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©Neil A McRae 2002
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 Photo courtesy The Coleman Museum Herb Ebendorf |
The confection in question here is the American military inverted shadow less lantern with a do nut shaped fount. There has been an example of this lantern in the Coleman museum for some years and Herb Ebendorf is of the opinion that Coleman made a single batch of 50 of these lanterns for the US military in the early 50s, more from patriotism than any commercial interest. The example in the Coleman museum is the only know survivor of this batch. I had for some time assumed it was a Coleman designed lamp for use in the Korean exercise in international disagreement, but now evidence has come to light that makes that unlikely. Three other similar lamps have been found and two patents. |
The first patent is US Pat 2590434 application date 29 October 1947 and granted 25 March 1952 under the provisions of an act of Congress. This patent appears to be the inspiration for the military Do nut. It was applied for by John Lewis Cahill but in the description Mr. Lewis waives his right to royalties in favor of the US Government. I suspect the act mentioned in effect assigns the Patent to the US Government. The application date means that the design was being worked on prior to that date and I would guess this project was started sometime in late 1946 or early 1947. A little too early for an item designed specifically for Korea so I assume it was just the US QM searching for a better lantern.
The other three lanterns in existence are all Aladdin made. One, owned by Dr Alan Moore, is very much like the Coleman version and appears to follow the Aladdin patent design. It also has the appearance and finish of a production model. Two apparent prototype lanterns have also been found in the Aladdin R&D
It appears then that the US Government instigated the design of a lantern which would cast no shadow and then, having developed it with assistance from the Aladdin R&D people, asked both Coleman and Aladdin to make a batch of around 50 for evaluation. Coleman states they made 50 and I presume Aladdin also made the same batch size. The two surviving production lanterns both appear to have followed the Aladdin design and, given Herb's comment that Coleman had no interest in this project, other than what they perceived as their duty to the Government, I assume they just copied the Aladdin model.
My conclusion is that as far as the US military were concerned this do nut was indeed inedible. They certainly do not seem to have ordered any more than the original evaluation production runs. There were only ever 100 to 150 made and the military would have destroyed most, if not all, of those in their evaluation. This makes these lanterns possibly the rarest Post WW2 pressure lanterns ever made.
Neil McRae
Since the above was published a further patent for an inverted lantern has been found. This is US pat 2859332 applied for 25 June 1954 and granted 4 November 1958 to W. J. Townsend and A. M. Castello, assigned to the Coleman Co. Inc. The Coleman inverted lantern in the Wichita Museum is almost certainly made from this patent and not the Aladdin patent as I had first thought. I now think the Cahill patent was used as a basis for a redesign by Coleman and Aladdin who then each made a small batch of lanterns from their own designs.
The illustrations located under Neil's patent links are from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) website at www.uspto.gov -Editor
Photo Courtesy
Dr. Alan Moore
The second patent is US pat 2619820 Applied for 9 July 1949, granted 2 December 1952 and assigned to Aladdin Industries Inc. This patent was applied for over a year and a half after the Cahill patent and seems to be the one used to construct the lanterns from. My conclusion here is that Aladdin took the design patent and then having worked up their own version with production in mind patented their "improved" design. No doubt this would have been subjected to approval by the US Quartermaster and having granted that approval funds would have been appropriated to pay for the tooling and production. It would be normal Government practice at that time to retain ownership of the tooling and whilst it is possible the tooling was made by Aladdin it may have been made as a separate contract directly for the US Government.
Photo Courtesy
Dr. Bill Courter
storage room in Nashville some four years ago, one of which is now owned by Terry Marsh and the other is in the Aladdin office in Clarksville. These two lanterns have some hand made features and, given where they were found, it is reasonable to assume they could have been part of this redesign of the Cahill patent for production purposes. They could of course also be later than the military production run and be an attempt to develop a simpler and cheaper civilian version. They are less complex and robust than the production examples. Perhaps they were therefore only made to establish a working generator and burner set up and explore the heat protection required for the fuel reservoir.
Photo Courtesy
Dr. Terrance Marsh
Photo courtesy
Dr. Terrance Marsh
Coleman may even have used the same tooling which was quite possibly the property of the US QM Department. It is also possible that AGM/Thermos made a batch of fifty at the same time but I have no evidence they did. Except of course that AGM certainly produced a civilian version which was successfully sold as a camping lantern through the late 50s and into the 60s as J. C. Higgins brand for Sears and Thermos or Kamplite for King Seely Thermos.
Photo courtesy
Dr. Alan Moore
Photo courtesy
Dr. Bill Courter