CONIA lamp and burner

The CONIA burner Was manufactured in Germany by Hirschhorn and imported to the United States around 1909.  Because of its large mantle this burner burned much brighter than the Aladdin and other mantle lamps that used much smaller mantles.  The CONIA burner is one of two designs I know of that could convert the common Rayo round wick lamp into a mantle lamp.  In 1940 and 1941 The Standard Oil Company made their own mantle lamp which was sold excursively through Montgomery Ward.

Ads above and below are from the 1909 "The House Furnishing Review vol 29.

Other 1909 products sold by G. Cohn & Company.

Most German burners that were imported into North America were imported by just one or two companies and remained in the North American market for 5 years or less before the beginning of World War I in Europe. With few exceptions German designed and manufactured burners have a brief and simple history in North America that can often be summed up in just a couple of sentences. Which is unfortunate because the evolution of a new lighting technology is told in their designs. Early American burner designers examined the existing German designs and built their first incandescent mantle burner designs based upon the best German designs available to them at the time.

These German burners have a richer history in the country where they were designed. If you would like to learn more about the history of these burners and how their designs evolved, the place to look is a book by Anton Kaim called "The Evolution of the Kerosene Mantle Burner". This is a self published book sold directly by the author and does a very good job of covering the inception and comparative evolution of the mantle burner. This book an excellent reference for burner and parts identification. The book covers the Burners developed in Europe, German burners imported to North America and Aladdin brand burners. I consider this book to be a must for the book shelf of anyone interested mantle burner design, evolution and history.

If you would like to discuss any of the contents please feel free to . 

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