ARCHIVED Questions and Answers
Lamp/Lantern terminology
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Lamp/Lantern terminology by Robert and Beverley Isdale
Posted: October 14, 1998 @ 10:03.
Greetings Fil, Many thanks for your reply, the copies of the Radiolite LANTERN sales brochure, and your appreciated comments.
Well, the benefits of international communication are abundantly obvious already! Are there defintion guidelines for lamp / lantern terminology? When I read through the internet pages on this subject, I occasionally find a reference to a specific part of a lamp / lantern, where I am not entirely certain which part is being discussed. Would the Guild be interested in compiling a dictionary of terms? Beginners would love it, and it would certainly overcome parochial/regional idiomatic differences.
For instance - naphtha! Your description sounds like the product that I know as Shellite, or do you have a product called Shellite, as well as one called naphtha?
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On October 14, 1998 @ 10:15, Fil Graff, Guild Secretary
wrote:
'Ey Mates!: The "Dictionary" idea is superb! I'll gte started on one, and contact the other specialist p[ages to see if a single dictionary could appear on each page, or at least have a common link to all almping pages! Great idea!!! I'll post the suggestion as a QUESTION on the Q&A Page.
On terms like "Naphtha": it is an accepted CHEMICAL name, where "Shellite" is a brand name! There are lots of differences in "generic" terms between the "Old Country, Mother England" and us upstarts in the "former" Colonies. Not the least of which are the various common terms for lamp fuels: "paraffin" is UK, "Kerosene" is US; "Petrol" is UK, "Gasoline" is US; "Spirits", or "methylated spirits" is UK and Europe, "Alcohol" or "rubbing alcohol" is US ("Spirits" here is grain alcohol, the drinkable form.) But the petroleum distillate NAPHTHA is just that everywhere, I think. Look on the can of Shellite, and see if it doesn't say Naphtha as (one of) the content(s).