Featured Lamp Restoration

I don't have a "before," but here's the "after." This is an 1880s Parker kerosene lamp, manufactured in Connecticut, USA. I've had a multi-month project restoring this, and although the photo is a bit dark, it represents hour after hour of hand polishing, cleaning, and installing an electric light source in this hanging oil lamp. Don't worry, with a twist of the socket I can re-install the oil burner, so no harm no foul.

Anyway, this is the culmination of weeks of waiting interspersed with lots of elbow grease!

 

The oil reservoir, inside the square cast brass and copper “basket,” has a hollow cylinder inside that would have been filled with kerosene. The part on which the light bulb is seated had a flat cloth wick in contact with the kerosene, encased in a glass chimney. Raise and trim the wick, light it, and away you go. The smoke resulting from combustion would have been captured and dispersed by the metal smoke bell above, so that the hanging motor and the ceiling above would not be stained.

 

excellent work G !!!!