Well, new to me! Bought from an autojumble on the weekend for £20.
New mantle, filled up with paraffin and fired her up, beautiful, bright lantern that puts my Coleman Northstar duel fuel to shame!
Having to pre-heat these type of lanterns is not for most people but once lit they give off a lovely light for outside, not something that can be recreated with led ect. I believe the lantern was made between 1945-1970ish. Will have to post a pic up when I get chance.
Yep, they are a lovely lantern, Father-in-law gave me his a couple of years back, it had been gathering dust in his garage for 40 odd years.
Cost me around £30 to bring it back to life, including new glass.
BaseCamp do a service kit for all the rubber seals etc.
Sadly FiL passed away last March at 86, so the lantern is now even more special.
It's a Bialladin 300X so same as Vapalux, which are now being made in Korea to a very high standard, new price is around £140 so I guess you got a bargain.
I run mine on Paraffin Extra which has almost no odour, nice to have such a lantern, especially to show the kids, who are always agog when they see it Glowing.
Even in this modern age, there is nothing else that can give as nice a Glow as a Parrafin Pressure lantern.
Yes been reading up on them the last few days and the company history, very interesting reading. I believe they supplied the army with these from 1938-2010, so they must be good pieces of kit and not just 'built to a price', or so the expert's who collect them tell me.
To buy the same one as mine now (M1) would cost £172.00, so yes £20.00 is a bloody good price! Wish I had picked the other one up next to it now as well! Vapalux M1B
We take 2 with us whenever we camp. Brilliant light in all senses of the word. Even keeps the tent toasty on cold evenings. Not really any good if you've got young children around but otherwise peerless.
Quick tip, use a fueller bottle to store and fill the meths tray...
I'm sure I've posted these photos on here before, but any excuse to do so again.
Before
After
Love that glow!
p.s. the Optimus 45 stove in photo #2 had been used earlier in cooking the dinner and I added it to the photo purely for the effect of the golden brass colour.
Liking that stove spudz, does it get much use whilst your camping? Really getting a taste for all things retro lately. I've just bought a swan 3 pan thing off the bay last week for my set up. The older things just seem better made by miles and miles!
A day of all things motorhome and campervan. The show is held both in the main indoor arena and across the grounds. Catering, hot drinks and food options are available. Easy access to the site and free parking included. Win one of five pairs of day tickets
Topic: New Vapalux lantern - Very impressed!
