Re: i got trapped in Wales because

On 2007-07-08, Rowland McDonnell <real-address-in-sig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Whiskers <catwheezel@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

[...]

Now, if I could get my hands on one of the things and have a fiddle, or
at least be exposed to some proper engineering drawings of the rig, it'd
be obvious. <sigh> (again) One day, I expect.

The details vary - it is mature technology :)) The essential feature is
that the wick or wicks is/are arranged to give a circle of flame, with air
being supplied to both the inside and outside of the circle, thus
improving combustion efficiency and getting more light and less smoke from
the same aount of fuel.

Oh yes, I've got that far - but what /exactly/ is the arrangement? I
want a poke around, I do.

I'm afraid you'll probably have to get your hands on one then. They are
pretty ingenious :))

(If using a single wick, it is a very wide flat
type fed through the burner in such a way that the two edges meet at the
burning place, thus leaving a convenient gap lower down through which the
air to the inside of the circular flame can be drawn).

You see, that kind of description makes no sense to me at all - I've got
such a hazy idea about how it's all arranged I can't create any sort of
picture in my head.

Take a ribbon and a tube small enough for the width of the ribbon to wrap
around the outside of the tube without over-lapping. Wrap the width of
the ribbon around the tube. The rest of the ribbon will fall away to one
side in a neat 'drape' that leaves a gap on one side ...

An 'improvement'
to the basic Argand design has the air for the inside of the flame being
deflected outwards by a 'flat cap' or perforated pipe so as to make the
flame spread outwards and thus get even better mixing of the fuel and air.

Argand's own design was for lamps burning 'kolza oil' - something similar
to rapeseed oil but made from a different plant

Cabbage, according to one source I read, which I can't help feeling
ain't right.

Probably one of the cabbage (Brassica) 'family'; rape is one such plant,
swede is another, as well as 'greens' cabbages, cauliflower, and many
others.

- which needed a gravity
feed and was very 'smokey' in most lamps. The principle has since been
applied to paraffin lamps, of course.

Uhuh.

If you get the proportion of fuel-vapour to air low enough, you can burn
virtually all the carbon in the fuel to get a very hot 'blue' flame with
almost no smoke or soot. That arrangement is used for heating and cooking
appliances, and for those wick lamps which get their light from a Welsbach
('gas') mantle. Cheaper, simpler, more robust, lamps just exploit the
ability to make the carbon in the flame hotter and thus glow more brightly
before cooling into smoke.

Uhuh.

A cheaper burner arrangement uses two flat wicks side by side to get nearly
the same efficiency as an Argand burner - you can spot that type by its
having two knobs for adjusting the two wicks. An Argand or dual-wick lamp
is noticeably brighter than an otherwise similar lamp with only one flat
wick, even if the total 'width' of flame is the same, and even more so
compared with a lamp using a single 'round' wick.

But don't Argand lamps have round wicks? It's the impression I've got.

Argand burners have wicks in a circle; a ring or tube of flame is the
intended result - no flame in the middle of the ring. A 'round' wick
describes something like a rope; solid wick of cylindrical cross-section.

[...]

Blue-flame wick burners can be used for space-heating or cooking, so they
certainly get hot. There are some 2kW per burner wick stoves here
<http://www.hurricanelamps.co.uk/paraffin_stoves.htm>.

Blimey. Radically different exteriors to the paraffin heater that used
to live in my dad's parents' front room...

My '70s room heater in a very angular tall cream and brown enamelled steel
casing - but inside is still the wide fuel tank and the tall slender
chimney of the earlier models which were usually enamelled a mottled blue,
I seem to remember.

Mottled green, with mica windows at the front, is what my dad's parents
had.

Ah yes, mica windows. I don't think they use mica much these days.

Mine lacks the 'hot plate' on top where people used to
stand a kettle or 'keep Dad's dinner hot'. Another type has a polished
reflector around the burner area, to make a 'radiant' heater; you can still
get something similar to that. Both types were in common use in the '50s
and '60s - and a small version of the 'round' convector type is still sold
for heating green-houses, I think.

Uhuh.

[snip]

I acquired an Aladdin blue-flame room heater and an Indian wick stove, as
well as various oil and candle lamps, living through the 'winter of
discontent' and in some really grotty bed-sits,

Uhuh. I recall those days - any time the lights went out, I trotted out
to the `shed' (actually a full sized concrete garage) and pulled out the
camping gear - two `Camping Gaz' lamps, the Optimus lamp, and the
Camping Gaz stove (two hobs, one grill). Then all the candles in the
house got lit too - my mother used to make 'em, and we always had a
stash of `household whites' somewhere in any case, not to mention the
odd night-light kicking around.

I still don't feel comfortable without a good supply of candles in stock.
My mother used to make candles too.

Possibly in a slightly less `1970s macrame' sort of way, mind.

Well some of our candles were square or pyramid-shaped, and multi-coloured
in various ways. Anything that solid wax could be removed from was likely
to get used as a mould <G>.

[snip]

I
could probably knock up a pretty efficient hobo stove from old food tins,
if pushed.

<grin> I've never been very good at *efficient* fires, me. Large and
impressive, yes.

I prefer not to have to find and carry any more fuel than necessary.

That makes sense. It's just that I've got this `thing' about fire.
Mind you, I'm 40 years old now, not 14. I probably would be sensible if
I had to build a fire for cooking on these days.

Sensible? Not /too/ much so, I hope ;))

--
-- ^^^^^^^^^^
-- Whiskers
-- ~~~~~~~~~~
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: i got trapped in Wales because
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  • Re: i got trapped in Wales because
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    (uk.people.support.depression)
  • Re: i got trapped in Wales because
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  • Re: i got trapped in Wales because
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  • Re: i got trapped in Wales because
    ... lamps or any of the other paraffin or petrol powered gas-mantle ... paraffin wick lamps. ... Camping Gaz stove ...
    (uk.people.support.depression)