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Manhattan Brass Company 1865 - 1926
The Manhattan Brass Company was a major manufacturer of lamps and lighting, manufacturing several brands of center draft lamps and lamps on custom order for other companies and retail stores. This is very similar to Plume and Atwood at the time except Manhattan Brass did not manufacture the incandescent burners used on their fonts. Starting around 1907 they manufactured side draft table fonts that used their 1-1/2 qt Yale No. 2 tooling modified for side draft burners. According to J. W. Courter's book "center-draft Kerosene Lamps 1884-1940" The company " made lamps on custom order for other companies and retail stores". The table font was in production from about 1907 when the 1907 Kronos burner became available through 1925 or 1926 In May, 1926, the Manhattan Brass Company sold its plant and went into voluntary liquidation. For more detail about the company and information about the center draft lamps they manufactured please refer to Bill's book. The Yale number 2 lamp drawing is located on page 202 of Bill's book. The company made minimum changes to the tooling to convert it to a side draft lamp font. The filler cap appears to be unchanged. The foot tooling was replaced, the center draft tube eliminated, and a different burner ring was used. Otherwise the tooling appears to be the same. They may have also offered a side draft font lamp version. A Manhattan brass centre draft lamp based on their New Manhattan No, 2 stand lamp (P205) with an Aladdin #12 hurner has been found. Since Manhattan Brass ceased business in 1926 it is assumed that the #12 burner is a replacement for a model 9 through 11 burner.
The filer cap used on the mantle lamps remains unchanged from the center draft Yale number 2 lamp
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Lamp with 1907 Kronos burner:
Manhattan Brass lamp with 1907 Kronos burner
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The earliest burner used on this font was the 1907 Kronos with a unique gallery. It is presumed that this was the earliest offering of a Manhattan Brass incandescent mantle lamp. In 1911 "M1911" was stamped into the top of the flame spreader. My sample has a blank flame spreader top dating the burner between 1907 and 1910. This lamp appears to be very rare. The gallery is described in the book "Aladdin to Ziu: The early Kerosene Mantle Lamp Era in America" by Small & Christner, but not the lamp the gallery came on.
What is unique about this burner is its gallery which takes a chimney with a 2-5/8" bottom dimension. An Aladdin chimney and shade holder will fit this gallery. The center top of the gallery is stamped "American Electric Co. Chicago". American Electric Company of Chicago is a well known manufacturer for early telephone equipment. I have been able to find other electric products that they sold such as an electric horn shaped speaker, and electric iron but to date I have been unable to find a reference to a kerosene lamp.
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Stamped into the center top "American Electric Co." and "Chicago" |
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Lamp with Canchester burner:
Manhattan Brass lamp with Canchester burner
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This lamp was sold by the Canchester company between about 1908 through 1911 as their No. 09 parlor Lamp. it was also available in nickel finish
The lamp font was not modified to fit the smaller base Canchester burner. Instead Manhattan Brass created and used the adapter ring pictured below. |
Adapter ring to fit Canchester burner
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Lamp with Fellboelin burner:
Manhattan Brass lamp with Fellboelin burner
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The Fellboelin burner was made in Germany and imported to the United States. Imports ended during 1914 at the beginning of WWI. This burner was likely used on these Manhattan Brass fonts likely between 1912 and 1914.
Note: The lamp came to me without a gallery. The gallery is one I had on hand.
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Lamp with Beacon burner:
Manhattan Brass lamp with Beacon model 3 burner
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The Beacon model 3 lamp was introduced in 1915, right after the Fellboelin lamps became unavailable in the US. The burner on my lamp is a Beacon model 3. The Home Supply Company, owner of the Beacon brand, merged with the Solar Lamp Company in 1924, and I believe went out of business in 1926, the same year the Manhattan Brass company went out of business. This is likely the last version of the mantle lamps that used this Manhattan Brass table font. |
The fonts used with the first 3 burners were identical. The tooling above the chime was either replaced or reworked
for the last version using the Beacon burner. The end result is that there burner sets just a little bit higher above the
kerosene level when the lamp was full. The treaded insert appears to be the same.
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