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Gas lighting from the mains supply may be seen today in the Central Moravian church in Bethlehem, PA, and on the exterior of the Academy of Music in Philadelphia (the concert hall used for the movie "Age of Innocence").

I lived in the Washington, DC, area for about 30 years. There was a huge residential building boom there in last half of the 19th century, with large numbers of still surviving Victorian brick row houses. Many were plumbed for gas lighting. I have been in several where that has been restored to working order. It makes a really nice atmosphere at night. How safe it is I am not sure.

Clay

I'm late posting this, but here's a little folder of Aladdin hints from 1931.
Back in rural Ontario,the soil from whence I sprung, the old timers divided in to three camps in terms of pre Ontario Hydro Electric: Aladdin, Rayo and Coleman. Aladdin thought thought Rayo was wasting oil for little light, and they both thought Coleman had a death wish. My father's family were staunch Aladdin types: the brochure came from " home."
The house I live in is completely piped for gas light. The thing is , were I to hook it up I would negate my insurance. Here in Toronto if the gas lighting has never been disconnected ( like a house up the street) they won't make you disconnect it. But if it has been disconnected in the past you're out of luck.

Jim

Thanks Jim, for the owners manual pictures!

The first thing that I noticed is the wick cleaner shown. It reminds me of the two cheap plastic ones that came with my lamps, and how dissatisfied I was with them. They worked fine at first, but wore out pretty quickly, IMO.

I've used a razor blade to cut the wick straight with better results. As anyone that has used these lamps for any amount of prolonged time knows, an uneven wick can soot up the mantle very quickly.

Fran

fran604g wrote:Thanks Jim, for the owners manual pictures!

The first thing that I noticed is the wick cleaner shown. It reminds me of the two cheap plastic ones that came with my lamps, and how dissatisfied I was with them. They worked fine at first, but wore out pretty quickly, IMO.

I've used a razor blade to cut the wick straight with better results. As anyone that has used these lamps for any amount of prolonged time knows, an uneven wick can soot up the mantle very quickly.

Fran

Actually Fran, the above is not a owners manual but a booklet that comes in a wick box. Aladdin wick cleaners are brass (at least the original ones). The much later modern plastic ones do not work and are junk. The "cleaner" serves two proposes....first, it removes any soot that is loose and second it shapes the wick with a beveled edge.
In other words....you should not cut a straight edge with a razor. This will lead to premature replacement of the wick.

Fran, I've not used one of the plastic wick cleaners but can imagine they would not last long with that tough fibre kerosene soaked wick. I do not know if they make new brass ones but the originals seem quite easy to find on eBAY for around 10 or 12 dollars. I've read up on this recently and shaping the wick seems to be a bit of an art, right shape, right amount of ash, no loose threads. I know now that previously I was "over cleaning" my wicks and the purpose of the wick cleaner is to gently smooth versus to clean. Hope that helps.

gramophone78 wrote:

fran604g wrote:Thanks Jim, for the owners manual pictures!

The first thing that I noticed is the wick cleaner shown. It reminds me of the two cheap plastic ones that came with my lamps, and how dissatisfied I was with them. They worked fine at first, but wore out pretty quickly, IMO.

I've used a razor blade to cut the wick straight with better results. As anyone that has used these lamps for any amount of prolonged time knows, an uneven wick can soot up the mantle very quickly.

Fran

Actually Fran, the above is not a owners manual but a booklet that comes in a wick box. Aladdin wick cleaners are brass (at least the original ones). The much later modern plastic ones do not work and are junk. The "cleaner" serves two proposes....first, it removes any soot that is loose and second it shapes the wick with a beveled edge.
In other words....you should not cut a straight edge with a razor. This will lead to premature replacement of the wick.

Thank you for pointing this out to me. In regards to the wick cleaner, I meant that I was basically forced to trim the wicks because the plastic cleaners are so useless that I had no other choice. I'd bet that the earlier brass cleaners perform much better. I'll need to find one, I think.

Fran

Valecnik wrote:Fran, I've not used one of the plastic wick cleaners but can imagine they would not last long with that tough fibre kerosene soaked wick. I do not know if they make new brass ones but the originals seem quite easy to find on eBAY for around 10 or 12 dollars. I've read up on this recently and shaping the wick seems to be a bit of an art, right shape, right amount of ash, no loose threads. I know now that previously I was "over cleaning" my wicks and the purpose of the wick cleaner is to gently smooth versus to clean. Hope that helps.

Thanks Bruce, I think you're right about the wicks, I've noticed that there is a fine line between enough and too much with cleaning them, myself. I'm going to keep an eye out for a brass wick cleaner.

Fran

Here are the complete Aladdin instructions from the manual on how to keep your wick clean and trimmed.

Gram78, This is very helpful. Thanks for posting. Clearly I was overly aggressively "cleaning" my wick previously.