Burn & Robinson Mfg. Co.

Burn & Robinson Mfg. Co. was formed when Walter S. Burn and William A. Robinson took over the J.H. Stone & Co. business in 1885. Robinson had previously worked with J.H. Stone at another company, which is the reason why he was one of the two to take over the business. It was in 1885 that they recruited the tinsmith Ernest Schultz. Schultz soon became the superintendent of the firm, and was responsible for many of the designs and patents produced by Burn & Robinson.

In 1886, B&R came out with the “Burn & Robinson Improved Lift Lantern” based off a new patent Ernest had gotten. This would become one of the most popular lanterns in Canada and a design that would be used by makers for another 10 years. The main feature of this lantern was a pull ring on top of the lantern that you could raise with your thumb while holding the bail.

Along with the B&R Improved, the company also produced a 00 small lantern which used some of the J.H. Stone tooling left over from the old company. Along with the lanterns, the firm also produced a large assortment of tinware, and other items such as milk cans.

Walter Burn and His Brother

In 1890, Walter S. Burn took over the company, and renamed it to the Burn Lantern Co. Walter would soon after go on to join his brother, William, in Detroit, Michigan, working for the Buhl Stamping Co. Buhl started making tubular lanterns in 1887, when William Burn moed to Detroit and started working there. William and Walter worked together sharing designs and ideas between each other before Walter decided to move to Detroit to be with his brother in 1891. Presumably because there was more profit to be made at the much larger Buhl Stamping Company.