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I've been wanting something closer to period lighting for my combination music room/home office for quite some time, something that didn't take up precious table space. I think this recently acquired Aladdin Model 12 does the job quite nicely.

Beautiful and quite stylish. A fine touch. Congratulations.

I'm happy you posted this here!

If I may be so bold as to show my two model 23's that I bought in the mid 80's for emergency lighting. The "ugly" looking one was our first one in 1984, and with the nicer, green globed one that I bought around 1988, provided much needed light and heat during the great "ice storm of '91" that we had in this area of WNY.

With no electricity for the better part of 5 days, I was heating the house with two kerosene floor heaters (one was a Corona 23-DK, 23,000 BTU/hr) during the daytime, and at night, our many oil lamps provided much needed supplementation as well as light.

I'll never forget that experience.

Fran

Since 1976, I've had Aladdins in my camp (off the grid) in the remote Adirondacks. Once you learn how to operate them, they give about the equivalent of a 60 watt light bulb. The special mantles (woven fabric suspended from a wire frame, over a circular wick) are pricey; they're also easy to burn up from overheating, but you can usually burn off the char by reducing the flame and waiting a few minutes. Last mantles I bought some years ago were c. $6 each for a box of 12. Got them at a hardware store that caters to the Mennonites and Amish in this region. Until I added a couple of propane gas mantle lamps, the Aladdins were our only light source. Also have a venerable Coleman single-mantle gas lantern (in red, no less) as back-up. All of this makes one appreciate the convenience of electricity!

I have had many Aladdin lamps over the years. Several times I lit my home exclusively with them but eventually they tend to smoke on you and finally I got tired of trying to wash the soot of the ceilings and walls and then prime them so I could repaint.. I used kerosene lamps for over 20 years here in the small farm home I have. I still use kerosene cooking ranges. Around here the oil quality has dropped significantly an a flat wick lamp that used to operate safely for nearly a week without attention to the wick now carbons over in a matter of hours causing the flame to get ragged and eventually it too will smoke, only a lot less of it. For a reading lamp I still have a few Rayo round wick lamps. For some reason they don't seem to be prone to the carbon build up as the flat wick lamps. Aladdin lamps are great light so long as you keep an eye on them.

Larry

Nice Bruce. My Great Grandfather was the Aladdin lamp Co. distributor for the Province of Manitoba. This is his #6 that has been handed down to me. Along with the manual and copper wall holder. Every lamp came with these. The center space in the holder was for matches.

"The special mantles (woven fabric suspended from a wire frame, over a circular wick) are pricey..."

Those special mantles are made of silk... burn them with a match before lighting to make them turn ash like and very fragile...

Curt A wrote:"The special mantles (woven fabric suspended from a wire frame, over a circular wick) are pricey..."

Those special mantles are made of silk... burn them with a match before lighting to make them turn ash like and very fragile...

Aladdin mantles are available and at $11.95 (some places cheaper). Certainly not a big expense to most. Handled well (never touch with your hand) will last for decades. The silk sack mantles are also used on Coleman lanterns.

The "pricey" quote was from Henry's post above...

Well I thought that I would jump on the lamp band wagon and post a couple pictures of mine.
Pete