Picked up one of these yesterday, cheap on gumtree!

lamp1 by Tom Griffiths, on Flickr


Having never lit one, I was surprised at this scenario; I'm no expert but was quite sure the flame should be the other side of the glass:
lamp2 by Tom Griffiths, on Flickr


So naturally I had to take it apart.... lol...

Some tinkering, O-rings and mouthfuls of petrol later,
lamp3 by Tom Griffiths, on Flickr


Great success!

I'm surprised at how bright it is, even after damaging one of the mantles whilst reassembling it!

 

these mantles still available?was given a lamp same as this a few years ago with a damaged mantle but never got around to fixing it.

Looks like a 285 Coleman? These require a ‘sock’ style mantle rather than the more traditional round type mantle as the round mantles would interfere with the vapouriser / generator, I do use the round mantles for testing as they are generally far cheaper than the Coleman originals. The correct mantle would be a Coleman #21 string tie mantle, cheaper ones may be available but if they were genuine Coleman mantles I’d expect them to be around £2 each.

Top tip is run it on panel wipe, can’t remember which one but I’ll look into it for you. It is more expensive than petrol however it is chepaer than Coleman fuel, it burns brighter, whiter, doesn’t have the yellowish hue of petrol and as it is cleaner it doesn’t gunk up the generator, I had a ‘Mil-Spec Coleman’ at the pit and it burned as white as a paraffin lantern.

Another tip is don’t store fuel in it when not in use, the recommended is over a week as the tanks are steel on these and are prone to rusting on the inside if left with fuel over a long period, I normally empty them out and leave the fuel cap off the valve fully open when not in use for a while.

These shouldn’t really be called Tilley lanterns as Tilley is a seperate brand of lantern all together, however here in Blighty we seem to call all camping Lanterns ‘Tilleys’, which is a mahoosive PITA when people are buying spares from you and they have no clue of what they have - it’s a bit like all vacuum cleaners seem to be now known as hoovers.

these mantles still available?was given a lamp same as this a few years ago with a damaged mantle but never got around to fixing it.

Let me know which lamp you have, put some pictures up or soemthong like that and I’ll try and help you out.

I like the Northstar, it’s a nice lantern but can be a bit pricey and they are a doddle to light however if buying second hand make sure that the ignitor is present and working otherwise it is around £20 to replace.

All I never really go for the Tilley branded lanterns, generally my go to lanterns are (in the following order)
Petromax 829, gives loads of light and with the rapid pre-heater means not faffing with a meths pre heater - if buying one go for a pre 1990 one as they are known to be a lot better quality - currently looking for a Bundeswehr model to add to the collection.
Milspec Coleman, it’s Walty and nice. The funnel and cap are chained to the lamp so no loosing them and there is a spares compartment on the lantern too so no searching for mantles or other stuff.
Coleman 201, nice little lamp and one of the few Colemans that runs on Paraffin (or Kerosene as it’s an American lamp)
Vapalux 320 - British military issue paraffin lamp, don’t really need to say anymore!

Only thing I would say about Colemans is that sometime the spares can be pricey as you may not be able to get them in the UK, should be OK with the Northstar and other recent models (like that above) though I do have a few older models that are out of service due to lack of spares in the UK and I’m currently putting an order together with Old Coleman Spares -  I suppose you could say that about a lot of obsolete stuff

Be careful what you run it on as differing fluids have different burn temps and can cause damage to the vapouriser and go bang.

I've got four Vapalux lamps - on military and thee civi versions. They are great but you do have to mess about and pre-heat them with meths, but its all part of the fun. The best bit is they were all made in Halifax - that is until the whole factory was sadly sold to Korea, where they are still made to the same pattern.

http://vapalux.com/index.html

I've a torch, it doesn't burn my tent down and works with the click of a button.

Ah, but it doesn't make a satisfying hissing noise at the same time as providing illumination!

I got one of these off of ebay sometime ago; it had a broken globe which was easily replaced;

the only real problem I have with them is they don't like to travel in a landy ; the mantles are too fragile once pre burnt .

Coupled to the fact I keep going to places where it doesn't get dark and the fact I bought the LED version It now stays at home only venturing outside for a bbq