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It was small the size of a beer can, with something like a six-inch circular light reflector perpendicular-top. It was brass, that was the neat thing. What did they make of brass anymore ? They showed me the lamp and told me all about it. Looking it up, it was a Calcium Carbide Lamp, otherwise called carriage, car or bicycle lamp.
"Carbide lamps were developed in the 1890's. They were first used as carriage lamps, and were quickly adapted for mining. The lamp has a removable base which would be unscrewed and filled with marble-sized pellets of calcium carbide. A small amount of water was poured into a reservoir in the top part of the lamp. A tap controlled the amount of water which would slowly flow from the reservoir into the carbide chamber below.
The rate of water flow could be adjusted with the tap to vary the amount of gas produced and hence the amount of light, which would last for several hours. The water reacted with the carbide to form acetylene gas, which rose to the top of the carbide chamber into a small tube, which led out of the chamber to a burner tip. This could be lit with a flint, and the flame produced was focused by a shiny reflector to give a bright white light, between four and six times brighter than an oil lamp or flame safety lamp. That was from Lindal & Marton Community Website, but it is essentially what these campers told me. I was transfixed. What a neat device.
I wanted one. I thought it was so artistic serviceable and I went looking for it. In Ireland I went into a lot of big and small town hardware stores and antique shops.
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