Unplanned Purchase

I had planned on ordering a Dietz #50 Comet, which is the smallest lantern Dietz made/makes. It wasn’t even originally for the US market. That plan hasn’t changed and I expect the thing will arrive sometime next week. It won’t be a super-bright thing, but it will be interesting to see the lineup of the small ‘Comet’, the well-nigh standard No. 76, the bigger ‘Air Pilot’ and the biggest they make ‘Jupiter’.

But I’d been looking for a single-mantle lantern, other than the Aladdin, for a while. The Aladdin demands close attention, needs hardware it should not (pliers or vise grips to turn a control that needs turning down exactly when it’s too hot to touch), and uses single-sourced mantles. Oh, and is $200 or more, when even available. So I was considering not only kerosene, but white gas, and propane. I was very close to buying a propane setup. I still might, eventually.

But a couple nights ago I must have either run into the new instance, or found the right search term(s). Looking through $BigBoxStore site and just skimming… and say, is that what I think it is? A single-mantle kerosene pressure lantern? Coleman, too, so I can get parts. Wow. And uses mantles I can find locally? Alright, SOLD. That will arrive early next week as well, but I likely won’t be able to DO anything with it for a while. Mantles need to be ‘fired’ before use. And that needs to happen outdoors without wind to speak of. You can guess the forecast for the next week or two: cold, miserable, windy as all.. yeah. And besides the mantle firing, the first several minutes of actual running also need to be outdoors – if the preheat doesn’t get the ‘generator’ tube hot enough, there can be ‘flare up’ which is exactly what it sounds like. Such won’t harm the lantern, but is not good for a structure – or one’s peace and ease. If it happens, it can happen on concrete well away from anything flammable.

Throwback Thursday #8

Old, but still just a bit too relevant. Hopefully some fool won’t go and start something that will set things back considerably.

You might have seen the movie Dr. Strangelove, but were you aware of the novelty tune intended to promote it? Well, here:

“Sleep Better By Not Using Your Phone”

You’ve likely seen or heard that advice, regarding avoiding stimulation and blue light before bed. This is not about that, as such. Though I do have bedside lamp with a lower color temperature than I usually prefer. It’s well below 3000 Kelvin and is rather yellow.

When we moved into this house, we set things up in typical, of that time, fashion and there were phones in the bedrooms. Things were set up to have two lines, and when we switched from standard phone service to a voice-over-IP setup even had different rings. Neat, but the cellphone(s) have taken over about everything and while there are still the desk phones and they get some use, the bedroom phones have become nothing but an annoyance. That’s mainly due to telespammers.

Thus I recently simply unplugged the bedroom phones. Now I can sleep in peace. Well, comparative peace.

The Dietz No. 2500 “Jupiter”

Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system is likely how this lantern was named. It’s the biggest one Dietz makes. The light is about 14 candlepower, at peak. The heat is 1400 BTU/hour. That big font (tank) holds 80 oz of fuel which supposedly gives a burn time of 72 hours.

The heat is important, as one use was (is?) to use a few of these and have them keep greenhouses if not warm, at least above freezing in colder weather. It does indeed throw some heat, and I could see using it in a small, but ventilated, room if need be. It wouldn’t be as nice as a furnace, nor a proper propane heater, but it would be far better than just bundling up.

The Beat Goes On?

Amongst the anti-squirrel measures is an ultrasonic device that sweeps a range up to 65 kilohertz, meant to annoy rodents away from where it is. Ultrasonic, so beyond hearing for people. And when installed (plugged in) the only indication it had power was an LED that faded on and off.

Yesterday morning I parked the car in the garage and found myself wondering what the strange new noise was. It was up-sweeping tone, not a steady tone. Was something wrong with the car? No… the car wasn’t the sound source, or didn’t seem to be. Then I remembered the recently installed rodent annoyer. But I shouldn’t be hearing that. Did it have some weird failure that dropped the output into the sonic region? How would that even happen?

And then the timed car lights shut off and the noise stopped. Huh. Something about the car’s lights emits some ultrasound, and I was hearing the beat frequencies when that and the rodent annoyer’s signals mixed. Well, the lower beat frequencies. I had to be hearing the subtractive rather than additive heterodyne.

