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One of the "oldest" pieces of technology that I own that still gets used on a regular basis is this Cobalt Blue Aladdin Lincoln Drape lamp. While this is a modern unit with a Type 23 burner, it's essentially the same thing that Aladdin has been making for the last 100 years.

This one still has a Thorium-232 mantle and burns kerosene. It has the output of about a 60W electric lamp. It draws air in through the base of the burner and drags it up through a thimble in the center of the burner to bring the temperature of the flame to a point where it makes the thorium incandesce. Newer mantles use yttrium and don't glow as nicely.

This will burn for about 12 hours on a quart of kerosene.

One of the "oldest" pieces of technology that I own that still gets used on a regular basis is this Cobalt Blue Aladdin Lincoln Drape lamp. While this is a modern unit with a Type 23 burner, it's essentially the same thing that Aladdin has been making for the last 100 years. This one still has a Thorium-232 mantle and burns kerosene. It has the output of about a 60W electric lamp. It draws air in through the base of the burner and drags it up through a thimble in the center of the burner to bring the temperature of the flame to a point where it makes the thorium incandesce. Newer mantles use yttrium and don't glow as nicely. This will burn for about 12 hours on a quart of kerosene.

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[–] • 1 pt

During the "Americana" period of the 50s-60s, electrics that looked like oil lamps were quite common.

Aladdin does make a drop-in replacement electric "burner" if you want to use a light bulb instead of happy earth burny joy juice.

[–] • 1 pt

I liked them because the switch felt like turning a key. I know that's dumb sounding, but that's the only reason I remember them. I hated them because they got hot and I could never remember where the switch was. lol

[–] • 1 pt

Yeah, that was pretty common. They had what looked like a skeleton key head on the switch, I always thought those were pretty cool.

You can still get them for projects where you're fixing or refitting a lamp. They screw on to a standard edison-base light socket switch screw.

https://pic8.co/sh/IdeW0t.jpg