey thanks for posting this

Now I know what that lamp is - I couldn't figure it out - My Grandmother had one of these - its up in a cupboard we call the attic cupboard, I will have to get it down and have a better look...

[Patiod]

14. Bought one for our theater group

Gilbert & Sullivan's "The Sorcerer" requires one, it's 1992, I'm props mistress, and I couldn't find one anywhere. Spent months going to flea markets, thrift stores, prop shops/warehouses - none to be found.

12 years later we do the show again, and *voila*! The internets! It took exactly 5 minutes to find, shop, compare and pay for one.

God bless the Internets!

[blockhead]

15. mine is amber

with the Washington drape.

[NV Whino]

16. Yes!

I just ordered a new burner assembly for mine. (After 40 years of faithful service.) They are wonderful lamps.