Long before the electric bulb, gas lights were the source for lighting, and their use continued into the 1950’s in street lights. They are still used today for camping and during power outages.

There is an interesting story of how Charles Daniels of the Daniels Gasoline Lighting Company of Paris, Illinois, patented a lamp burner in 1909. He became affiliated with the Little Wonder Light Company of Terre Haute, Indiana, a company that also had an experimental lantern of the same date. Strange, indeed.

Terry Marsh of Chicago, Illinois, a retired ecology and botany professor at North Central College, began collecting and researching old gas pressure lighting and heating appliances, such as Coleman lanterns and stoves. His interest in the history resulted in creating the website terry-marsh.com to include collections of others, as well as his own. He has written a number of articles for collector magazines and given presentations to the International Coleman Collectors Club at their annual conventions, the Aladdin Knights annual gatherings, and historical societies where these appliances were located.

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