On Tue, 30 Dec 2008 22:44:02 -0800, Gunner Asch
wrote:

Has anyone had any experince with the generic non-Coleman branded
mantles, the Chinese ones and so forth?

Gunner
.......................

The cheap knock offs at Wal Mart have worked OK for me, but that said,
there are mantles that are reported to be better. I have some
Peerless mantles (Phillipines?) that are a little brighter than the
Colemans. Get the 300 candle power mantles to fit a Coleman lantern.
The 500 candle power mantles are for the full size Petromax.

I got mine at one of the Amish lantern shops in Lancaster Co, PA Those
people know what they're doing since most of the community lights
their homes with them.

I think it was Lancaster Lanterns
The company is not on the internet
5465 White Oak Rd., Paradise, PA 17562
or their answering service at
610.593.2300.

Shipping chargers were about $8 for something I ordered a few years
ago.

There's also
Leacock Coleman Center / Peak Distribution
89 Old Leacock Rd
off Rt 340 near Smoketown PA
Phone: 717-768-7174
They're also an Amish business - the extent of technology used *for
work* depends on what the bishop allows, so they have email
if it's still working.
They have a web site too. Not sure if that's the place where they
have one of us "English" answering the phone or whether that was at
Lancaster Lantern.

Either place will know what mantles work and are reliable since their
people use them daily. Prices may not be what you can get from a mass
merchadiser. My recollection was that it was about $2.50 to $3 for a
pair of mantles there.

There was a discussion of this topic on one of the lantern groups a
few years ago. Here are two of the more knowledgeable posts:

.............
Message: 7
Date: Tue, 9 Nov 2004 19:43:04 -0500 (EST)
From: Port-Daniel port_daniel at yahoo.ca
Subject: Do mantles wear out?

Mantles does wear out mostly by errosion.
As a mantle wears out, it will become brittle
but not really dimmer. The light of a worn out mantle
is often whiter than a new one.
Using a smaller mantle than the right one
will result in a shortened mantle life.
Modern "green tops" are the strongest but not as
bright and white as the old thorium Silk Lite.
IMHO, Gold Tops are just a piece of history,
or a collector item. They are dim and brittle
compared to modern Green Tops.
As far as I know, Gold Tops are Coleman's first
Yttrium mantles.

Marc in Québec, Canada.

__________________________________________________ ______________________


Message: 8
Date: Wed, 10 Nov 2004 01:04:04 -0000
From: "Neil McRae" tilleydoctor at nmcrae.freeserve.co.uk
Subject: Do mantles wear out?

Ernie: I have had mantles disintegrate with the first burn. Once
burnt in they do not seem to deteriorate and, with the possible
reservation that there might be some merit in a long first burn to
"Cure" a new mantle, they don't seen to lose brightness. I have here a
model 339 lantern bought second hand in 1982 which had a mantle
fitted. The mantle seemed to be OK and when I fired the lantern up it
worked fine. That same mantle is still on the lantern. I have taken
that lantern to maybe a dozen Scout camps and used it every night, it
has also been used on display and travelled maybe 2,000 or more miles
in the past 22 years and it still works just like it did when I bought
the lamp. The lantern is on the third generator since I got it but the
mantle seems to just go on for ever. My guess is this mantle has
burnt for some 600 hours or more and must be now on borrowed time.

I know some mantles are better than others. This cannot have anything
to do with the material of the base stocking because that burns away
so it has to be the chemical mix used and the quantity absorbed by the
fibre. As the mix used was a Thorium base you might think it would die
of old age simply because Thorium is a radioactive chemical and
therefore is always emitting particles. Naturally occurring Thorium is
in the form of the isotope 232 which has a half life of 1.41 x 10 to
the power 10 years. That is I think longer than the world has so far
existed so I doubt the loss by atomic emission is significant. Yttrium
is a stable chemical so does not emit particles but in all other
respects will behave much like Thorium with respect to longevity. So I
believe mantle life is more to do with the original chemical mix and
strength than any other consideration.

One thing that will reduce the life of a mantle is the effect of
friction which as burning gasses pass through the material must
partially erode the surface and if no other outside influences are
present eventually a mantle will fail because of this reduction in
size and strength of the ash matrix. Again the better the original
mix the thicker will be the matrix and therefore the longer it will
last.

Neil.

_______________________________________

On Wed, 31 Dec 2008 10:04:57 -0500, GeoLane at PTD dot NET GeoLane at
PTD dot NET wrote:


Many thanks! And thanks for the articles. Very interesting



On Tue, 30 Dec 2008 22:44:02 -0800, Gunner Asch
wrote:

Has anyone had any experince with the generic non-Coleman branded
mantles, the Chinese ones and so forth?

