ARCHIVED Questions and Answers
Mantle making [INDEX: TECHNICAL]
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please help! [INDEX: Technical: Mantles] by christopher
curtin
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
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