We all are well aware that humans can be strange, but when I saw these pictures on such a well-known online sales site, I was horrified. Let’s stop this madness.. may Primus stoves be proclaimed as protected species.
Yeah, I've seen my fair share of electrified lanterns and stoves turned into lanterns! It is a shame to see these kind of monstrosities. But alas. Heck Petromax even sells lanterns pre-electrified! https://petromax.com/products/ceiling-light-hk500-829-chrom
In my student days the biggest nightclub had a chilled out 'ski lodge' area with seating,where conversation was possible, away from the dance floors. Atmosphere was provided by a few electrified Petromaxes. I was probably the only one more distracted by the lamps than the young ladies.
I wont own one but what do you do with a stove with stress cracks? Life as a zombie lamp is still better than the melting pot
Argh! I guess it is better off as a lamp than in the trash. It does amaze me what some people do though - We live off grid and have been looking for years for a proper Singer Sewing machine treadle base to retrofit our Singer 66-16 onto. One used to be able to find them for ten bucks, not anymore! . . . . All the treadle bases have been turned into tables and sell for unheard-of prices! I'm sure the sewing machines that used to be mounted on them were thrown away. https://i.etsystatic.com/23983278/r/il/b37809/2959900733/il_794xN.2959900733_igp1.jpg
I think a lot of people don't know how to make these brass jewels work, so they turn them into something else. Just like other people who don't know how to use a Singer sewing machine. Perhaps it's better to repurpose rather than throwing away or destroying things we can't make a use of. But I think we could do more to inform the world about how these useful and fascinating objects could be maintained.
Over here in the UK at least, there is a big emphasis on recycling. We are encouraged to separate out recoverable materials - paper, glass, aluminium, steel, etc. from our rubbish and store it for separate collection. Trouble is, people think recycling is the first step and possibly feel quite righteous in doing their bit to save the planet (much like driving electric cars). But actually, recycling is probably the fourth and final link in the chain of re-use, repair, repurpose, recycle. In other words, it is closer to the last rather than the first resort. As some may know from my past posts, I frequent local house clearance type places and these days, when I see King Tat, he now GIVES me just about anything to do with Camping Gaz Bleuets and Lumogaz's. This week was a working lamp and a couple of spare cartridges (pierceable 200/206's). He doesn't feel sorry for me - just that if he tries to car boot them, he 'knows' no-one will want them or they will be so low value as to make them not worth trying to sell. So what can I do with something that hardly anybody wants? Answers on a postcard please. If we had had this discussion thirty or so years ago, we might have been saying similar about old brass pressure stoves and lamps. In a few years time we may be having the discussion about petrol and diesel vehicles. Perfectly usable items, already manufactured, destined for the scrap heap because they are perceived as outdated and dirty technology.
@Dean Stockpile them, I get the same thought wandering round car boot sales and seeing countless Camping Gaz items fail to sell for £1. One day, once the majority have been binned, they'll be desirable and valuable. Get in there at the start of the curve! As the generation who cut their camping teeth on little blue gas thingies get to an age when they have time, money and space for hobbies, and start getting sentimental, they will start to seek them out. Given that the heyday of Camping Gaz was 60s-80s the frenzy and value hike ought to be picking up by now...
@Blackdog Yes, that is my point - we have to go through binning the majority of them to make the small remainder seem to become desirable. Now if I was to find a way of converting them into modern day usable "upcycled" items, they still would have limited appeal because they are too run of the mill - but in 20 years time things may be different. I shall likely be dead or in some risk averse home somewhere, the shed will have exploded due to the storage of gas canisters and Hazel will have gleefully binned the lot of "all my carp"! Translate that to the original post - someone has made a nice job of upcycling an old brass stove; it wouldn't have occurred to them that it might have been especially rare or unusual but they saved it from the scrap man and possibly made a little cash for their labour. Value is in the head of the beholder - if it was one of only a handful of a specific model then the others of that model have just become a bit more rare.
Exactly. And yet despite following that approach assiduously I still hate to think of the quantity of stripped irreparable brass stove and blowlamp tanks and other assorted 'broken' parts that I have weighed in for scrap over the years Blowlamp tanks in particular at the time when they were being stripped en mass as a source of otherwise difficult to obtain parts to keep primus stoves running ...
A curious offshoot of electrification is this butane lamp I’m currently restoring, purchased from an online Tilley specialist, but certainly not by Tilley and is unbranded. Were it not for the conversion to electric light, it’s probable it would have been scrapped long ago, the vintage brass light bulb socket suggesting a 1960’s conversion date at the latest. Seller’s photos, next three. Well on the way to restoration, the control valve is intact. … now with the addition of a Tilley butane lamp riser tube to take a jet nipple and mantle support. I’ll be respraying the tank (traces of cherry red suggests the original colour) before re-gassing and running it. A measure of the scale of the lamp, alongside an Optimus 930 paraffin pressure lamp. John
Personally i hate seeing this type of upcycling, in many cases there is more value in the item as a collectable kept in original purpose. I can understand and sympathise if the collectable was damaged beyond repair, for instance if the tank had really bad stress cracks. I have seen quite a few TV programs where they have upcycled a item of sorts, and some of these items are collectables, and what irritates me more than anything is the fact they insist on keeping the patina and aged look, yet all the modifications they have done have by far took far more originality from the item. I must admit there are certain cases, where an item has no value or basically scrap rubbish then fair enough its great thing, these people really should do a lot more research in an item, to see what value or how collectable items are
Thankfully I get the feeling that the 'upcycling' fad, like a lot of things driven by TV and social media, is becoming 'so last year'. There was an endemic at a local auction house few years back with all manners of objects being entered for sale with lightbulbs or coathooks attached. Each week they would fail to sell to be re-entered next week at progressively lower prices, and each week the auctioneer would become more sarcastic in describing 'such highly original and artistic works'. A friend picked up a huge early Primus blowlamp, converted to a lamp but undamaged in the process. They paid less for it than the cost of the expensive decorative lightbulb, brass bulbholder and braided cloth wrapped flex. Then the auction house took their 20% cut on the hammer price. Not a viable get rich quick scheme
Exactly. Probably the person upcycling a vintage iten do not have the knowledge to judge it as "damaged beyond repair" . I have seen Petromax lamps in pristine conditions transformed in light abajours just because the artist in upcycling didn't know how to lite or operate it.
I'll come clean and admit I have electrified a Tilley floodlamp, I jumped at the chance as I knew I could make it reversible whereas others would likely drill holes and bin leftover original parts. It belonged to a friend of a friend and had local history connections. I tried to convince him to leave it alone, or restore it to running order, but it simply had to become a plug-in indoor decoration. I managed to fit a bulb in the appropriate place and made the pump handle activate a switch as per his requirements without modifying anything. The leftover original parts I labelled, bagged up, and slipped into the tank, writing their location on the back of the reflector. It could have been a lot worse....
Always a good mantra to aim to abide by and to judge whether or not to proceed, even in the case of ordinary restoration and refurb work.
I once saw an electrified x246b and I asked the stallholder about it, they said they'd originally tried to get it working but on taking it apart, found the font was rusted through, so decided to electrify it, if only to give another life. Said they'd repaired and got several other lanterns working properly, and that was the plan for this one until they found the rusted out font.They said they perferred to restore things to working condition but were unable to with this particular lantern. At least there are some out there who know the value of things like this. Tim
