1904 Banner

This banner has a neat history. In 1904 OL&L originally intended to keep with the design they were using, however a devastating fire ripped through the factory. It severely damaged the brass works of the factory, but thankfully did not affect the lantern production area too much. That meant the tooling for the brass plates they affixed to the top of the lanterns since 1901 were gone. OL&L also had to switch to plain tubes, without the detailing they had before. They also came up with the circular logo on the chimney of the lanterns. 

The Circular logo was short lived however, in 1905 OL&L went through a total redesign of the Banner lanterns. With that came the classic Banner Flag logo they kept until they stopped producing lanterns. The redesign also meant getting rid of the fancy detailing and E.T. Wright styled vents in the chimney. Which means this1904 model Mark’s the last year of production for many of the original banner lantern designs.

This lantern is a nice example of the 1904 model, but has a few problems. It was a fun restoration project. There was a puncture in the lower tube left of the burner, where the bail connects to the tube was ripped severely so I had to repair that too. It also appears that a mouse found a way to live in the fount, it was entirely filled with pine cone bits, lint, and other stuff. Sadly that also means the bottom has quite a few holes.