Pre-1912, Evolutionary, Experimental, Small-production & Inventor-led

This page has resulted from the realisation that in the early years until about 1912, many lamps were produced professionally, not as proto-types but as small productions, often led by the inventor as lamps were being experimented with. They were not produced by the recognised major players and many of these lamps have passed into obscurity and some that have surfaced, may never be identified. The lamps on this page deserve to be recognised, not as unidentified, but as belonging to this evolutionary period.

Unidentified Pennsylvania pressure lamp, c.1908–1912.

This lamp has no markings. The lamp lacks a shade, a burner tube and burner cap (3rd image from top), and likely had a cap on the Schrader valve (bottom image). The lamp has a number of unusual parts suggestive of the evolutionary, experimental period (abt 1906 to 1912) including a donut-shaped mixing chamber casting that surrounds the generator. The lamp appears to be match lighting. Loren Abernathy, whose collection this lamp is in, bought it in an online auction from Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, in 2003.