FLAME SPREADER DESIGN HEATERS
 A CENTURY OF EXCELLENCE

Robert E. Dietz submitted the first patent for a flat wick lantern burning the new "coal oil" in 1857.   Production of the lamps begin in 1859.  Dietz was not just an inventor - he was one of the first environmentalists.   Prior to his new flat wick lamps, lamps burned whale oil.  Whale oil lamps were smelly and smoked a lot, and the light output was poor.   Dietz could also see there was a infinite supply of coal, a rather finite supply of whale oil, and getting the whale oil was rather rough on the whales.  Within a few years, the whaling industry took a hit and more whales survived, while at the same time home lighting was vastly improved.

But flat wick lamps and lanterns have a problem: turn the wick up higher for more light, and they admit insufficient oxygen for proper combustion and begin smoking. About 1880 the flame spreader was invented for use in circular, center-draft worsted woven wick lamps.  This development introduced oxygen to both the inside and outside of the wick, resulting in considerably greater efficiency when a properly designed flame spreader was inserted into the center draft tube.

Quite the opposite from a flat wick, the flame spreader type lamps mandated that the heat output be maintained at a high rate so the flame spreader itself was heated sufficiently to burn all the various liberated hydrocarbon products (coal oil), and turning them down caused in incomplete combustion process. All this was before the discovery of kerosene as a petroleum byproduct. The oil companies did their best to imitate coal oil with a product they called kerosene so they could have a market share in an already established market.  Good marketing strategy, but Low Odor Mineral Spirits still burn cleaner and brighter in flame spreader lamps and heaters.

Beginning in the early 1880's, circular wick lamps were produced in great quantities in the area around Meridan, Conn, by Bradley & Hubbard, Plume & Atwood, and many other companies.  In 1888, the Perfection company began producing center draft, flame spreader lamps at their Cleveland Foundry.  In 1894, Perfection basically scaled up their lamps to use a 2 9/16" diameter wick, put the fount in a housing, and began selling portable space heaters using their new "500" wick, although the name "Perfection" was not used until 1901.

Work on flame spreader lamps and heaters was also taking place in Europe.  In France, a beautiful series of Kosmos lamps were designed in the late 1880's; the equipment to make them using a modified water wheel was manufactured in Brooklyn, and is still in use today in the South of France.  In England, Valor and Beatrice were producing very fine parlor heaters, most using a variation of the 1 1/2" center-draft wick used in B&H and P&A lamps, although Valor did produce a virtual clone of the Perfection 500 heater.  Photos of some of those Valor and Beatrice heaters from my collection are shown below.

To reiterate, flame spreader lamps and heaters must be burned at a very high heat setting so that the flame spreader is sufficiently heated to complete the combustion process;  turn them down to an "idle" setting, and they will produce a distinct aroma.

Flame spreaders from the smallest to the largest, from left to right:  Kosmos #15; P&A Royal; B&H; Beatrice 4012; Valor 420 Parlor Stove; and a Perfection 730. Click photo to enlarge.

 

 

Parker lamp gallery circa 1881

Beatrice 4120 gallery circa 1920's

Valor 420 gallery circa 1982

Perfection gallery circa 1970's

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Note the similarity of the design of the flame spreader galleries shown above, covering a period of at least a century.  The original designs from the early 1880's worked, with only one significant change:  the Perfection flame spreader was designed to raise and lower; when the wick was lowered, the lip on the flame spreader put out the flame. Other flame spreader designs were removable, but stationary.

 

Note the similarity of design - the English Beatrice on the left uses a 1 1/2" wick, while the Perfection 730 on the right uses the standard 2 9/16" Perfection 500 wick.  Both are hinged and open the same way, although the Beatrice has a built-in fuel tank and the Perfection font is removable. The Beatrice is essentially a small Perfection!

 

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The wick design concept was extremely similar, differing only in size.  The Perfection 500 wick shown on the left is 2 9/16" in diameter, whereas the wicks used in the Beatrice 4012 and Valor Valmin are 1 1/2" in diameter, the wicks fitting inside steel sleeves with slots to engage the ratchet teeth to move the wick up and down as needed.  The wick on the right in this photo is the Valor Valmin wick; the Beatrice 4012 wick holder is virtually identical, but not interchangeable.

Some of the older center draft wicks are becoming difficult to find.  Then one must be a little creative.  For example, for the past several years the Valor Valmin wick was in short supply. My previous models were a very rigid wick, with what looked like an inner core of thick cardboard, to which a metal "ladder" had been attached to engage the wick raising ratchet gear.  There was no way that wick could be home made or modified from anything else.  The last small batch of Valmin wicks I received, however, were made just like the originals over a hundred years ago - still a stiff wick, but inside a steel sleeve. 

Old style Valor Valmin wick shown on left, with wick raising attachment applied to the side of the wick.  Newer style Valmin wick with the wick within a steel sleeve, shown on the right.  The wick is held in the steel sleeve with two rivets, one on each side, shown near the bottom of the sleeve at the right side, on the photo at right.

Now I had something with which to work.  I ground off the rivet heads, removed the rivets, and then removed the stiff inner brand new wick.  Then I drilled a 1/8" hole in the steel sleeve close to the hole already present for the rivet.  The next step was to insert a 1 1/2" Beatrice 4012 center draft circular wick in the sleeve, and sew it in place through the holes on each side of the steel sleeve, with the same amount of wick projecting as shown on the original wick in the photo above right.  It works perfectly!  Previously, many Valor heaters using the Valmin wick sat unused, or were discarded, because new wicks with the ladder arrangement (as shown above left) were simply not available.  But Beatrice 4012 center draft wicks will always be with us, they are precisely the same diameter as the Valmin wick, and the steel sleeve will last virtually forever.  My Valor 420 (shown) below has been in use 16 hours a day for weeks heating my office, burning perfectly, cleanly, with no aroma, with a Beatrice 4012 wick sewn into the steel Valmin wick sleeve.   This little trick could keep many fine heaters in operation for another hundred years!

Valor 420

Valor 420 with front panel removed

Beatrice 4012

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KEEP LARGE OLD HEATERS WORKING!  

There were many large heaters such as the Valor made with a 2 3/4" (7cm) steel carrier (below, right) holding a 2 9/16" wick, and the carrier with wick is no longer available.  You can keep that old Valor in operation by sewing a new wick into your old carrier!  When measured flat, wick is approx 4 3/16" wide and 8 1/2" long (see below, left).  Wick is pre-charred and ready to install.  Wick specially made for me by Hattersley in England.  Wick #5L is available on the Lamp Wick page.  Click on photos to enlarge.

 

At right are two Handlan #30 Caboose lamps.  They are unusual, being made from heavy gauge galvanized steel, as shown on the right hand lamp. I have restored the lamp on the left and it is burning for perhaps the first time in half a century.  The 6" diameter, circular fount has a cylindrical insert for the wick, and the space between is filled with a rope batting which prevents the fuel from sloshing when the train was moving.  P&A made the special gallery assemblies for Handlan, with the wick raising gearing in the gallery, whereas almost all other lamps have the wick raising system in the fount itself.  These lamps produce virtually as much heat as the Valor and Beatrice heaters shown above (all have 1 1/2" diameter wicks and flame spreaders), so they would provide heat in the caboose as well as light, and can burn for over 12 hours per tank full.

This page is a work in progress and will be completed as I find the time.  I can only photograph items which I own, and I'm trying not to overload this page with too many photos of different heaters and lamps while still illustrating the extreme similarity in the basic design concepts.

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