The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

What a "hot" fan Rene!!! .Now I will have to take the plunge and get one too,being a Paillard Maestrophone owner........thanks!!!! .Now I also run my Aladdin #6 but,not all year round.I prefer a scentless good quaity lamp oil instead. .BTW,for those that are not sure what a #6 is.Here are some pics.My Great Grandfather was a distributor for the company in the early 1910's and this was one his.It also has the manual and copper wall holder for everything...matches,etc....

GREAT accessories! I love those.

Here's my No. 6 in action, with 501 shade. (You can see just a tiny bit of my Kohl exhibition tinfoil phonograph in front of it.)

Interesting that many of us in addition to being phono fans are also Aladdin fans and fan fans

Your fan is a beautiful piece of work. What year would it be from approximately and who made it? I've seen them at show before but never taken the plunge so far.

I too am an Aladdin fan. I brought one to Europe, a dark green Corinthian style, ( I think) model B. Where do you guys get your mantles??? I bought two on eBAY, paid a fortune. One used up over the past year and my 4 year old got hold of the first one and took it out of the box. That ended that. This summer I bought two more on ebay, NOS this time hoping they would last longer. The first one I installed somewhat broke apart after one lighting.

I would burn mine every night but the mantles are costing a fortune!

Valecnik,the only reason your mantles are not lasting is from mis-handleing.plain and simple.I will PM you a copy from one of my manuals on how to do it thr right way.I have mantles that are over 50 years old in lamps.They are glowinf great.Also never over heat your lamp and you must let it warm up first.Two very important opperating steps.NEVER, EVER even when taking from the box do you touch the mantle with your hand.

gramophone78 wrote:Valecnik,the only reason your mantles are not lasting is from mis-handleing.plain and simple.I will PM you a copy from one of my manuals on how to do it thr right way.I have mantles that are over 50 years old in lamps.They are glowinf great.Also never over heat your lamp and you must let it warm up first.Two very important opperating steps.NEVER, EVER even when taking from the box do you touch the mantle with your hand.

Gram78. Thank you very much for the offer to send me a manual by PM. I knew that you must never touch them with your hand and am very careful about that but I may not be letting it warm up properly before turning it up. Of course on this last on this last trip it was not helpful that homeland security had to open the boxes and inspect them, then again in Amsterdam too. I do not think they touched them but they get jostled around quite a bit...

That's true....you never know if they have been handled.Bumping them around in the box is not an issue.I forgot to tell you .....another KEY issue with a new mantle is the FIRST lighting.The match should NOT touch the mantle and the burn must be complete.Then you can light the lamp and enjoy.After you warm LOW the lamp you then slowly raise the wick until a nice even glow is reached.IF you start to get black forming in areas,you will need to turn down and the black will burn off.The last two things are....your wick is trimed and beveled formed using the proper wick trimmer (see pic) and that the mantle is centered over the wick.As I wrote a mantle could last for years.BTW,I know this thread is going way O/T but,I too like the old fans.One of my favorites is a "pancake" that was sold in Toronto.It's a very rare model and works great.

Thanks alot Gram78.

I also know about the need to trip the wick. I have an original wick trimmer but forgot it in the US. I know exactly where it's at but according to my GARMIN GPS it's ~ 4,750 miles as the crow flies from my house in CZ to my house in MN where it's in storage. Probably will have to just buy another on eBAY and get it shipped.

To get this A BIT back on topic, I should mention that I find it quite enjoyable to listen to records on my A250 diamond disc by the light of the Aladdin and one other oil lamp plus a candle or two which is more than enough to illuminate our living/dinning area.

I do cheat a bit when I'm searching through those etched label diamond discs by switching on a small halogen spotlight lamp until I get a few records queued up

Continuing a bit with the O/T discussion (which I find interesting!), while most mantle problems are related to improper handling, there is such a thing as a defective mantle. Mine typically last many, many months, and usually it's the wire support that ultimately fails, not the mantle itself. But a few months back I replaced a mantle and the new one started crumbling within 3-4 days. I replaced it and the next one did the same thing. I replaced it a third time with the same result. I was flummoxed.

That's when I discovered that Aladdin was no longer manufacturing mantles and they were becoming rare.... I went on an obsessive hunt and managed to scare up a reserve stash of them. I used one to replace the last self-destructing one and it's been fine every since.

I did some Googling and found some discussion of defective mantles on a forum. There are bad batches. The problem is that there's no way to recognize them visually. They just happen. Obviously the 3 that fell apart on me had all come from the same case, from the same defective production run.

Finding mantles is a challenge right now. All of the regular dealers are sold out. I've been keeping up with Aladdin's updates but things are moving incredibly slowly. They are back in production of Lox-On mantles, but they're only available with new lamps. It is likely to be many, many months before they start producing the Kone Cap style again. The only option now is to find old stock. They do turn up on eBay occasionally, usually at high prices. I was lucky to find a full case at the same price as I was paying from a regular dealer in years past.

Back on topic: I also love listening to my Diamond Disc (A-290) with just my Aladdin for light. Especially on rainy winter nights. That's time travel.

Ok, this is my fan collection. This is most of what is
left after I sold many off to make room for my phonograph hobby.
My oldest one is the GE but most are post WWII era. The orange
box fan is ironically the most valuable. This push-button lakewood fan
is rare, and the ones sold under the defunct Treasury
department store are more rare still. Not to mention its very minty.
The others include a Zero, Maning Bowman, and a minty Kmart in baby
blue (and I have the original box).

Nice fans 1973.The little 6" GE is pre war and hard to find with a clean cord and the bottom part of the base(under side).Most of the time they have holes punched in the base to mount them and stop them from moving around.They never came with holes!!.Ok,I promiose,no more O/T from me..... :lol:Mistake on my part.....I don't think your GE is the baby 6".Maybe it's the 12 or 14".Here is one of my 6" models.I sold this one and still have a mint one.