Tilley lamp
Pressurized kerosene lamps made by the Tilley company in the UK
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Tilley lamp is a kerosene pressure lamp.
History
In 1813, John Tilley invented the hydro-pneumatic blowpipe.[3] In 1818, William Henry Tilley, gas fitters, was manufacturing gas lamps in Stoke Newington, and, in the 1830s, in Shoreditch.[citation needed]
In 1846, Abraham Pineo Gesner invented coal oil, a substitute for whale oil for lighting, distilled from coal. Kerosene, made from petroleum, later became a popular lighting fuel. In 1853, most versions of the kerosene lamp were invented by Polish inventor and pharmacist Ignacy Łukasiewicz, in Lviv.[4][5][6][7] It was a significant improvement over lamps designed to burn vegetable or sperm oil.
On 23 September 1885, Carl Auer von Welsbach received a patent on the gas flame heated incandescent mantle light.[8]
In 1914, the Coleman Lantern, a similar pressure lamp was introduced by the US Coleman Company.[9][10][11]
In 1915, during World War I, the Tilley company moved to Brent Street in Hendon, and began developing a kerosene pressure lamp.[12]
In 1919, Tilley High-Pressure Gas Company started using kerosene as a fuel for lamps.[13]
In the 1920s, Tilley company got a contract to supply lamps to railways, and made domestic lamps.[12]
During World War II, Armed Forces purchased quantities of lamps, thus many sailors, soldiers and airmen used a Tilley Lamp.[12]
After World War II, demand for Tilley Lamps drove expansion to a second factory, in Cricklewood, then a third, merged, single factory in Colindale.[12]
The company moved to Northern Ireland in the early 1960s, finally settling in Belfast.[citation needed] It moved back to England in 2000.[14]
Competing lamps
- Aladdin Industries[15]
- Bat lamps[16]
- Bialaddin lamps[17]
- Coleman Company
- Fama lamps[18]
- Optimus lamps[19]
- Petromax
- Primus stove
- Solar lamps[20]
- Vapalux
- Veritas lamps[21]
See also
Further reading
- Jim Dick, A History of Tilley Lamps ISBN 0-646-39330-8
