On Wed, 22 Dec 2004 20:08:34 -0500, Roy Smith wrote:

In article ,
Matt Whiting wrote:

G.R. Patterson III wrote:


Matt Whiting wrote:

What did you call the real white gas that Coleman and others sell for
lanterns and stoves?


As far as I know, they didn't sell that in the 50s. I never saw "Coleman
Fuel"
until the mid-70s.

I'm pretty sure it was availabe in the late 60s, but my memory doesn't
go back any farther than that! I've been searching around trying to
find the history of Coleman fuel, aka "white gas", but no luck yet.


The old name for fuel for "Coleman" lamps was "naphtha" It was more highly
refined than gasoline, and had no coloration added. It smelled distincly
different from automotive gasoline. It was the only acceptable fuel for the
pressurized mantle-type lanterns back then, and it was usually strained
through an extremely fine metal seive lined with a cloth filter to ensure
than no particulate matter got into the burner pipes and valve.

Naphtha was used in these types of lanterns going back to the 1930's if not
earlier. The earliest Coleman lanterns even had mica windows, rather than a
glass surround.

Matt

The Coleman web site claims they've been making gas lanterns for over
100 years. Is Coleman fuel anything other than gasoline without the
additives added to motor fuel?