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Alcohol Mantle Lamps is Book 8 of our Non-Electric Lighting Series. Unfortunately, when we get to alcohol lamps, the term conjures up a vision of a lab-type lamp with a small wick and almost invisible flame. Alcohol MANTLE lamps, the subject of this book, are a different animal altogether. Lanterns that use mantles produce light on par with electric light bulbs.
In France, Tito-Landi (brand) alcohol-burning mantle lamps (producing 100+ watts-worth of light) were produced from before World War One until the 1970’s. There was nothing comparable in the USA. We lived in the shadow of Standard Oil and General Motors.
As a lamp fuel, alcohol has some advantages over petroleum-based fuels.
For one thing, alcohol does not degrade in storage. For another, alcohol produces less carbon monoxide than ANY petroleum-based fuel making it a better choice for indoor use. Third, in an emergency situation, alcohol (as lamp fuel) can supply a solution that most people are not aware even exists. You can pick up some 91% rubbing alcohol while others are searching for propane cylinders. (Although you do need the appropriate lantern. You cannot just dump alcohol in your Coleman and burn it.)
Lastly, alcohol is perhaps the ultimate survival fuel. In Europe, World War Two saw many restrictions on petroleum products. So farmers made what was essentially high-proof moonshine and burned it in their lanterns. Primus (a Swedish brand of lantern similar to Coleman) even introduced a lineup of alcohol-burning models.
Unfortunately, Primus alcohol-burning lanterns are expensive collectibles today. On the upside, this book shows how to convert three relatively common gas-burning mantle lanterns to alcohol.
This is hard info to come by in the USA. I was in contact with several European collectors while writing this book. It’s info that, at the very least, you should have tucked away for future reference. Are you interested in prepping? This is prepping.
Alcohol Mantle Lamps contains 11,000 words, 85 B&W illustrations, and is 87 pages long. It’s available in Kindle eBook format as well as paper.
This is an 8-book series. The quickest way to see the other titles is [1] to click on the Follow the Author link elsewhere on this page. Or [2] if you’re not in Amazon as you read this, copy-and-paste the non-electric lighting series (including the quote marks) into the Google search bar.
