E.T. Wright & Co. No.11 Grand Trunk Railway

This lantern was the first model of wire bottom from E.T. Wright. A wire bottom is a lantern with the base using vertical wires attached to a circular base, not a solid rounded bottom like bell bottoms. The No.11 came out in 1905. E.T. Wright claimed it to be stronger and better than their bell bottom lanterns. The No.11 also had a twist off fount, which meant the fount slid on the bottom of the lantern and twisted to lock it in place. Twist off lanterns were quite common for the era, it wasn’t until later that the drop in fount would take over. Drop in founts had fuel pots that were put inside the lantern from the top. The downside to the drop in fount was the globe had to be taken out and it took a little longer to take it out and in. The upside was there was no chance of the fount slipping off while being used. That can rare happen with bell bottom or twist off founts.

This lantern has a glass fount, these were used because some oils back then had a habit of corroding metals. Grand trunk ordered many lanterns with glass founts, these No.11 E.T. Wright lanterns are commonly found with glass founts. Generally, a glass fount wasn’t used much into the 1900s, so it’s rather unique to still see these lanterns with them. This lantern is in excellent condition with tinning still on the body and no pitting on the lid or fount. E.T. Wright used a few different methods of tin plating their railway lanterns, so they can often be fount with varying amounts of tin plating still intact. Tin plating was used as a rust preventative on lanterns.