Lamp in Ms. Hessie's Home

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Greygon
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Lamp in Ms. Hessie's Home

Post by Greygon »

We are working on the dining room in our 1911 home. This lamp is hanging in the room. Looks to have been kerosene converted. The light should retract up and down, but the works for it are not quite right, plus there doesn't seem to be a way for the cord to readily feed/retract (which is part of why I think maybe original kerosene. Anyone know anything about these lights and how I can figure out to repair the retractable portion?
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Gothichome
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Re: Lamp in Ms. Hessie's Home

Post by Gothichome »

Greygon, first off nice lamp. It looks to me like the tab on the recoil spring has broken off. It should be retained in the slot. As far as making it functional up and down you can not have that when electrified. You will pull the wires apart. I have mechanically stopped ours from being pulled down by simply placing finishing nails threw the chain above the canopy.

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Re: Lamp in Ms. Hessie's Home

Post by Mick_VT »

I can confirm it was originally Kerosene. It looks from what I can see of the remains of the burner to be a Circa 1895 - 1905 center draft lamp. It would have put out good light for a Kero.

I have restored and rebuilt a bunch of these. I collect their bigger brothers (store sized lamps) that often use the same mechanism. It looks like that "motor" is shot. I would not attempt to repair it as the spring needs to be quite tight. Rather look for a similar replacement mechanism on ebay. I can certainly help you with setting it all up once you do. In theory at least you could have it move and be electric, but you would need to work out a way to get around the issue GH describes, maybe a wiring it from below with enough slack to allow it to raise / lower... You could also convert it back to Kerosene... there is nothing like the glow of a Kero lamp. I have one above my dining room table (or at least did / will have again after the project is complete) at adds a wonderful atmosphere at meal times, kind of like candle light but brighter.
Mick...

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Re: Lamp in Ms. Hessie's Home

Post by Gothichome »

Ya, did a little searching on the net could not find a supplier for springs, but in all honesty Mick is correct, you can buy a complete assembly for the price of a repro spring (if you could find one). I haven't found a suitable way to electrify and make it still movable. You would need a large loop in the wiring, how do you hide that? I would also suggest rerouting the wire and changing bulb to a 25 watt chandelier bulb. I used clear lamp wire with copper conductors on both sides. Ran the wire down the suspension chain, and followed the frame to the faunt. The followed the burner and squeezed it between the chimney and the chimney retainer. Then just let the chandelier bulb rest against the chimney. All the time securing with strands of copper as wire ties. This will give you descent light with out being garish, just about the same light as the oil would give. Dispite Micks encouragement I have yet to actually light and run oil in our lamps. :shifty:

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Re: Lamp in Ms. Hessie's Home

Post by Mick_VT »

Gothichome wrote: Dispite Micks encouragement I have yet to actually light and run oil in our lamps. :shifty:


Do it! You will never turn back if you do.... come to the dark side, we have cookies :teasing-poke:
Mick...

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Re: Lamp in Ms. Hessie's Home

Post by Gothichome »

:lol: :lol: :lol:

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Re: Lamp in Ms. Hessie's Home

Post by phil »

maybe it just needs new smoke put back in !
http://www3.telus.net/bc_triumph_registry/smoke.htm

the spring is tempered. to reform the end back into shape you can remove the temper from the end by heating it up red hot and letting it cool slowly. after reforming it you can heat it again and quench in oil. dont' heat the whole spring.
over time they loose strength and if you wanted you can have another spring made up by a spring shop.

Yea you dont' want to pinch the wires . I can't really see what's entailed there. If that's hazardous it could possibly be converted to 12 volt with an external transformer hidden somewhere.

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Re: Lamp in Ms. Hessie's Home

Post by Greygon »

There actually is still tension on the spring. I was surprised that the whole thing didn't fly apart. If I release the catch, it will move move but I make sure to keep the whole thing tightly held so that it won't fly apart... Experience with old lawn mowers taught me that painful lesson.

Hadn't thought about going back to kerosene... That would be a neat touch. Also thought about why couldn't the power cord be on some kind of retractable think like an extension cord? It would have to be much smaller as this is simply an appliance-like cord. Anyway, thanks for all the thoughts! Opening up a lot of possibilities!!

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Re: Lamp in Ms. Hessie's Home

Post by phil »

you might be able to tie a wire around the spring so it can't release until you want it to later. If you can route the wire so the ends are external to the housing then you might be able to just clip it and pull it out later.

a recoil mechanism sounds good until you consider what is happening to the end of the wire at the center of the spool. you might have a design where it is allowed to twist a couple turns but more than that and you pretty much need brushes and a spool for them to contact and that's possible but more complicated. I recently had a guy come to me that thought I could convert a hose recoiler to recoil extension cords but it wasn't practical for this reason.

a while ago I bought one of those garden hose coiler things. I laughed at the instructions as they said to take it apart and grease the O rings with vasaline once a year.. . Yep I thought Im sure going to add that to my list.. Im sure everyone with a hose reel takes it apart for maintenance annually at least ;-) it didnt' last long, just more Chinese garbage.

You can get the amperage there using pretty tiny wire if you want to. you could add a fuse. Would a battery pack for a drill fit in there somehow? they hold a charge for quite some time but of course you wouldn't want it to show on the outside and you'd need to be able to charge it somehow but that might omit the wire. you might be able to rig it so you connect the charger to it without removing the battery when no one is looking. maybe you could run some funky old light bulbs from a car, or something? ( if you don't' want to go over to the dark side lol ;-)

some of the newer things like razors can charge by induction. basically two coils near each other and the current is transferred without an actual electrical connection.. Hmm.. you could get inventive with those parts.

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Re: Lamp in Ms. Hessie's Home

Post by Greygon »

Mick_VT wrote:I can confirm it was originally Kerosene. It looks from what I can see of the remains of the burner to be a Circa 1895 - 1905 center draft lamp. It would have put out good light for a Kero.

I have restored and rebuilt a bunch of these. I collect their bigger brothers (store sized lamps) that often use the same mechanism. It looks like that "motor" is shot. I would not attempt to repair it as the spring needs to be quite tight. Rather look for a similar replacement mechanism on ebay. I can certainly help you with setting it all up once you do. In theory at least you could have it move and be electric, but you would need to work out a way to get around the issue GH describes, maybe a wiring it from below with enough slack to allow it to raise / lower... You could also convert it back to Kerosene... there is nothing like the glow of a Kero lamp. I have one above my dining room table (or at least did / will have again after the project is complete) at adds a wonderful atmosphere at meal times, kind of like candle light but brighter.


Mick,

The mechanism is still tight. I actually had it apart and am in the process of putting it back together. I was able to wind the mechanism, the spring was still attached. The wife and I have talked about this a bit - whether to keep it light or go back kero... We would love it to be kero as a conversation piece then put some other lighting up. Just trying to figure out what we would need to do to convert it back.

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