ARCHIVED Questions and Answers

Screw-on (Threaded) Collars

94. Screw-on
    Posted: Dec. 16, 1998 @ 18:17.
    Most of the flat wick burner collars seem to be well documented as to date, except for the most recent one. When did the burners show up that had the threads molded in the glass, and the burner screwed on like a jar lid? These "Eagle" burners were on the shelf at all the hardware stores, until a few short years ago, then they disappeared all at once.
    

• On Dec. 16, 1998 @ 19:30, Fil Graff, Guild Secretary wrote:
  Charles: I associate the thread-on collar with the later period of kerosene, when only the hinterlands still used kero lamps. The screw-on collar was just cheaper to make, and the lamp maker could also eliminate the filler cap and collar. Say the mid to late 1930's. Unfortunately, the threaded collar says "NEW", "CHEAP" and "REPRODUCTION".
  The "Eagle" burner really has naught to do with the collar, except the common (and VERY chintzy) steel #2 Eagles from Scovil in particular were in every variety store in the land in the 40's and 50's. The "Eagle" was originally an 1895 patent by the American Burner Company with an automatic snuffer. It somehow became the generic cheap burner of the post-war and 1950's period, as did the once respectable "Queen Anne". It is only very recently that GOOD quality flat wick burners are again available from the UK. If it wasn't for them, all we'd have to work with would be tin-foil Nutmegs, and steel Eagles and QAs (sold by those wholesale vendors whose only objective is to provide the cheapest product possible), or else the flimsy rope wicked trash the Orientals put on small lamps sold to the gullible and elderly. Now, is there anyone in the business I HAVEN'T offended?
  By the way, how many steel Eagles do you want? I have a dead stores whole inventry! :: Fil ::