Lanternist's lamp: ether burner.
Category
Photographic technology
Date
1800 - 1900
Materials
Measurements
207 x 220 x 115 mm
Order this imageCollection
Fox Talbot Museum, Wiltshire
NT 1525190
Summary
Lanternist's lamp: ether burner. (Described in BFI index as a pressurised spirit burner) The whole is mounted on a metal plate which as been bent to slide into the lantern. There is a finger grip to pull the lamp from the lantern and the lamp height above the base is managed by a screw and collar on a post from the base. The lamp is a brass construction consisting a rectangular reservoir, the feed pipe exits from the bottom of the tankand passes to the front of the lamp where the pipe work becomes vertical. At the top the pipework reduces in diameter and passes back down to the burner which is constructed so that the brass burner and the incandescent mantle coated with rare earth would warm the last portion of pipework increasing the pressure of the evaporated spirit and increasing the effectiveness of the lamp.
Provenance
Part of the Fenton Collection. A gift from British Film Institute in 2017. From 1986-1999, part of BFI collection for the Museum of the Moving Image. BFI purchased collection in 1986 from James Fenton's Museum of Photography, Port Erin, Isle of Man 1976-1986