Aladdin Lamp

Fred gave me an Aladdin lamp for Christmas.

If you've never seen an Aladdin they're the pinnacle of wick lamp technology. Really they're a blend of wick and pressure lamp tech as the round wick heats a mantle which is coated with a chemical (commonly thorium) that fluoresces when heated.

Here it is pretty much as delivered:

Of course being a dope I jumped right in and lit it up. I also thought at the time that it was amber glass. Turns out the old kerosene had oxidized to that lovely amber color. My rush to light it sucked that rotten kero into the wick and ruined it. I could get it lit but it wouldn't burn right and smelled and didn't give much light. Wednesday I finally remembered to order a new wick and today it arrived. I ran right out and installed it with some fresh kero and an hour later it lit right up.

Heres the second time I lit it:

It throws about the same light as a 40 watt bulb but its a soft white light. Its very steady and makes no noise though it does give off quite a bit of heat which is nice on a cold evening.