Carbide Hand Lamps/Full Moon pic4

Carbide Hand Lamps

Full Moon pic4.JPG - FULL MOON - Hard to find carbide lamp, precursor to first miner’s carbide lamp by Baldwin, marked on top OPEN SHUT on either side of fill cap and FULL MOON NEW YORK, U.S.A., 5 in. high with 3 clutches on base of 2 1/2 in. dia, with supt. style handles attached to screw catch on back side and deep dish 3 3/8 in. dia. screw on reflector, nickel plated (The history of the Full Moon lamp is still somewhat of a mystery. It was thought the earliest mention of the Full Moon lamp was in an article of the Sept. 15, 1900 issue of The Engineering and Mining Journal. However we now know, thanks to Tony Moon, that the Full Moon lamp was advertised in an article almost a year earlier in the Oct. 10, 1899 issue of Hardware along with an illustration of the lamp. The article noted that “a new Acetylene Lamp which is manufactured by F. E. Baldwin, New York, and is placed upon the market and before the hardware trade by Hermann Boker & Co. No. l01 Duane Street, New York, who are sole agents for the sale of the same. This lamp is specially designed for bicycles, carriages, etc.” And, thanks to Dave Thorpe, an even earlier article in the July 1, 1899 Iron & Steel also introduces the Full Moon Acetylene Lamp referring to the Hermann Boker & Co. address on Duane St. but not mentioning the name of the company. The lamp follows Frederic E. Baldwin’s patent No. 656,874 almost exactly. Baldwin’s patent along with six pages of claims was filed on Oct. 18, 1899 and awarded on Aug. 28, 1900. It’s interesting to note that Baldwin filed for his patent a little over a week after the advertising article appeared in Hardware and over three months after the Full Moon article in Iron and Steel. The history of the Full Moon also involves a man named Albert H. Funke of Manhattan, New York. A. H. Funke was a partner in the Hermann Boker & Co. from 1891 to 1900 and was managing the gun department at Boker when the original ads in Hardware and Iron & Steel appeared. Funke left Boker the end of December 1899 taking the gun department with him and teamed with Baldwin using Baldwin’s patent to offer the Full Moon Baldwin acetylene lamp. Over a relatively short period of time, the Full Moon evolved from a lamp with a screw catch on the back, to a lamp with a screw catch that was attached to a superintendent-style handle, to a lamp without the screw catch but with handles and a hook on back. And the question of who actually manufactured any of these lamps is still unanswered. A 1901 Christmas advertisement in the American Monthly Vol. 24 shows A. H. Funke, located at 101-103 Duane St. in NY, offering rifles, pistols, and shotguns as well as Baldwin acetylene searchlights, Full Moon acetylene camp lamps, and acetylene bicycle lamps. It’s interesting to note that mining lamps weren’t part of his offering. It’s also interesting to note that Funke’s address is the same as the Boker Co. on Duane St. in New York. The earliest advertising article for the Baldwin Acetylene Lamp for mines occurs in the Sept. 15, 1900 issue of Vol. 70 of the Engineering and Mining Journal. This article notes that the mining lamp version of the Full Moon adds a handle to the catch on the backside to create a portable lamp adapted for use in mines. The lamp pictured here is likely the earliest version of the Full Moon mining lamp. The earliest advertising article for the Full Moon mining lamp with handles and a hook on back along with an illustration of the Baldwin Acetylene Mine Lamp so equipped occurs in the May 28, 1901 issue of The Iron Age. This article notes that “it is an adaptation of his (A. H. Funke) Full Moon bicycle lamp” designed principally for use in coal mining and surveying. A later mention of Funke selling acetylene gas lamps for mines using the Baldwin system appears in an ad for the A. H. Funke Co.in the May 1902 Engineering and Mining Journal but it’s interesting that the name Full Moon is not used in the ad. A full page in the August 1902 Miller Supply Catalogue of Huntington, WV shows a Full Moon looking lamp with handles and hook (although not specifically named) as well as the rare Indestructible oil wick lamp stamped by A. H. Funke (shown and described in my oil wick section). Although the paper trail of ads and articles mark the evolution of the Full Moon lamp, the ultimate connection between mining and the Full Moon lamp is pictorially shown in a photo from the USGS photo library for the Ontario Mine, Park City District, Utah. This photo ca. 1902 was part of the research conducted by J. M. Boutwell for the USGS Professional Paper No. 77 eventually published in 1912. The caption describes the photo as “banded black and white coarsely crystalline marble; looking west; first mouth of drift on first hanging wall east of No. 2 shaft; 1500 level; Ontario Mine; miners lamp for scale; Park City District, Summit County, Utah.” There clearly shown in the photo is a fired Full Moon mining lamp being used for scale. Funke and Baldwin split by 1902, Funke to pursue a variety of interests as an importer and dealer in high-end firearms as well as automobile parts. A pre-1906 Funke firearms catalog offering a wide variety of pistols and rifles shows his location as 325 Broadway in New York City. Baldwin teamed with Ingersoll-Sergeant Drill Co. to market the unmarked Superintendent’s Lamp somewhat larger but nearly identical to the Full Moon but with both handles and a hook. An ad in the 1906 Pittsburgh Gage and Supply Catalogue shows this lamp but the earliest manufacturing date for the lamp is unknown.)

