Bullseye lantern

[Dutchman Dick]

I recently won this really nice Dietz "Police Regular" lantern on Ebay. I know that Bullseye lanterns of this general style existed in the war (I've seen an engraving from Harper's Weekly titled "searching for the wounded", where the searchers were using bullseye lanterns). I also know that Dietz patented his flat-wick kerosene burner in the late 1850's. What I'd like to know is, would this particular lantern be authentic for the Civil War?

Pictures:

[Hank Trent]

Re: Bullseye lantern

Edited to add:

I just realized, from the better pictures, that your lantern doesn't match the one in the ad at the link below, because of the different handle. I'll leave my post below in case it's useful for others, but the question remains, when did Dietz use that handle style, and were they making any police lanterns before the 1881 date in the book?

For starters, here's a post I sent in to the Scrivener's List, though hopefully others will come along with more information:

This link shows a reproduced Dietz ad with both the thumb-lever and the two-hand
lever lanterns being offered. The ad calls your kind the "regular" pattern and the other the "flash" pattern. Makes sense. On the following page, more of the Dietz ad is reproduced, with specifications for both the regular and flash lanterns.

Going back to the previous page of the book before the ad, the author says Dietz "appear to have begun offering conical chimney police lanterns in 1881. Two lens sizes were made: 2 3/4 inch and 3 inch. These lanterns, made through 1887 were 7 1/4 inches and 7 3/4 inches high depending on lens diameter, and had a black japanned finish. In 1888 Dietz issued a similar lantern, but of 8 inch overall height in a brown japanned finish."

Since the ad specifies a brown finish, it must be post-1888, but it sounds like Dietz was making both kinds at the same time, probably from the start, circa 1881.

Hank Trent
hanktrent@voyager.net

[Dutchman Dick]

Re: Bullseye lantern

So, in a nutshell, the answer to my question is "no".

Ah, well. It's still a neat old lantern, and it even works well. Guess I'll just have to use my Cunningham-made folding candle box/candle holder when I want authentic illumination...and find something more wind-resistant for "outside the tent" later on.

Which brings me to another question: who sells authentic Civil War-style lanterns? Were pierced tin ones still being used, or were those more of a "colonial thing"? What about the ubiquitous wood-framed lanterns?

[Hank Trent]

Re: Bullseye lantern

I've been interested in bullseye lanterns lately, having just bought a no-name one myself, and the handle on yours intrigues me, because it's not like the typical Dietz handles, nor like typical other handles.

Here's all I can find so far on the handle:

A web site that calls it a third variation among the Dietz police lanterns. However, yours is actually a fourth variation. There's the "regular" with the two-loop handle, the "flash" with the two-loop handle, the "flash" with the handle like yours, and yours, which is a "regular" not a flash.

This book by the same author as the one in the previous post, also mentions the handle as a third design, but only mentions it in connection with the "flash" style, not the regular.

The handle style is unique enough that I bet someone patented it, but I tried a quick search in patents for police or dark or bullseye lantern handles, and didn't come up with anything that looked useful.

Hank Trent
hanktrent@voyager.net

[Dutchman Dick]

Re: Bullseye lantern

I've been interested in bullseye lanterns lately, having just bought a no-name one myself, and the handle on yours intrigues me, because it's not like the typical Dietz handles, nor like typical other handles.

Here's all I can find so far on the handle:

A web site that calls it a third variation among the Dietz police lanterns. However, yours is actually a fourth variation. There's the "regular" with the two-loop handle, the "flash" with the two-loop handle, the "flash" with the handle like yours, and yours, which is a "regular" not a flash.

This book by the same author as the one in the previous post, also mentions the handle as a third design, but only mentions it in connection with the "flash" style, not the regular.

The handle style is unique enough that I bet someone patented it, but I tried a quick search in patents for police or dark or bullseye lantern handles, and didn't come up with anything that looked useful.

Hank Trent
hanktrent@voyager.net

I checked out the book link, Looks like it's pre-WW1, but post-1900. Interesting that it says that the lanterns with this handle are among the least encountered Dietz lanterns, and were likely only made for a limited time. I think the $76 I paid for it (plus shipping & insurance) was a fair price. It's not my first Dietz lantern (I also have a "Little Wizard" and a "Comet", both cold-blast "hurricane" lanterns), but it's certainly the oldest and most unusual.

[Huck]

Re: Bullseye lantern

I found this one otter creek tinware web site.

http://www.ottertin.com/lighting.html

Original lantern on left (from the collection of Eric Hector) and reproduction on the right. The lantern is japanned with a genuine asphaltum based paint and lit by a double wicked whale oil lamp that can be removed for filling. This is a "safe" lamp which means that a sliding door (notice the pewter button on the lower left of the lanterns) can block the beam of light. This lantern is very similar to one found in the C.S.S. Hunley. A link to a really neat Hunley site is provided by clicking here. A page devoted to the Hunley lantern can be visited by clicking here.

