Gas lights

[Speedwheel]

I can remember we used to have some gas lights on Belgium.

 

Can you still get them or does anyone have some?

 

Can you use them now with Boat Safety and are they safe?

[Laurence Hogg]

Falks still make gas lights, they do several types. Not available now in the UK to my knowledge, but easily imported from Canada. Had a couple on my old tug "Swallow". http://www.warehouseappliance.com/GasLamps.html

 

also http://www.gas-lights.com/interior.html

Edited February 18, 2010 by Laurence Hogg

[bag 'o' bones]

If pilot light water heaters, especially the flueless models are considered to be a no no by most I can't see how gas lights can treated any different.

 

Room sealed gas light anyone?

 

Having said that if you want gas lights go for it. I remember as a child listening to the hiss of gas lights in our family caravan - wonderful.

[ChrisPy]

I remember as a child listening to the hiss of gas lights in our family caravan - wonderful.

so do I.

 

 

 

 

.................... nostalgia ain't what it used to be

[dove]

If pilot light water heaters, especially the flueless models are considered to be a no no by most I can't see how gas lights can treated any different.

 

Room sealed gas light anyone?

 

Having said that if you want gas lights go for it. I remember as a child listening to the hiss of gas lights in our family caravan - wonderful.

 

Same as a gas oven/hob, naked flame, fumes in cabin space. What's the difference.

 

If you need more info contact the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway we have a Gas Light dept. for all station lighting.

 

Andrew

Edited February 19, 2010 by dove

[Derek R.]

Wot - no naked flames in a boat?

 

Sealed cabins will asphixiate with no flame needed - submariners have died this way.

 

We had a pair of gas lamps in 'old' Yarmouth, and they were wonderful. I fitted them, and got high commendation from the boat surveyor on the installation at the time. Since then, 'regulations' have appeared that would now 'legally' prevent me prevent from doing so. Yet we have had 'approved' fitters make repeated cock-ups leaving leaks on two occasions!

 

Those lamps are now in my 'shed', and only need plumbing in.

 

Are they safe? Are you safe?? Fitted correctly and used correctly I would say they are perfectly safe. In addition, their ability to ignite flammable airborn gas such as LPG leaking from another appliance is not probable, as they would be fitted high up unlike gas fridge pilots, and LPG being heavier than 'air', are least likely to cause ignition.

 

Only when changing a gas bottle should they be checked for being OFF, and relit after in the normal way.

 

The 'Be Back Later' forum has a section on gas lamps: HERE

 

Derek Reynolds

[koukouvagia]

I can remember we used to have some gas lights on Belgium.

 

Can you still get them or does anyone have some?

 

Can you use them now with Boat Safety and are they safe?

 

I don't see why correctly installed gas lamps shouldn't be perfectly safe. However, it's just one more thing to go wrong. I still remember my gran's cry of “mind the mantle” and later when I had a Tilley lamp the mantle always seemed to crumble away at the critical moment.

[Laurie Booth]

Oh please stop, all this brings back so many wonderful memories of caravaning in the 50's.

[Paul H]

Irrespective of what the BSC might have to say, I don't personally think they're suitable for boats and could be downright dangerous.

 

My old Bantock tug Hero (ex-Revenge) was entirely lit by gas. These lights burn brightly because they use mantles (like in Tilley lamps) which become extremely brittle and fragile with use.

 

After a days boating either the odd bump in a lock or, more likely, the thump of the JP2 meant it was not unusual to find one of the mantles having crumbled and fallen out either on the floor, or worse, the bed. This was annoying and expensive but the thought of this happening with a lit gas light used to worry the hell out of me.

 

Perhaps OK for a houseboat but not I think a cruising boat.

 

Paul

Edited February 19, 2010 by Paul H

[Chris Pink]

After a days boating either the odd bump in a lock or, more likely, the thump of the JP2 meant it was not unusual to find one of the mantles having crumbled and fallen out either on the floor, or worse, the bed. This was annoying and expensive but the thought of this happening with a lit gas light used to worry the hell out of me.

 

I used to get through mantles through vibration and shock but the solution is easy - don't light the gas lights while moving.

 

I did hear that if you spray them with something (forgotten, hairspray?) before use they became much less brittle.

[Laurie Booth]

I used to get through mantles through vibration and shock but the solution is easy - don't light the gas lights while moving.

 

I did hear that if you spray them with something (forgotten, hairspray?) before use they became much less brittle.

