Tubular Lanterns

Tubular lanterns use tubes connected to below the burner to force air up under the flame, which supplies the flame with more oxygen, and  creates a brighter flame. There are two types of tubular lantern, the hot blast and the cold blast.

 

The hot blast lantern was the first to be invented. I have a history of the invention of the tubular lantern on my American lanterns page, where the tubular lantern was invented. The hot air rising from the burner of the lantern directly exhausts into the tubes of the lantern, in taking fresh air with it. This is where the ‘hot blast’ term comes from. Air rising into the tubes, from the exhausting flame creates a draft to an air chamber around the burner of the lantern. The fresh air that has been brought into the lantern provides the oxygen to keep the lantern burning. This forced draft of air gives more oxygen to the burner, making the lantern burn brighter.

 

The cold blast came about in the 1890s, first made and produced by C.T. Ham Mfg. Co. A cold blast differs from the hot blast because the hot air rising is mostly exhausted from the lantern, instead of being forced through the tubes. Cold blast lanterns have an inner chimney where the exhausting air creates a draft that brings fresh cold air into the lantern through vents. This cold air is brought down to through the tubes and into an air chamber around the burner, the same as a hot blast. With the lantern getting almost entirely cold fresh air, the burner gets a lot more oxygen and burns hotter and brighter.

 

 The first tubular lantern in Canada was patented in 1872 by John Henry Stone, quite a lot later than the USA where the first tubular lantern was patented in 1867. By the mid 1880s, tubular lanterns were becoming popular with tinware manufacturers, with plenty of new names beginning to pop up. Because tubular lanterns burner so much brighter than dead flame lanterns (lanterns that only have a passive airflow through the lantern, such as railway or fixed globe lanterns), once the tubular lantern became available, pretty much everyone who needed a lantern got a tubular lantern.

 

In the 1890s, E.T. Wright & Co.  came out with their cold blast lantern. It was extremely similar to the C.T. Ham offering, from the US. So similar in fact it has caused many collectors to believe E.T. Wright bought their lanterns from Ham, which is not the case. The cold blast soon became the most popular offering for lanterns. Ontario Lantern Co. came out with their cold blast lantern in 1897, it was named the Royal Cold Blast. The Kemp Manufacturing Co. was quick to join the trend, coming out with their first lantern, the Kemp’s Cold Blast in 1899. In 1900, W.W. Chown & Co. followed suit, and released the Defiance. By 1900, there were 4 lantern manufacturers in Canada. In 1904, the Schultz Mfg. Co. joined them. Over time, one by one, the manufacturers started closing of being merged into each other, by 1933, there was only one manufacturer of tubular lanterns in Canada.