Full Moon pic4 | FULL MOON - Hard to find carbide lamp, precursor to first miner’s carbide lamp by Baldwin, marked on top OPEN SHUT on either side of fill cap and FULL MOON NEW YORK, U.S.A., 5 in. high with 3 clutches on base of 2 1/2 in. dia, with supt. style handles attached to screw catch on back side and deep dish 3 3/8 in. dia. screw on reflector, nickel plated (The history of the Full Moon lamp is still somewhat of a mystery. It was thought the earliest mention of the Full Moon lamp was in an article of the Sept. 15, 1900 issue of The Engineering and Mining Journal. However we now know, thanks to Tony Moon, that the Full Moon lamp was advertised in an article almost a year earlier in the Oct. 10, 1899 issue of Hardware along with an illustration of the lamp. The article noted that “a new Acetylene Lamp which is manufactured by F. E. Baldwin, New York, and is placed upon the market and before the hardware trade by Hermann Boker & Co. No. l01 Duane Street, New York, who are sole agents for the sale of the same. This lamp is specially designed for bicycles, carriages, etc.” And, thanks to Dave Thorpe, an even earlier article in the July 1, 1899 Iron & Steel also introduces the Full Moon Acetylene Lamp referring to the Hermann Boker & Co. address on Duane St. but not mentioning the name of the company. The lamp follows Frederic E. Baldwin’s patent No. 656,874 almost exactly. Baldwin’s patent along with six pages of claims was filed on Oct. 18, 1899 and awarded on Aug. 28, 1900. It’s interesting to note that Baldwin filed for his patent a little over a week after the advertising article appeared in Hardware and over three months after the Full Moon article in Iron and Steel. The history of the Full Moon also involves a man named Albert H. Funke of Manhattan, New York. A. H. Funke was a partner in the Hermann Boker & Co. from 1891 to 1900 and was managing the gun department at Boker when the original ads in Hardware and Iron & Steel appeared. Funke left Boker the end of December 1899 taking the gun department with him and teamed with Baldwin using Baldwin’s patent to offer the Full Moon Baldwin acetylene lamp. Over a relatively short period of time, the Full Moon evolved from a lamp with a screw catch on the back, to a lamp with a screw catch that was attached to a superintendent-style handle, to a lamp without the screw catch but with handles and a hook on back. And the question of who actually manufactured any of these lamps is still unanswered. A 1901 Christmas advertisement in the American Monthly Vol. 24 shows A. H. Funke, located at 101-103 Duane St. in NY, offering rifles, pistols, and shotguns as well as Baldwin acetylene searchlights, Full Moon acetylene camp lamps, and acetylene bicycle lamps. It’s interesting to note that mining lamps weren’t part of his offering. It’s also interesting to note that Funke’s address is the same as the Boker Co. on Duane St. in New York. The earliest advertising article for the Baldwin Acetylene Lamp for mines occurs in the Sept. 15, 1900 issue of Vol. 70 of the Engineering and Mining Journal. This article notes that the mining lamp version of the Full Moon adds a handle to the catch on the backside to create a portable lamp adapted for use in mines. The lamp pictured here is likely the earliest version of the Full Moon mining lamp. The earliest advertising article for the Full Moon mining lamp with handles and a hook on back along with an illustration of the Baldwin Acetylene Mine Lamp so equipped occurs in the May 28, 1901 issue of The Iron Age. This article notes that “it is an adaptation of his (A. H. Funke) Full Moon bicycle lamp” designed principally for use in coal mining and surveying. A later mention of Funke selling acetylene gas lamps for mines using the Baldwin system appears in an ad for the A. H. Funke Co.in the May 1902 Engineering and Mining Journal but it’s interesting that the name Full Moon is not used in the ad. A full page in the August 1902 Miller Supply Catalogue of Huntington, WV shows a Full Moon looking lamp with handles and hook (although not specifically named) as well as the rare Indestructible oil wick lamp stamped by A. H. Funke (shown and described in my oil wick section). Although the paper trail of ads and articles mark the evolution of the Full Moon lamp, the ultimate connection between mining and the Full Moon lamp is pictorially shown in a photo from the USGS photo library for the Ontario Mine, Park City District, Utah. This photo ca. 1902 was part of the research conducted by J. M. Boutwell for the USGS Professional Paper No. 77 eventually published in 1912. The caption describes the photo as “banded black and white coarsely crystalline marble; looking west; first mouth of drift on first hanging wall east of No. 2 shaft; 1500 level; Ontario Mine; miners lamp for scale; Park City District, Summit County, Utah.” There clearly shown in the photo is a fired Full Moon mining lamp being used for scale. Funke and Baldwin split by 1902, Funke to pursue a variety of interests as an importer and dealer in high-end firearms as well as automobile parts. A pre-1906 Funke firearms catalog offering a wide variety of pistols and rifles shows his location as 325 Broadway in New York City. Baldwin teamed with Ingersoll-Sergeant Drill Co. to market the unmarked Superintendent’s Lamp somewhat larger but nearly identical to the Full Moon but with both handles and a hook. An ad in the 1906 Pittsburgh Gage and Supply Catalogue shows this lamp but the earliest manufacturing date for the lamp is unknown.)

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