Nostalgia & History > Cool old lantern

I've never had an interest in collecting lanterns but the other day I was surfing Ebay, looking for something completely unrelated, when I, inadvertently, stumbled across this very cool and unusual electric switchman's lantern. It's a copper plated brass Genesy lantern which, as it turns out, dates to 1921! Considering that some roads were still using kerosene lanterns into the 1970's I was surprised. It hadn't occurred to me that they even had battery powered switch lanterns that early. It was heavily tarnished and had quite a bit of corrosion on it. In a few spots, the copper plating has worn off. I buffed out what I could and bead-blasted the worst of it. I had to make a couple replacement contact pieces that had corroded away and re-rivet the contact plate but I managed to get it working. The lens can be slid up and down on the guides to focus the light into a beam or spread out into a flood. Notice that it's a little larger than a modern lantern, almost the size of a kerosene lantern. For some reason, nobody else bid on it so I got it for a mere $25!

1) Lantern as I got it.

2) Top of lantern showing some of the plating corroded away.

3) Size comparison with more modern lantern.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/24/15 23:26 by crackerjackhoghead.

---

---

---

4) Size comparison with kerosene lantern.

5) Contact plate with heavy corosion and missing parts.

6) Contact plate after bead-blasting and riveting new contact on.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/25/15 11:26 by crackerjackhoghead.

---

---

---

7) Hey it works!
 

---

Neat!  What type of battery/batteries?

Marty Bernard

MartyBernard Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Neat!  What type of battery/batteries?
>
> Marty Bernard

 It takes the same 6 volt that the modern ones use.

What a beauty ! Good work !

Don't think I've ever seen one like that.   Nice restoration job.

When I posted a picture of my secondary clock someone on here made me an offer on it and I'll make you the same.  If you want to double the money you paid for it let me know.  Just think, a 100% profit!  Seriously, that is a very "Cool Old Lantern".  Thanks for sharing.

crackerjackhoghead Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I've never had an interest in collecting lanterns
> but the other day I was surfing Ebay, looking for
> something completely unrelated, when I,
> inadvertently, stumbled across this very cool and
> unusual electric switchman's lantern. It's a
> copper plated brass Genesy lantern which, as it
> turns out, dates to 1921! Considering that some
> roads were still using kerosene lanterns into the
> 1970's I was surprised. It hadn't occurred to me
> that they even had battery powered switch lanterns
> that early. It was heavily tarnished and had quite
> a bit of corrosion on it. In a few spots, the
> copper plating has worn off. I buffed out what I
> could and bead-blasted the worst of it. I had to
> make a couple replacement contact pieces that had
> corroded away and re-rivet the contact plate but I
> managed to get it working. The lens can be slid up
> and down on the guides to focus the light into a
> beam or spread out into a flood. Notice that it's
> a little larger than a modern lantern, almost the
> size of a kerosene lantern. For some reason,
> nobody else bid on it so I got it for a mere $25!
>
> 1) Lantern as I got it.
>
> 2) Top of lantern showing some of the plating
> corroded away.
>
> 3) Size comparison with more modern lantern.


being born in '55 i only remember pop having the type of lantern on the left in photo 3 ...

Very nice work there.

Collecting lanters is a disease that can only be treated (but never cured) by collecting more lanterns.

Hi Jeff, another top quality job !
Tom