In this image the door to the lanterns have been opened. The whale oil lamps are inside the lanterns but hard to see in this image. I will be adding an image of the whale oil lamps in the future. These lanterns are just the thing for mounting "Grand Guard" or chasing Jack the Ripper through the back alleys of London!

Price: $175.00 (includes removable whale oil lamp)

[Charles Heath]

Re: Bullseye lantern

Hank,

I look forward to seeing your lantern in use next month during the "Out of Capitol Prison" event. Considering the overnight low temps at some of the higher elevations, are you sure that lantern can't double as a space heater?

[Hank Trent]

Re: Bullseye lantern

I look forward to seeing your lantern in use next month during the "Out of Capitol Prison" event. Considering the overnight low temps at some of the higher elevations, are you sure that lantern can't double as a space heater?

I'll tell ya, that thing gets hot. I think it could heat a Sibley, at least. The question is, though, do they sell sweet oil in Maryland? I don't think the burner holds enough for more than one night.

By the way, if anyone can date it or knows anything about this particular style, a photo is attached below. There's no maker's mark. The burner has two little tubes, and sweet oil seems to work fine in it.

Hank Trent
hanktrent@voyager.net

[Uncle Pig]

Re: Bullseye lantern

I have a similar lantern to yours.

When you refer to sweet oit are you refering to plain olive oil or one of the Virgins?

Thanks,
Mark C. Foster

[Hank Trent]

Re: Bullseye lantern

I have a similar lantern to yours.

When you refer to sweet oit are you refering to plain olive oil or one of the Virgins?

Thanks,
Mark C. Foster

I used the olive oil I had sitting on the shelf to test it, which happened to be a store-brand generic extra virgin olive oil.

I'm trying to figure what would be the most typical second choice if whale oil wasn't available or was too expensive in the period. An 1857 British book says "olive or sweet oil" is used "in this country... as a substitute for whale oil in lamps," but I'd be interested in more information on American options.

Hank Trent
hanktrent@voyager.net

[roundshot]

Re: Bullseye lantern

From the May 17th, 1862 issue of Harpers showing "Rebels reconnoitering outside the works of Yorktown with dark lanterns."

[Dutchman Dick]

Re: Bullseye lantern

Mineral oil, maybe? Would that have been a readily available substitute for whale oil?

[straggler]

Re: Bullseye lantern

I came across the following bottle in an antique store. I was able to do a limited amount of research so I don't know exactly how old it was but it would seem to be from either the 1860s or 1870s.

The label is Sweet Oil - and the small print says pressed from cottonseed.

[Hank Trent]

Re: Bullseye lantern

I came across the following bottle in an antique store. I was able to do a limited amount of research so I don't know exactly how old it was but it would seem to be from either the 1860s or 1870s.

The label is Sweet Oil - and the small print says pressed from cottonseed.

From the typeface and the look of the logo, I'd put it closer to the turn of the 20th century. It has that Roycrofters--Elbert Hubbard look. But that's very subjective; it could very well be earlier. However, here's something interesting, since they specify cottonseed on the label:

Before the enactment of the Federal Food and Drugs Act [circa 1906] it was the practice of many druggists to label cottonseed oil, or a mixture of cottonseed and olive oils, as "sweet oil." A careful consideration of the subject by the proper authorities has led to the conclusion that the only oil to which the term "sweet oil" may be correctly applied is olive oil. It is held, therefore, by the Board of Food and Drug Inspection, that any oil other than olive oil is misbranded when sold under the name of "sweet oil." It is not permissible, for example, to label cottonseed oil as "sweet oil" and then elsewhere on the label to describe correctly the true character of the oil. To answer your question plainly : you can make "sweet oil" only by expressing it from olives. 1916 Source

That was also the same act which required the number of ounces to be stated on the label.

Though the label would be against the interpretation of the law above, calling it sweet oil and then elsewhere saying it was pressed from cottonseed, the laws were being passed in a confusing patchword of state and federal regulations in the early 20th century, and the cottonseed disclaimer may have been influenced by them.

However, the question remains, how much cottonseed oil was also sold as sweet oil, or mixed with olive oil, unknown, in the 1860s? I expect it would mainly depend on the relative availability and prices of both, to see whether it was worthwhile to adulterate olive oil with cheaper cottonseed oil. And how often was cottonseed oil, sold honestly, used in lamps?

Hank Trent
hanktrent@voyager.net

[Charles Heath]

Re: Bullseye lantern

Hank,

This also raises the question as to whether or not a mixture of olive and cottonseed oils would go rancid as fast as olive oil alone. One of the ironies of pure olive oil being "sweet oil" is the reality that it becomes foul in rapid fashion, but it was what it was, and another question becomes what ersatz item did the CS use when imports of olive oil were made more complex as the war dragged on and on. Cottonseed oil would certainly fill the bill.