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Herb Ebendorf
Herb Ebendorf Historian, The Coleman Company, Inc. A longtime resident of Wichita, Herb Ebendorf graduated (BA) Washburn University in 1932 and came to Wichita in 1934 to take a position with Farm Credit Administration. He joined Boeing Public Relations Department as Editor of Employee Publications. When the Second World War ended he accepted the position of Publications Manager for the Coleman Co. He served in various capacities as publicity writer, editor of employee and dealer publications, advertising, sales promotion and public relations. Herb is active in American Red Cross, United Way, National Conference of Christians and Jews, Wichita Chamber of Commerce and Industrial Editors Association. His special interests are early Wichita history, its pioneers, entrepreneurs and civic leaders. You may contact Herb at the Coleman Factory Outlet and Museum, 235 N. St. Francis Wichita, KS 67202 (316) 261-334
Outdoors
2002-10-01 13:43:00
The lantern, mantle & gasoline
Herb Ebendorf Question:  In reading about several of Wichita’s industrial ‘pioneers’, I don’t find that much written about W. C. Coleman, and all of his work in the area of illumination and lanterns.  Can you provide a little history about him, his products, and his company?Answer:  Thank you... I will be most happy to do so, but to do it right, I have to go back further than W. C. Coleman’s work in these areas... so it will all make sense.  I will do this in several parts over the next few months.  Hopefully I will make it an enjoyable trip for you.  "The peculiar feature of the gas lamp of Dr. Auer von Welsbach consists in the incandescence of certain metallic salts placed in the middle of the flame of a Bunsen burner."1It was in this manner that Scientific American introduced its readers to an invention destined to have far-reaching and enduring effects on the history of illumination.The principle of the incandescent mantle was not new. Readers were reminded the Welsbach mantle was the same as that in the Clamond lamp in which the incandescent substance was a little thimble of magnesia threads.Dr. Auer had gone a step farther. He had taken an ordinary Bunsen burner and had suspended above it a hood of cotton or woolen material. The hood, which later would be identified as the Welsbach mantle, was about 6 or 7 centimeters in height and fastened at the bottom by a platinum thread. As soon as the burner was lighted the hood or mantle, which previously had been washed in a preparation  of mineral salts, came aglow with a whitish blue light said to be remarkable for its steadiness and intensity.Two months later Scientific American2 would report that the Welsbach system of gas lighting had been demonstrated successfully at the Marlborough Picture Gallery in London. The Welsbach mantle lamps were screwed onto the gallery's ordinary gas fittings where, it was said, "they emitted a white and brilliant light resembling somewhat that of an incandescent electric lamp."Dr. Auer had begun work in the field of incandescent gas lighting in 1880 at the Bunsen laboratory in Heidelberg. He obtained a patent on his mantle in 1885 but several years would elapse before he would settle upon a solution of 99 percent thorium oxide and 1 percent cerium oxide as the combination which would give the best light.Dr. Auer’s patents in Europe and the United States gave limited protection and by the close of the 19th century, there were scores of mantle makers.  One of the more successful ones was Candescent Lite & Supply of Wichita and Denver.If the Welsbach invention would seem to be linked irrevocably to the Gay Nineties, its importance, although overshadowed by the excitement which attended the early days of Edison's incandescent lamp, proved to be of lasting significance. The principles which guided the development of the burner and the incandescent mantle are far from being obsolete. Operable hydrocarbon mantle lamps and  lanterns, whether used for pleasure, emergency or decoration, today number in the millions.Next time we will look at how the burner and mantle got together, with fuel, and the host of inventions and patents that were granted in a very short period of time.
 
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