Tilley lamp

The Tilley lamp is a kerosene pressure lamp.

Tilley storm lantern X246B May 1978: this model has been in production since 1964.

Operation of a Tilley lamp (Video)

Large Tilley radiator R55 from 1957^[1]

Tilley Lamp TL10 from 1922-1946^[2]

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.^{[citation needed]}

Competing lamps

• Aladdin Industries^[14]
• Bat lamps^[15]
• Bialaddin lamps^[16]
• Coleman Company
• Fama lamps^[17]
• Optimus lamps^[18]
• Petromax
• Primus stove
• Solar lamps^[19]
• Vapalux
• Veritas lamps^[20]

See also

• Davy lamp
• Naphtha flare

Further reading

• Jim Dick, A History of Tilley Lamps ISBN 0-646-39330-8