"It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world, and moral courage so rare." - Mark Twain
One of the lovely pieces that we bought off eBay many many years ago, when we were going through a phase of collecting antiques, is an old kerosene lamp. Like the old shotgun, it hangs on the wall, collects dust, and I no longer give it much notice. Nevertheless, it's very pretty even though over the decades it's become part of the background.
I was always taken with the mercury-glass reflector and the nice Victorian ironwork of the lamp. This would have been made between roughly 1880-1920. It's almost certainly a newer kerosene lamp rather than a whale oil lamp. It's not a reproduction - the burner is attached to the oil reservoir with plaster. A reproduction would use glue to attach the burner to the fount.
We've not used it, and never plan on using it, but it's a pretty neat item.
The mirror is neat, and very delicate, being made of very thin glass. Although I didn't expect it, these unusual mirrors are still readily available.
Whenever I see the word "ACME", I'm reminded of Wile E. Coyote from the Looney Toons cartoons.
From what I've read, the chimney on these serves a couple of important functions. It creates an updraft, drawing in more air than a flame without a chimney would have. This updraft draws in more air, which cools off the hardware, and also causes the flame to burn brighter. Additionally the chimney prevents the flame from flickering or going out whenever a draft of air arrived at the lamp. Clever stuff.
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