Gunner
......................

The cheap knock offs at Wal Mart have worked OK for me, but that said,
there are mantles that are reported to be better. I have some
Peerless mantles (Phillipines?) that are a little brighter than the
Colemans. Get the 300 candle power mantles to fit a Coleman lantern.
The 500 candle power mantles are for the full size Petromax.

I got mine at one of the Amish lantern shops in Lancaster Co, PA Those
people know what they're doing since most of the community lights
their homes with them.

I think it was Lancaster Lanterns
The company is not on the internet
5465 White Oak Rd., Paradise, PA 17562
or their answering service at
610.593.2300.

Shipping chargers were about $8 for something I ordered a few years
ago.

There's also
Leacock Coleman Center / Peak Distribution
89 Old Leacock Rd
off Rt 340 near Smoketown PA
Phone: 717-768-7174
They're also an Amish business - the extent of technology used *for
work* depends on what the bishop allows, so they have email
if it's still working.
They have a web site too. Not sure if that's the place where they
have one of us "English" answering the phone or whether that was at
Lancaster Lantern.

Either place will know what mantles work and are reliable since their
people use them daily. Prices may not be what you can get from a mass
merchadiser. My recollection was that it was about $2.50 to $3 for a
pair of mantles there.

There was a discussion of this topic on one of the lantern groups a
few years ago. Here are two of the more knowledgeable posts:

............
Message: 7
Date: Tue, 9 Nov 2004 19:43:04 -0500 (EST)
From: Port-Daniel port_daniel at yahoo.ca
Subject: Do mantles wear out?

Mantles does wear out mostly by errosion.
As a mantle wears out, it will become brittle
but not really dimmer. The light of a worn out mantle
is often whiter than a new one.
Using a smaller mantle than the right one
will result in a shortened mantle life.
Modern "green tops" are the strongest but not as
bright and white as the old thorium Silk Lite.
IMHO, Gold Tops are just a piece of history,
or a collector item. They are dim and brittle
compared to modern Green Tops.
As far as I know, Gold Tops are Coleman's first
Yttrium mantles.

Marc in Québec, Canada.

_________________________________________________ _______________________


Message: 8
Date: Wed, 10 Nov 2004 01:04:04 -0000
From: "Neil McRae" tilleydoctor at nmcrae.freeserve.co.uk
Subject: Do mantles wear out?

Ernie: I have had mantles disintegrate with the first burn. Once
burnt in they do not seem to deteriorate and, with the possible
reservation that there might be some merit in a long first burn to
"Cure" a new mantle, they don't seen to lose brightness. I have here a
model 339 lantern bought second hand in 1982 which had a mantle
fitted. The mantle seemed to be OK and when I fired the lantern up it
worked fine. That same mantle is still on the lantern. I have taken
that lantern to maybe a dozen Scout camps and used it every night, it
has also been used on display and travelled maybe 2,000 or more miles
in the past 22 years and it still works just like it did when I bought
the lamp. The lantern is on the third generator since I got it but the
mantle seems to just go on for ever. My guess is this mantle has
burnt for some 600 hours or more and must be now on borrowed time.

I know some mantles are better than others. This cannot have anything
to do with the material of the base stocking because that burns away
so it has to be the chemical mix used and the quantity absorbed by the
fibre. As the mix used was a Thorium base you might think it would die
of old age simply because Thorium is a radioactive chemical and
therefore is always emitting particles. Naturally occurring Thorium is
in the form of the isotope 232 which has a half life of 1.41 x 10 to
the power 10 years. That is I think longer than the world has so far
existed so I doubt the loss by atomic emission is significant. Yttrium
is a stable chemical so does not emit particles but in all other
respects will behave much like Thorium with respect to longevity. So I
believe mantle life is more to do with the original chemical mix and
strength than any other consideration.

One thing that will reduce the life of a mantle is the effect of
friction which as burning gasses pass through the material must
partially erode the surface and if no other outside influences are
present eventually a mantle will fail because of this reduction in
size and strength of the ash matrix. Again the better the original
mix the thicker will be the matrix and therefore the longer it will
last.

Neil.

_______________________________________

"Upon Roosevelt's death in 1945, H. L. Mencken predicted in his diary
that Roosevelt would be remembered as a great president, "maybe even
alongside Washington and Lincoln," opining that Roosevelt "had every
quality that morons esteem in their heroes.""