Mantle making [INDEX: TECHNICAL]
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please help! [INDEX: Technical: Mantles]
by christopher curtin (curtin@mail.utexas.edu)
Posted: July 14, 1998 @ 01:08.
Date: Sun, 28 Jun 1998 22:47
Fil:
It is truly good to know that there are resources such as
this. My
name is Christopher Curtin, and although I am not a member of the
guild
(yet), I am hoping to elicit a bit of information, if you don't
mind. I'm
a visual artist currently based in Austin, Texas, and am working on
a piece
that will entail me building a device very similar to that of a
mantle-burner type lamp. I don't have any specific technical
information
on basic design, although I have built numerous similar things in
the past.
Specifically, I need to know if there is any type of resource for
finding
the material that the mantles are made of. I have attempted
contacting
Coleman, but the most I could find out was that mantles are made of
"rayon". I know that there is more to it than that, but this is
where I am
at an impasse. I hope to build a device that is approximatley 6"x9"
and
flat that permits liquefied propane to pass through and ignite,
backlighting a photograph. If you have any ideas, I would be most
appreciative. My e-mail address is: curtin@mail.utexas.edu. Thank
you
very much.
Christopher
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On July 14, 1998 @ 01:09, Fil Graff (fgraff@comcast.net) wrote:
Christopher:
Wow...now that IS technical! I can tell you right off that you
likely
won't be able to make incandescent mantles yourself! The base fabric
is
indeed rayon, but the process to manufacture the mantle involves rare
earths (Thorium, cesium and some perhaps nasty radoactive materials.
Coleman has abandoned Thorium, and now uses cesium, I believe, to
make
their SOFT (or "rag") mantles. Whatever the end product (rigid ones
like
city gas lamps, or Aladdin mantle lamps, OR the soft), the process
involves weaving a HUGE bag, treating it with the required materials,
sburning it off and sintering the resultant ash bag several time
until
the desired shape is formed on a metal mandrel. Rigid mantles are
then
treated with colliodion to make them shipable.
The bottom line is that GOOD mantles (IE: ones that don't simply
fall
apart the first, or even 20th time lit) are difficult to make, the
tooling is expensive, and the EPA requirements are likely staggering!
Bad mantles require just about the same cost and risk,; the
difference
seems to be KNOWLEDGE of what one is doing, and willingness to do the
job RIGHT. The manufacturing technology is a closely kept secret;
only a
few companies in the world now make mantles.
I will refer this question to our mantle Expert, john Claypole in
England. he may be able to ofer better technical data, but I suspect
he
will be even MORE discouraging re: self-manufacture!
I will post this on the NEW interactive Q&A board after July 7.
Fil Graff, Guild Secretary