What is this ??????

[captain smiley]

I found the patent for the number six lantern, this lantern was not invented by harris as once thought but by a man named william grether thus the "Grether" name seen on some of these, it is also interesting to note that there is another lamp patented by grether that used an almost identical body to the number sis but has a handle and switch on the back as well as having a handle on the front, another thing which intrests me is that he was trying to create a lantern that would be beautiful, it looks like he accomplished it, I have many times examined the elegant lines of some of these lamps and admired them as a piece of art, check out his other patents, I own 4 variations of the six model and 2 of this model:

http://www.google.com/patents?id=Z_...&as_miny_is=1905&as_maxm_is=1&as_maxy_is=1920 , Id like to collect all the grethers if I can find them.

the number six: http://www.google.com/patents?id=dY...&as_miny_is=1905&as_maxm_is=1&as_maxy_is=1920

other grether patents: http://www.google.com/patents?q=gre...&as_miny_is=1905&as_maxm_is=1&as_maxy_is=1920

 

[captain smiley]

In reading some of mr. grether's patents it becomes clear that he was attempting to build the best lantern possible for his day, he imagines them being used to bash in windows and the like. There are some features in his lanterns I don't think ever made it in to production, look at some of his "safety" bulb holding mechanisims intended to break the circut and avoid sparks so as not to ignite gasses (It seems to me that this device would have produced the opposite effect)

Another important thing to note is that grether specified that white lead putty be used to seal the reflector to the body, and a copper and aspestose gasket between the lens and reflector, while I haven't found any of this white lead putty in any of my examples (probably crumbled and fell away over the last 90 years or so) these aspestose gaskets are most often still with the lamp and should be handled with caution if not simply thrown away.

It is wise to have the insides sandblasted out, these lamps almost always have battery acid caked inside them, but not just for that but any remaining lead putty. I had whole the body of one of mine blasted and it came out with an awesome finish that I decided to leave (before I planned to paint it) although the surface does catch dirt a little easier, a simple light scrubbing with a (preferably) brass fine wire brush will bring out a little more shine than when it was freshly blasted and it will get rid of hand prints and make the alluminum look nice again.