# Interesting Historical Miner's Headlamp!!!



## MSaxatilus (Nov 12, 2007)

I was recently going through some of my father's personal effects and I came across this very unique and interesting what I think is a miner's lamp. The lamp was carefully wrapped up in a red piece of cloth and hidden away in the bottom of his desk. The only things I can see from the lamp is that there is a glass optic to apparently focus the beam of the light within the lamp. The light source itself looks like a wick that is fed oil from a small reservoir on the bottom of the lamp.

Anybody have any information or ideas as to how old this lamp is or where in what applications it may have been used in????

Pics.....



























....reads "Twentieth Century".

It looks as though it has a bit of corrosion on it, but I'm not exactly sure how old it might be. I was afraid to try to clean or restore it as this may effect its historic value (if any).

Anyway, any help would be appreciated. Thanks guys. :thinking:

MSax


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## TOOCOOL (Nov 12, 2007)

Can you help us judge the size ?


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## MSaxatilus (Nov 13, 2007)

> Can you help us judge the size ?



I just measured it......

Top to Bottom - 5.75"
Width - 3"
Front to Back - 5"



MSax


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## Marduke (Nov 13, 2007)

It's not a miner's light, but a pre-cursor to a car headlight, for a horse and carriage or wagon.


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## wishywashy7 (Nov 13, 2007)

wouldn't it be cool if you can hide a Q5 LED inside and show it off..."your Surefire has only 100 lumens? wait till you see my father's headlamp"


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## f22shift (Nov 13, 2007)

haha


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## VidPro (Nov 13, 2007)

so light collection really is in the Genes


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## DM51 (Nov 13, 2007)

Great-looking lamp. Lol, didn't it come from the train in "_Back to the Future III_"?


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## Toohotruk (Nov 13, 2007)

Talk about "Candle Power!" :candle:


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## MSaxatilus (Nov 13, 2007)

> so light collection really is in the Genes






...........actually, I think Dad was more into antiques than lights.

MSax


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## Kel-Lite 911 (Nov 13, 2007)

Hi, This looks to be a very old bicycle lamp. It would have worked with lantern oil or white gas...but not between my legs while i am peddling down the road.....


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## made in china (Nov 13, 2007)

I need to see beamshots! No seriously, it'd be cool to see some beamshots. I doubt anyone has ever posted beamshots of their oil burnin' uh, whatever it is. The lens looks quite nice.


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## Toohotruk (Nov 13, 2007)

It would be interesting to see just how bright it is(n't).:naughty:


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## MSaxatilus (Nov 15, 2007)

I took the light apart and realized that it definitely uses oil as a fuel source. Unfortunately, the wick is not long enough to bring the oil to the flame. I will see if I can find a source for a wick.

The nice thing I would imagine from this light is that it will have a infinitely variable output by slowly dialing up the amount of wick and thus flame in the housing.

..... and Surefire thinks they were the first to do it with the Titan.... Please!!!

MSax


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## curry__muncha (Nov 16, 2007)

restore it with some baking soda!


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## Burgess (Nov 17, 2007)

Certainly an interesting find.


Thank you for sharing it with us. :thumbsup:


I enjoy reading about what folks used,
way back in the Dark Ages. :candle:



BTW, if that lamp happened to get dropped during use,
you'd certainly see the "oft-mentioned" *Vent with Flame* !


_


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## jch79 (Nov 17, 2007)

I agree that restoring it would be awesome, and would allow for it to be viewed (and used?) as it was originally inteded. I'm not sure the best techniques, but it'd look great all new and shiny. I don't think it would diminish its historical value - actually, quite the contrary! Maybe I don't know about antique collecting though! :tinfoil:

Either way, very cool find, MSax! :thumbsup:

 john


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