Nonelectrical flame type lights

I have noticed this website seems aimed at battery powered or hand cranking generator powered lights. I know older cars used oil lamps and miners used carbide lamps. Has anyone any experience with them, is their a sister website, are they any brighter than battery powered lights, etc?

Just wondering after seeing how bright the flame from a bic lighter is one dark night.

Nothing? No carbide lamp collectors? No one trying to over drive, making better optics, reflectors, etc? No nitrous modifications or a light that burns on garbage?

Years ago I stumbled across a website belonging to a spelunker. There was a section of Q&A about obtaining the calcium carbide needed to run an acetylene (carbide) lamp.

Carbide is listed as hazardous materials, and shipping is horrendous.

This was long before there were ANY LED flashlights.

I would guess that carbide lamps, with their fire hazard, and difficulty obtaining calcium carbide, have all but dissapeared, since high quality, reliable, and long running LED headlamps and flashlights are now so easy to obtain.

One of my college roommates had a carbide lamp; he used it for his brand of fun: winter camping. (I can't believe he used to ENJOY that, I hate winter. Winter in a TENT? Just kill me now....)

He had a good sized can of carbide, and we used to fill various things with acetylene, and ignight it.

The lamp was top of the line, using a flint wheel for ignition, and having a chrome plated reflector. The lamp was all brass. It didn't seem all that bright to me, but I never saw it with dark adapted eyes. I was more interested in capturing acetylene in plastic bags, etc.

I wish I could get a nice carbide lamp, and several pounds of carbide. Nice toy for long winter nights. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

i got a Oil or kerosine lamp all ready to go for , hot romatic nights, or emergencies.
BUT
since i learnt how to make a LED light THANKS to the people at CPF, it doesnt get used for emergencies.
i dont even have any normal candles anymore, just 5mm leds.

Oh, I did not know it was dangerous to ship. I use to get those catalogs for old nonelectrical appliances and what not and they almost always had a can of fuel and a lamp to ship, although I do not remember the shipping charges or method. I know with my job e heater the fuel was shipped ground.

Now my folks do have some oil lamps they use in a power outage too, but they are just a flood area lamp, no lense or anything.

well my oil lamp has a back reflector, which i tried to modify into a 20* throw. and increase the air intake, and balance the wick out, and test various fules and Scents in it.
but it only made me realize how little they had to work with in 1820

$12.50 shipped for 1lb of calcium carbide:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=1406&item=6171107518&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

I've a carbide lamp. It's sitting in the closet and I haven't played with it ages, so I can't really give a review of its light. If nothing else you can use it to light a cigarette.

Then there is always the coleman lanterns and propane lanterns using fuel. I have a coleman unleaded lantern sitting in the garage. With all my fluorescent and LED lights I don't think I will use it but maybe in the winter during an outage for the heat it makes along with light. At $2 a gallon rechargable batteries are a lot cheaper to mess with in the long run.

Had a small (helmet mount type with flint wheel) carbide lamp 35-40 years ago (I was about 10-15)... Played with it quite a bit and went through a couple of pounds of calcium carbide too.

It was fun to use, but a pain to keep running well.
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[*]The carbide gets hot when water is applied (sometimes too hot to hold the lamp base in your hand)
[*]If you add too much water (small lever on the top of the lamp adjusts the drip rate into the carbide reservoir), acetylene gas bubbles back up through the water reservoir.
[*]The gas jet (where the flame comes out) gets plugged often.
[*]You have a mess to clean up every time you use the lamp. You have to dump the old carbide, be very careful to dry the lamp's carbide holder before you put new carbide into it.
[*]Make sure you have dry hands before you handle the carbide or you can burn yourself.
[/list]

In the end, while the carbide lamp gave pretty good light (sort of like a yellowish mag light--with a standard bulb) and hours of use (4-8 hours????--the advent of LEDs and cheap AA batteries (and rechargeable batteries) have rightfully (IMHO) displaced the difficult to maintain (and high fire hazard) carbide lamp.

Anyone remember the "carbide cannons" (small cannon cast in aluminum that you would dump a small amount of carbide/water in and light with a flint wheel? Those where fun too.

-Bill

The standard Coleman white gas camping lantern with the silk mantles can put out a surprising amount of light, but for all of the inconveniences of dealing with pressurized liquid fuel, heat and dangerous emissions, I think the various modern battery powered options are more practical and economical for virtually any use.

Of course for those who live "off the grid" or survivalists, I guess they use oil lamps or whatever. Maybe a website catering to those interests would be helpful.

Thanks for the input. I had no idea the carbide lamps were that difficult to work and care for. Makes an led light with a lithium battery seem like something from the future.