Lantern history

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Lantern illuminants

A wide variety of styles exist of which the below is only a small representative sample.

Reproduced by kind permission from the 2003 Christie's of London auction catalogue of the John Finney Collection of Magic Lanterns.

Image of a lime light burner

British Lime Light Burner

Image of two lime light burners

British Pair of Lime Light Burners

Box of Mabor Limes with Pricker

Box of Mabor Limes with Pricker for Lime Light Burner

Mabor Limes

Mabor Limes

Image of an Electric Arc Burner

Electric Arc Burner

Image of an Auto Arc

Ross “Jenel” Auto Arc

Image of a Carbon Arc Burner

Fully Adjustable Carbon Arc Burner

Image of a Carbon Arc Burner

High voltage carbon arc burner

Image of carbon arc rods

Carbon arc rods

Image of two ether burners

British pair of ether burners

Image of an ether burner

W.C. Hughes ether burner with mantle

Image of an ether saturator

British Wrench ether saturator

Image of a gas burner

British Primus gas burner

Image of a reflector

British Primus light reflector

Image of gas bottle fittings and adaptors

British gas bottle fittings and adaptors

Image of an oil burner

British oil burner with wick

Image of a paraffin burner

British paraffin burner

Image of wicks and pliers

British Primus wick-trimming pliers and spare wicks