Hair spray is very flamable, I wouldn't use it.

[Chertsey]

If pilot light water heaters, especially the flueless models are considered to be a no no by most I can't see how gas lights can treated any different.

They're not considered a no no by most people, only a very few particularly nervous souls. Most boats probably have one and the BSS has no problem with them.

 

I remember being terrified by the gas lights on a caravan holiday as a child however, particularly, strangely, the mantles, because they were all broken and I had a phobia of broken things (I got better, fortunately). It all came back to me when we got the Tilley lamp going.

 

But gas lights on boats? Surely no boats would even have thought of having gas until, when, the sixties? By which time electric lighting was well established.

[Travis]

There's a boat moored not more than a couple of hundred yards of me which passed its BSC about a year ago. Two lovely gas lights in the main cabin. I remember the caravan hiss as well........

[alan_fincher]

Surely this is one to ask the BSS office about, if you were vaguely serious about the idea ?

 

Bizarrely Section 8 of the BSS guide is headed

 

"Cooking, heating, refrigerating and lighting appliances"

 

but seems to contain absolutely no relevant reference to "lighting".

 

A thought though - surely a gas lamp is a "continually burning device", so at the very least they would need some kind of flame failure device - is that feasible on a mantle light, I don't know ?

[Speedwheel]

Are you safe??

 

Absolutely not - and very proud of the fact.

 

 

Thanks for the replys all.

[Timleech]

But gas lights on boats? Surely no boats would even have thought of having gas until, when, the sixties? By which time electric lighting was well established.

 

I know one boat built in 1948 which had gas lighting from new, some fittings are still in place, no electrics.

The gas was almost certainly made on board.

An inland waterway craft, though not a Narrow boat.

 

Tim

[Mac of Cygnet]

I know one boat built in 1948 which had gas lighting from new, some fittings are still in place, no electrics.

The gas was almost certainly made on board.

An inland waterway craft, though not a Narrow boat.

 

Tim

 

What gas are we talking about here - presumably acetylene, if it was made on board?

[Timleech]

What gas are we talking about here - presumably acetylene, if it was made on board?

 

I think so, though the generator is long gone.

 

Tim

[Derek R.]

Hair spray is very flamable, I wouldn't use it.

 

Yes it is. The trick with hair spray, which is basically a polymer, is to coat a COLD mantle with something that will keep it rigid for transit. This is usually done to paraffin mantle lamps AFTER they have been first burnt off from new and are in that very fragile and breakable state. It only lasts until the next lighting, when the hair spray will be burnt off with the application of a match. There's no drama involved as the amount is so little, and the gas is flammable anyway.

 

One thing that should NEVER be attempted, is to spray any pressurised flammable material onto a hot or burning mantle - you will have a flame thrower - bye-bye boat.

 

Having said that, I have several Tilleys and a Vapalux that get rattled around and generally moved frequently with little mishap. I don't use any spray on them. Our gas mantles seldom broke through vibration. Siting may be instrumental, inasmuch as they might need to be placed in an area that recieves less (and at the time we had a wooden cabin which may have damped down resonance, and a four pot BMC at the other end to the lamps), also to be sure the mantle is free to 'move' on its three lugs in the holder. A tight mantle will fracture quicker than anything. Luckily my shed don't move.

 

Beware the unsafe Riches . . .

 

Derek Reynolds

[Derek R.]

I think so, though the generator is long gone.

 

Tim

 

Carbide is still available, and used by the 'Gaslight' brigade on Vintage and Veteran motorcycle runs. In general they use no mantle, but are simply a jet of a specific size which exudes the gas produced by dripping water at a set rate onto Carbide pellets in a 'generator'. Some of the smaller ones for bicycles were self contained, the larger for motorcycles and maybe cars had generators supplying the gas through tubing (also still available). There is a very nice table lamp shown HERE, though I've never heard of such lamps being used on boats - the faithful wick lamp being simple and 'explosion' free! Many a fine set of whiskers have been sacrificed in lighting the lamps! Cannot see the burning arrangement on that table lamp, but suspect it to be a fan shaped jet.

 

Derek Reynolds.

 

PS Looking further into the Carbide table lamp description: It seems they were a stop-gap solution to fuel shortages post WW1, and utilised existing shades and brackets from a wick lamp. A look at Christer Carlsson's avatar shows what a carbide flame would look like. In this case one flame from two rightangled jets.

Edited February 21, 2010 by Derek R.