Early Clowes

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Early Clowes’ Hydrogen Oil Lamp

This is the earliest of Clowes’ Hydrogen Oil Lamp and the one that most resembles the drawings in the patent.  It is very eloquently made with the precision of an instrument. The maker, Stanley of Derby, was well know for surveying instruments.  The lamp is marked “Ashworth’s Patent  Hepplewhite Gray  Stanley Derby”.  The cylinder is very nicely engraved “Clowes & Redwood’s Patent  W. J. Fraser & Co.  Commercial Road East  London”.  W. J. Fraser was most likely a specialist in  manufacturing gas cylinders.

Again, the construction of this lamp is like an instrument.  The cylinder is attaches to the lamp font via a bayonet system.  The cylinder “snaps” and is locked into a spring loaded mount at the base of the bonnet.  There is not prevision in this design to realign the cylinder mount on the font, and the cylinder mount on the bonnet when font’s thread starts to wear.  Note that, unlike other Ashworth lamps, that there is only one shut off sleeve mounted on a standard instead of the usual two.  This example is unfired, and is circa 1892 to 1900.

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