Now I wonder what, exactly, is generating that ultrasonic frequency in the lighting system and just what that frequency is.

Old Book Recommendation #1

Long ago, I had an interest in hypnosis, hypnotism, and since I wasn’t exactly trusting of most people, self-hypnosis or autosuggestion. I read quite a bit on the subject, or subjects. I even practiced enough that I could get an instant of ‘hallucination’… but just that. The result was so startling, even though I was expecting it, that it always threw me out of the ‘trance’.

But even with that, one line in one text stood out. It was about the idea that you cannot be “hypnotized against your will.” That is true, mostly. If some is obvious in trying to hypnotize, it is trivial to prevent ‘induction’ into a hypnotic state. But that presumes the inducer is either telling you up-front, or is so ham-handed it’s obvious. The line or close enough was, “You cannot be hypnotized against your will, but you can be hypnotized without your consent, which is just as good” (from the inducer’s point of view). Even though I never felt I truly went ‘deep’ and startled myself awake, I did at least try to install a sort of mental circuit breaker to prevent that. I had all but forgotten about it until a few years ago.

The $BigBoss of $WorkSite at the time figured that the night shift wasn’t doing enough (ha, let the bastage TRY to keep up with us!) and so had an all-hands meeting with the night shift. The usual harangue you’d expect basically demanding we do everything with nothing and get it done yesterday, and ideally for free. The usual Corporate Crapppola from Catbertistan. But then he went on about being ‘so good, so..” etc. in a strange tone, and oddly repeating. BREAK! BREAK! BREAK! Others, who might not have all my ad/spam blockers all but ignored it save to laugh at it later. I felt weird, and Very Suspicious. Something was WRONG. It took me a while (ox slow…) but eventually I realized the repeating pattern and odd ‘soothing’ tone were exactly the things I’d heard from a professional hypnotist when I attended a lecture with a demonstration beyond mere stage act. I cannot claim he was actively and with awareness attempting a hypnotic induction, as he might have tripped over the method of being ‘persuasive’ – which he had a reputation for. As it was, it seriously creeped me out once I realized what happened. He tripped a ‘circuit breaker’ that had been lying dormant since sometime in the 1980’s.

The line was from the book HYPNOTISM by G. H. Estabrooks. That’s George H. Estabrooks. If you look online you likely find some whining about him having been with the military in the early to mid 20th century and considering military applications of hypnotic suggestion. His book, quite obviously, is also a guide to self-defense, at least if read with such in mind. Not everything was right, of course. One corker stands out. The publication date of the book I have is 1957, reprint 1959. An example of the USA and Cuba spying on each other is used as such an idea was so absurd. Oops.

I will warn you that this is not something you’re likely to grab off eBay or Amazon for $20. I might have paid maybe $50, but that was two or three decades back now (time sure do fly, don’t it, sonny?). Last I looked, several years ago, the going rate was well over $100. YOWZA! A good condition hardcover goes for north of $250 now! If you find it at a garage, rummage, or library sale, grab it! It might look, from the truly descriptive table of contents, to be full of bunk. It is not. If anything, there is thorough de-bunking going on.

The Shadow Knows

I’ve read, and related, that supposedly kerosene or fuels close to kerosene burn with a brighter flame than the highly refined paraffin lamp oils. I hadn’t actually run a proper test of this until a couple nights ago. The results reveal that the claim is true in quality, if not in quantity – but that might be an issue of detector sensitivity as it were.

I have two identical mason jar lamps. I emptied both – the fuel went into the big Dietz 2500 Jupiter, for what it’s worth. Then I let them sit, disassembled for several hours to let the wicks ‘dry’ some, though I doubt it had much effect. One, ‘K’, was filled Klean Heat (kerosene or kerosene-alike) and the other, ‘P’, was filled with Lamplight’s Paraffin lamp oil. Both were left to sit a few hours so the new fuel could saturate the wicks.

Both lamps were lit and left to sit, flame turned low to let the chimneys heat up gently. After a few minutes ‘K’ was burning with a higher flame, but ‘P’ had not seemed to change. Around the half hour mark, I turned up the flame on both. It’s subjective, but despite a narrower flame, it seemed that ‘K’ was indeed burning brighter. It likely does not show in the photo:

But that’s subjective. Hrm, short of a proper light meter, how to tell for sure?

