Carbide Cap Lamps/No. 50 Lamp Top Marking

Carbide Cap Lamps

No. 50 Lamp Top Marking.JPG - NO. 50 - Hard-to-find brass cap lamp, marked on top No. 50, with double knurled ring base, pie-tin shaped reflector and sharp edge skirt flange, ca. 1916, manufactured by Meyer Stein Mfg. Co. (Meyer Stein filed for a lamp design patent July 2, 1913 while working out of his father's clothing store to repair miner's carbide lamps. The patent was awarded as #45,028 on Dec. 9, 1913 for what is Stein's earliest lamp. The "Pat. Apl'd For" marked lamp based on Stein's patent is shown elsewhere in the pics. In 1915, the Meyer Stein Mfg. Co. was established in Springfield, IL to manufacture this lamp. Stein's propensity to copy key features of other patented lamps from other manufacturers got him in trouble through infringement suits. His early attempt to copy Frank Guy’s familiar water dropper, calling his water feed the button dropper, resulted in an infringement suit settled in late 1916. He then made a follow-on lamp which is marked the Steindropper, very similar looking to the Guy’s Dropper lamp. The follow on to the Steindropper, a lamp curiously marked on top No. 50, was first advertised in 1916. It’s not known what Stein’s plans were for this lamp. There is speculation that the lamp was intended for resale by other vendors since a similar looking lamp was advertised in a late 1910s Sears Roebuck catalog. Since very few of the lamps are known in collections, if this was the marketing plan it was apparently unsuccessful. Two varieties of the No. 50 are known. The lamp shown here is the earliest, ca. 1916, with the sharp edged skirt, double knurled ring base, no cap braces and the pie-tin looking reflector. This reflector is identical to the early Guy’s Dropper one-date set screw reflector once the set screw flange portion is removed. A second and later variety, ca. 1917, of the No. 50 has an eight-sided base, cap braces and rolled-edge skirt. The Springfield lamp, shown elsewhere in my cap lamp pics, was evolved from these early Stein models and was produced at the Springfield plant. An interesting fact is that the double knurled ring base on the No. 50 looks identical to the similarly shaped base on the Springfield lamp. However, they are not identical, each having a different screw-thread size, and thus are not interchangeable. After Stein's service in World War I, he returned to the lamp business with his father Philip with a new business name, the Stein Mfg. Co. He had filed a patent for an adjustable water control lever following the war that is occasionally found on Springfield lamps. In 1922, Meyer Stein sold this patent to Ben Williamson, founder of the Ashmead Mfg. Co. , that was used in the Elkhorn and Buddy lamps manufactured by Williamson. In fact, Stein was hired as the chief designer for these lamps. The Stein Mfg. Co. continued off and on in business until 1937 when all operations ceased and the company went out of business. See Thorpe, Carbide Light, pp 88-93)

No. 50 Lamp Top Marking | NO. 50 - Hard-to-find brass cap lamp, marked on top No. 50, with double knurled ring base, pie-tin shaped reflector and sharp edge skirt flange, ca. 1916, manufactured by Meyer Stein Mfg. Co. (Meyer Stein filed for a lamp design patent July 2, 1913 while working out of his father's clothing store to repair miner's carbide lamps. The patent was awarded as #45,028 on Dec. 9, 1913 for what is Stein's earliest lamp. The "Pat. Apl'd For" marked lamp based on Stein's patent is shown elsewhere in the pics. In 1915, the Meyer Stein Mfg. Co. was established in Springfield, IL to manufacture this lamp. Stein's propensity to copy key features of other patented lamps from other manufacturers got him in trouble through infringement suits. His early attempt to copy Frank Guy’s familiar water dropper, calling his water feed the button dropper, resulted in an infringement suit settled in late 1916. He then made a follow-on lamp which is marked the Steindropper, very similar looking to the Guy’s Dropper lamp. The follow on to the Steindropper, a lamp curiously marked on top No. 50, was first advertised in 1916. It’s not known what Stein’s plans were for this lamp. There is speculation that the lamp was intended for resale by other vendors since a similar looking lamp was advertised in a late 1910s Sears Roebuck catalog. Since very few of the lamps are known in collections, if this was the marketing plan it was apparently unsuccessful. Two varieties of the No. 50 are known. The lamp shown here is the earliest, ca. 1916, with the sharp edged skirt, double knurled ring base, no cap braces and the pie-tin looking reflector. This reflector is identical to the early Guy’s Dropper one-date set screw reflector once the set screw flange portion is removed. A second and later variety, ca. 1917, of the No. 50 has an eight-sided base, cap braces and rolled-edge skirt. The Springfield lamp, shown elsewhere in my cap lamp pics, was evolved from these early Stein models and was produced at the Springfield plant. An interesting fact is that the double knurled ring base on the No. 50 looks identical to the similarly shaped base on the Springfield lamp. However, they are not identical, each having a different screw-thread size, and thus are not interchangeable. After Stein's service in World War I, he returned to the lamp business with his father Philip with a new business name, the Stein Mfg. Co. He had filed a patent for an adjustable water control lever following the war that is occasionally found on Springfield lamps. In 1922, Meyer Stein sold this patent to Ben Williamson, founder of the Ashmead Mfg. Co. , that was used in the Elkhorn and Buddy lamps manufactured by Williamson. In fact, Stein was hired as the chief designer for these lamps. The Stein Mfg. Co. continued off and on in business until 1937 when all operations ceased and the company went out of business. See Thorpe, Carbide Light, pp 88-93)

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