Oilwick Lamps

Good and Good Patent Lamp RSide | GOOD AND GOOD PATENT - Hard to find tin wick lamp, slant-back variety, patented by Peter and Adam Good of Wilkes-Barre PA, marked on font Patd MAY 30, 93, 2 7/8 in. tall to lid, 1 7/8 in. base dia., and 3 7/8 in. spout [Slant-back (or lean-back) oil wick lamps were manufactured by at least three makers. The lamp shown here is marked with the patent date of May 30, 1893. This patent, No. 22,489, was filed by Peter and Adam Good, both of Wilkes-Barre, PA, on April 26, 1893. The catch is the patent was for an oil can. Further, the patent was a design patent and no improvements were identified in the application. The first patent for a slant-back wick lamp was filed by Charles D. Felix on May 15, 1894 and awarded as No. 25,526 on July 31, 1894, 14 months after the Good’s patent award. Felix lived in Shamokin, PA, just 60 miles from the Goods. It too was a design patent and no improvements were acknowledged for it either (see the Felix patent and lamps elsewhere in my oil wick section). The Trethaway Brothers also manufactured a slant-back wick lamp sometime after the Good’s patent as well but they made no attempt to patent their lamp that looks very much like the Felix lamp (see the Trethaway slant-back lamp in my oil wick section). Many patented oil wick lamps fail to resemble the patent application but unlike the Good’s case, they are not for oil cans. The lamps we have come to identify as the Good and Good patent lamp, very difficult to find, are identified only by the resemblance to the oil can design and the marked patent date on the font. Looking at the oil can configuration, as included in the patent application, of a cone-shaped font with the back side nearly vertical and the front side at a severe oblique angle slant, it’s easy to see how the wick lamp came about. By removing the top oil nozzle and capping the font with a hinged lid, adding a soldered hook on the vertical side of the font, and removing the cylindrical handle on the oblique slant side and replacing it with a steeply inclined spout from the bottom of the font results in the Good wick lamp. Whether they chose to make this modification before or after the Felix patent application is unknown but clearly both lamps share the same concept. As for the oil can patent date, the Good’s wick lamp looked enough like an oil can so why not use the patent you already have! As for Peter and Adam Good, the 1880 census has them living nearly next door to each other on Lehigh St. in Wilkes-Barre. Peter was single age 24 at the time and living with his younger brother Frederick age 21 and their sister Mary age 28. Their parents Jacob, a miner, and Anna Good had immigrated to the US from Germany prior to 1850. Peter and Frederick both were listed as tinsmiths. Adam at the time was 66 having been born in Germany with a listed occupation as a laborer. It is unclear what relationship Peter and Adam had and none was noted in the census records. By 1900, Peter is living at the same address in Wilkes-Barre with his wife and several children and is now listed as a grocer. Adam, who would have been 86, could not be located. Records indicate Peter was still living in Wilkes-Barre in 1930. As for the wick lamp we associate with the Goods, at least four lamps, including the one shown here, were sold via ebay over the past several years. All of those are identical with a quarter inch reinforcing band around the tip of the spout. All are marked with the patent date on the side of the font. Both the Felix and Trethaway slant-back lamps far outnumber the Good lamp making it a very desirable item for the collector.]

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