Topic: strange machine - what is it for? - ID = galvanic lighter or galvanic lamp

[Frank]

Mind boggling, they must be rare beasts. Just think of all the smokers that got blown away along with their lighters  :24:

[pamela]

Ivo,

Mr. Putz copied this from "Brandstifter" Führer des Niederrheinischen Museums Kevelaer, Goch 2002

Copyright of pages attached as .jpg:

© http://www2.bsz-bw.de/bibscout/ZG-ZS/ZS/ZS7600-ZS8200/ZS.7700/present?PRS=XML&SID=23a04b68-2f1&SET=1&FRST=14&COOKIE=U998,Pbszgast,I17,B0728+,SY,NRecherche-DB,D2.1,E23a04b68-2f1,A,H,R193.197.31.108,FY

(I hope scans work, as I can only control this after posting  :sleep: - if not I shall mail big files directly to you)

Additionally today I googled the following - have you seen these too?
http://www.gnegel.de/feuerzeug.htm

http://www.gnegel.de/feugalvanisch.htm

 
 

 

[pamela]

oops, too quickly posted  :spls:

[Ivo]

Absolutely fan-tas-tic - I even understand how it works. It must be one of the most obscure objects I have ever come across and I am seriously indebted to you for this magnificent piece of historical detective work.
 :hug:

[Anne]

Wow! This is fascinating, I'd never have figured this out in a million years. Thank you Pamela and Ivo for such an interesting topic.

[Ivo]

And here is the english version of the above text, for the germanically challenged:

Galvanic lighters count as subset of electrical lighters. The first galvanic lighter was presented by the English physic William Hyde Wollaston (1766-1828). In his machine presented in 1815 a currant is generated between 2 different (zinc and copper) metal plates dipped in acid. The current makes a platinum wire glow which lights the wick of an oil lamp. His contemporaries did not have a high opinion of this. It was "more of scientific interest than of practical use". Biedermann (1859) was negative too. Gnegel says not a single one of these early items survived. Apparently only prototypes were built which were more like test set-ups. Their value for science is not contested though, but in households they were hardly functional.

Only at the end of the 19th century this idea was reused. Apparently the model shown here was prduced in larger numbers. The lighter is from France,  some copies are embossed "Luminus".  In the large glass container are the acid and the metal plates, here carbon and zinc. The smaller container contains lighter fluid and a two wicks. By pressing the lever the zinc plate is lowered into the acid. The electricity generated makes a platinum wire at the small bottle glow. First the smaller wick is lit, which in turn lights the larger wick. By letting the lever come up again, the smaller wick is covered, but the larger one stays lit.

Zistl (1896) warns that these lighters are problematic because the temperature distance  between  sufficient glow of the platinum wire, and the melting temperature of same is very low. Also, the  acid ate the metal plates.  Gnegel believed therefore that this lighter was only a marginal product. Bisconcini, who celebrated the machine as the first electric table lighter which "succesfully linked a whole series of new ideas to the revolutionary invention of the battery" - thinks it was limited to France. Gnegel doubts this and shows an advert from the Berlin firm Hermann Lax in the year 1909, in which a very similar machine is depicted ("Electric Cigar lighter") in which no mention of France is made at all. But we cannot conclude firmly that the offered model is not of French provenance.
Both the year of introduction and the graphics of the advert make it probable that the Berlin firm played the general indignation of the population about the recently introduced tax on matches in the German Reich, in order to bring a technically obsolete invention to the cigar smoker for profit. The reference to expenve matches cannot be overseen.  In this matter Gnegel was right: these galvanic lighters were also produced in Germany and Austria, as not just the Austrian advertisement from Vienna firm Friedman underlines. Several patent applications in the German Reich exist.

[Bernard C]

Pamela and Ivo — Brilliant and fascinating.  :hiclp: :hiclp: :hiclp:

... and apologies for my rather ridiculous suggestion above.

Bernard C. 

[pamela]

this magnificent piece of historical detective work

...is not mine but Mr. Putz' and his collecting friends' merit, whom I thank indeed. For me it was a pleasure to know the right people at the right time  :chky:

Ivo and all: still we do not know the maker of the pressed glass container, which interests me, of course... 
It's   y o u r   t u r n   to identify the mark !  :24: :24: :24:

[Ivo]

Ah - time to come clean. The mark is not on this item but on the Blauer Heinrich which was purchased along with it...  just some pre-delivery confusion.

[Frank]

Tut, Ivo!

but great to see the conclusion of this tale.