Pressure lamps: gaslighting on the go

Today I found a portable gas mantle at a flee market with the adorable bulb-like mantles in place. Just $28; I'm thinking of going back tomorrow to pickup one of them just to keep on the shelf. I probably wouldn't try lighting it, unless I replace the valve and give it a good look over. I'm a sucker for radioactive outdated technologies!

was waiting for the white gas.

TNSheep

Oh man... I really flinched when you unscrewed the fuel cap after starting to pump up the lantern! It's very good at spraying partly atomized fuel everywhere if there's actually fuel in the tank. A long, long time ago, at a Scout camp not too far away, I filled the fuel tank of a lantern, closed the filler cap and moved it to a new location (as you don't want to light it where you filled it in case of spilled fuel) and started to pump it up. Unbeknownst to me, the leather gasket that seals around the pump shaft had begun to disintegrate. I didn't realize a very fine spray of fuel was coming out around the pump handle until I struck the match and blue flame flashed across my bare arms. It burned up quickly enough that I didn't have burns, just a lot of singed hair. The pump became a rather terrifying little torch at the same time though. I ended up moving the lantern and lighting the mantles in order to more quickly reduce the pressure in the tank. Once I was over the shock of "being on fire", I made it my mission to learn how the pumps and generators worked, so that I could service all of the liquid fuel lanterns and stoves. I'm pretty sure most of the replacement mantles available then contained thorium, and most of the pump seal kits used leather for that particular gasket. I learned that taking the pumps out and soaking said gasket in mineral oil helps to maintain its integrity and is a good idea if the lantern hasn't been used for a while as it dries out.

Next up, a collab with Luke from the Outdoor Gear Review on his Lone Wolf Mountain?

Marcel de Jong

Pumping works faster if you loosely hold the end so that you uncover the hole while pulling the shaft out, then seal the hole with your thumb when pushing in.

Paul Malloy

The outro and the bloopers were perfect on this one! Thank you for my morning chuckle!

Patrick Bianchi

The pumpy thingie is an air pump like a bicycle pump. It pressurises the air space above the fuel. By sealing the hole at first the air pump is primed which makes the valves work better, thereby improving the early function. On some designs the small hole is also the way that the air gets into the pump and to start it up you'd pull the end out and then cover the hole when pushing it back down. Bicycle pumps are similar, but the rubber skirt design means the air in the top half of the cylinder is allowed into the lower half as the shaft is retracted. When the skirt valve gets old and stiff it is harder to prime the pump. On the lamp, once the pressures are built up the valves are held shut against air leakage by the pressure behind them and you don't have to seal the hole any more.

Jim Hewlett

Stick to rechargeable batteries and LEDs for emergency lighting, got it! 😀

Project A118

Any information on what the little hole in the pumpy thingy, which you're supposed to cover with your thumb, is for?

One of the labs I worked in had a gas mantle in a small plastic bag attached to the side of the geiger counter. The bag had a handwritten number on it. It was there so that anyone could check the counter was working - the handwritten number was (roughly) what the count should be. Other machines in the lab that measured radioactivity had more standardized positive controls.

Lumo

Very interesting Alec, never really put any thoughts into why it how they work. It's probably why I like watching your videos so much (you can do the explanation and I can take credit when I explain them to other..lol ) keep them coming

I still love and use my Coleman lantern and camp stove from the 70's. (They were my dad's) I never realized before how much I actually enjoyed the rituals of lighting these things. Thanks for shedding some light (oops) on this subject!

Haze Skunk

I never stopped to think about how mantle lanterns worked, despite growing up using coleman lanterns every summer and winter vacation. Thanks for an informational and entertaining video man.

Honorary Octopus

One of the advantages of gasoline is its relative inertness, in combination with its energy density. I've carried a gallon of gasoline more than a mile down a freeway more than once, and plenty of other young motorists have as well.

Stephen Gillie

Perhaps the Coleman lantern and stove go back to 1905 or so, but the basic principle of heating the fuel that they use, was developed earlier in Sweden with the Svea 123R camp stove. These camping stoves are still in use today, and we’re very popular in the 1960s and 70s with backpackers. You might want to look at them.

Rocco Rizzo

Yikes. Gasoline is VERY dangerous; white gas, a little less dangerous; kerosene, is almost ok if handled by an adult. That's why I like the 6x D-cell lanterns... I still have my nose and eye brows. (yes, Iknow about landfill issues, but I don't use the lantern much and the batteries are about six years old...)

Hey Alec, I'd really like to know how you know all that! ;)

Really fascinating, Alec. Thank you for giving this deep dive into lanterns. Maybe that it's because I'm Australian, but I have had no exposure to these. It's very informative - and *very* entertaining - watching this video. I always find your videos rewarding. Thanks again!

Tedd

Have you tried lighting the kerosene pump lantern with blow torch? My dad and I used to take the white gas lanterns floundering. We were always pumping up the lanterns. We uses to light the lanterns in the car because the wind from the beach was too strong. The lantern starting up and burning a new mantle inside the car sure was a sight. Eventually we got the propane ones with the saucer for shining in the water. Very good for floundering. They were much brighter since they directed the light downward.

Kent Scipione

The amount of time my father would spend trying to light one of those things during family camping trips is... Well, it's probably about what you would expect, with an appropriate amount of muffled/censored swearing.

Alec Jahn

I really enjoyed the rant about the kerosene lantern. (And also kind of want to see how that first attempt to light it went.) Love your videos!

Nick Loh

Yep! Lead was added to gas precisely to improve octane.

:)

Technology Connections

Gasoline is a compressible soup of flammable solvents. The octane rating is a measurement of that compressibility, and if it's low, the gasoline chemists might add a compressible solvent like benzene. Very interesting to learn that camp gas is pre-additive gasoline, and about 50 octane. That low of octane probably pre-ignites frequently causing engine ping, which I'm guessing is because it's not only unleaded (as you mention) but also ethanol-free. And thinking about that, ethanol (and tetra-ethyl-lead) must also increase octane, since they're increasing compressibility.

Stephen Gillie

you may gaslight me anytime. Maybe just not indoors, please

SkaveRat

I have bad memories of lighting a Coleman white gas stove like yours when I was 12 or so. Lots of fire where it shouldn't have been! I think the plastic part around the pump melted a bit one time. When getting my Aladdin lamp I did some research on thorium mantles, and I ran into two other concerns that seem to have some legitimacy: 1. Particles of thorium oxide dust break off the mantles, and you really don't want an alpha emitter in your lungs! My Aladdin mantles definitely give off loose flaky bits, so that's not an academic concern either. 2. Many of the decay products of thorium are also radioactive, and some of them will vaporize when you light the mantle for the first time in a while. This is only a concern indoors, and the exposure doesn't seem to be that high anyway. Love the video!

John Hiesey

Oh, it’s the Geiger counter. I’m slow today.

There are some weird popping/clicking sounds around 21:00; I can’t identify them.

Knock knock joke. You have a beautiful mind ✌️🥲

Justice_w6 .

I can say I haven't seen a video I didn't like! so informative and calming. just something about your voice just puts me at ease 😌 from The bottom of my heart and the back of my brain thank you

Jon Hesse

Good to know you vet the patron list in the video. 😉

Since 23 minutes have gone since your post and no one else has, let me acknowledge and appreciate the pun.

P D