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Jumbo Front | JUSTRITE JUMBO - Justrite Jumbo cast aluminum 5 hr hand lamp with steel bail and hook and duplex feed, first cast aluminum Justrite lamp, marked JUSTRITE on sparker side top and PATENTED on other side top, low burner tube with oval brass water door, transition lamp between original No. 50 Jumbo with bail stick and later model No. 51, replacement bail screws, unique hissing cobra burner assembly missing aluminum burner tip, very good condition; ex-Larry Click lamp via Leo Stambaugh and Steve Rush collections (The Justrite Manufacturing Co. of Chicago, Illinois was formed in 1906 as an industrial fabricating company making special machinery and tools. With Frederick J. Becker as president, Justrite would become the most prolific manufacturer of carbide lamps for underground use and a name synonymous with the carbide lamp. In 1911, Becker realized the potential market for carbide mining lamps and supplies and along with his chief designer August L. "Augie" Hansen, they created a product name with one of the top reputations in carbide lamps. The first lamps manufactured and advertised by Justrite in their first known advertisements of 1912 were the No. 99 horizontal, wire feed brass cap lamp priced at one dollar with nickel plating at a dollar and a quarter, the No. 100 superintendent's lamp priced at a dollar and a half with nickel plating extra, and the rare No. 77 stick lamp priced at two dollars and 50 cents. Justrite continued to expand the product line and their facilities and by 1919, they employed 350 employess and manufactured 42 distinct types of carbide lamps. Justrite's Form 204 Catalog published after June 1914 but before Feb. 1915 introduced a cast aluminum 5-hour "Jumbo" hand lamp that used the Lever Feed and showed a swivel-hooked bail with a pointed mounting stick thrust through holes on each side of the bail yoke. The name "Jumbo" did not appear on the lamp. Later versions of the lamp as shown here include a low burner tube and a bail without the hook holes. Over the history of Justrite production from 1912 to 1931(catalogs 1 through 10A), at least 154 different lamp model numbers and at least 246 part numbers for a total of at least 400 number identifications were used by Justrite. However, a number of lamps, older versus newer, and parts used the same numbers so the whole identification matrix is ingrained with confusion. Nevertheless, it is very clear that Justrite provided more carbide lamps over a longer period of time than any other U.S. manufacturer. See Pohs, Miner's Flame Light Book, pp 435-462) | Original Image |
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