I set one lamp behind the other, and then swapped the positions, looking for shadows. While ‘P’ can cast a shadow of ‘K’, the shadow is faint and not immediately obvious. However, ‘K’ most certainly casts a shadow of ‘P’ and it’s quite distinct. ‘K’ burns brighter. Twice as bright, as said? I cannot be sure without proper measurement. It would not surprise me if that claim was at least close.

So why bother with paraffin fuels? Kerosene works better with wider wicks, and above a certain width I think 3/4 inch, but it might be different) paraffin is not recommended. Narrower wicks, and round (not circular) wicks will deal with paraffin just fine, if at reduced output. However, even the best low odor kerosene does have some odor. It might not be enough to be objectionable to some or even most, but it is there. The paraffin lamp oil seems to be truly odorless. For some, that might be more than worth the reduced light output.

The background wall in the photo is a typical bland ‘should not offend anyone’ off-white, which helps some. A mirror there would help more with reflecting light back in a useful direction.

I kept both lamps burning for a couple hours and when $HOUSEMATE came in, I asked which was the brighter. Without hesitation, ‘K’ was indicated. I also did quick demo of the shadow(s). I also asked about odor, and some was noted but not found objectionable. I think on another night off I will do an extended burn of ‘P’ and see if any odor at all is detected, just to be sure.

Fantastic Friday, No Foolin’!

Alright, things were finalized or as close as can be on Wednesday.

BUT… the Terrific Tuesday news? Followup:

$HOUSEMATE GOT THE JOB! And now it’s OFFICIALLY OFFICIAL with various forms signed and such.

There are a few more “days off” as the Official Start Date is in early-mid April. But all the big question marks are gone. There might be a couple small ones, but those can be dealt with.

Throwback Thursday #7

Alright, the 1980’s had some good music, but it’s time to go rather earlier. No, not to the Beatles or such. Something earlier still. Say, there’s that thing in Ukraine with Putin the Mad claiming it’s about dealing with Nazis while going all Lebensraum und Fuehrer himself. Hrm… well then… let’s see, 1942 seems about right.

This might be the the most famous version and is often the tune that introduces folks to Spike Jones:

Of course, that’s not the only version. For example, Arthur Fields had this one with a couple additional verses:

There is yet another version, but I can no longer readily find it online. It’s supposedly a Disney recording, of all things. The Daffy Duck short does NOT have this. It includes a different ending:

When Der Fuehrer says, “We never will be slaves!”
We Heil! Heil! but still we work like slaves!
While der Fuehrer brags, and lies and rants and raves,
We Heil! Heil! And work into our graves!

When der Fuehrer yells, “I gotta have more shells!”
We Heil! Heil! for him we make more shells!
If one little shell should blow him right to (A bong sound to censor the word “Hell”)
We’d Heil! Heil! and wouldn’t that be swell?!

Oh, it is around, just mixed in with another classic bit. If you don’t recognize the video, where have you been?

Lamplight Farms Ellipse

This is one of the lamps advertised to me a few weeks ago. Instead of ordering from the advertiser, I found it for a couple dollars less at a local hardware store. The store had two different models. One was cheaper, in every sense of the word, and I simply wouldn’t trust using it. There were two Ellipses and I bought the one that did not have a bent burner base.

The advertiser claims a height of 12 inches (it’s more like 13.5), a fuel capacity of 19.5 oz for a 30 hour burn time, and an output of ~10 candlepower. Not sure I believe that, short of having the wick too high and burning wick besides fuel. Though it might be that I’ve filled it with ‘Firefly’ rather than ‘Klean Heat’ or ‘Medallion’ or outright plain kerosene. The Firefly is truly odorless, which suggests that it’s “paraffin” rather than kerosene – and supposedly while that eliminates any odor, it comes at the price of half the light output.

I will say the lamp certainly looks nice, and it does light up a room enough to see to get around. Not sure I’d want to try to read all but larger print by it, at least with the current fuel. It is, of course, made in China and it shows some. The base is not quite flat. It’s not off enough to be a tipping problem, but setting the lamp down reveals that it doesn’t quite rest flat.