66 BULLETIN 141, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



shows much use, comes from the same locality and collector (4.7 

 inches (12 cm.) high). Figure 15 is a heavy cast-brass lamp for the 

 table. (Cat. No. 290443, United States; Mrs. C. E. Bates; 8.3 inches 

 (21 cm.) high.) A similar heavy cast-brass old specimen of hand 

 and table two-tube lamp (fig. 18) is from the same locality and col- 

 lector. (Cat, No. 290444, 5.9 inches (15 cm.) high.) A hand and 

 table two-tube lamp of pewter is shown in Figure 17. (Cat. No. 

 30572, United States; Miss H. A. Foster; 5.9 inches (15 cm.) high.) 

 Figure 21 is an old gimbel lamp sconce used on the New London 

 whaling fleet many years ago. The lamp was designed for all con- 

 ditions for carrying in the hand, hung against the partition, and to 

 care for all sorts of sea motions. (Cat. No. 75467, New London, 

 Conn.; J. T. Brown; 5.5 inches (14 cm.) high.) In 1842 a patent 

 was granted on a two-tube lard-oil lamp (fig. 16). The reservoir 

 of the lamp was filled with a tube plunger bearing at the top the 

 two-tube burner. In the tube two copper strips reached down to the 

 oil, transmitting the heat from the burner to heat the oil. (Cat. No. 

 207821, Berks County, Pa.; Henry D. Paxson; 5.9 inches (15 cm.) 

 high.) The original patent models are also in the collection. The 

 latest of the two-wick tube lamps is a small hand lamp of gilt 

 brass (fig. 19) filled partly with cotton to absorb the oil and prevent 

 its spilling. Apparently coal oil was burned in this lamp. Collected 

 in Washington, D. C, 1888. (Cat. No. 73385, District of Columbia; 

 Otis T. Mason; 2.4 inches (6 cm.) high.) An interesting reading 

 lamp not uncommon in collections is Plate 60, Figure 1. It is for lard 

 or whale oil and has two wick tubes. Two lenses having hoods are 

 set in sockets at the sides of the reservoir. (Cat. No. 178633, England ; 

 Ira F. Harris; 8.7 inches (22 cm.) high.) 



Glass lamps were much valued in the older days and many of them 

 have done service under the several burners demanded by different 

 lamp fuels. The glass-lamp series normally have two tubes for burn- 

 ing whale oil earlier and lard oil later. In many cases the base is 

 of pressed glass and the reservoir blown glass, the two being neatly 

 joined. It appears that in the earlier examples the burner was set 

 in cork and thus put in the opening of the reservoir. Later collars 

 of pewter with threading were set on with cement, a method which 

 has never been superseded. Figure 2, Plate 61«, has a blown-glass 

 reservoir and pressed base. (Cat. No. 300541, United States; William 

 Palmer; 7.1 inches (18 cm.) high.) Figure 4 has a cork shod burner, 

 a pressed-glass base, and pear-shape blown reservoir. (Cat. No. 

 316030, United States; Kendrick Scofield; 11.9 inches (30 cm.) high.) 

 Figure 6 answers to the same description. It has been stated that at 

 times the blown reservoirs were imported from England and the 

 bases added in America, but there is no exact authority for this con- 



