The featured image shows four Hailwood and Ackroyd lamps, or, pre-1926, Ackroyd and Best lamps. The company apparently hired out hundreds, if not thousands, of workmens lamps, prior to 1936. This was when a new directive came out, decreeing that all miners lamps should have a minimum candle power, (who remembers candle power), of 1.5 cp. Hailwood and Ackroyd, along with several other companies, put their faith in High Candle Power lamps, examples of which I will post later, but battery-powered lamps began to take over. So, what to do with all those lamps, with WW2 approaching. Mr Hailwood in his wisdom had one gauze removed, and the spark ignition electrode snapped off. He then sold them to the public. It was discovered that a pale blue light couldn’t be seen at over 2000 ft, hence the blue glass. The blue and red glass lamps were used by the emergency services, i.e. Air Raid Precautions, The Home Guard, Remember Dad’s Army? and the general public, remember, they were flameproof and could be used around gas and petrol leaks for example. The picture shows two of them, plus two with plain glass. These plain ones I purchased from a charming elderly English lady in Queensland. They belonged to her husband, whose health was failing, and they were having to downsize. He had treasured these lamps since the end of the war, because as a boy, he lived in Essex, near London, and the War Department built a bunker in the area where he lived, to test hand grenades. When the armistice was declared, they just walked away and left it, so, as to be expected of any young lad, he jumped straight in there, and found the lamp 2nd from the right. A bit of a rarity as the numbers on the lamp matched. The other one was found in a garage by some new neighbours, and given to him to match the one he had found. It was probably used in the winter to keep the car engine warm and for making ignition easier. The car possibly had an inflatable balloon on the roof to run the engine on coal gas, a lot of them did, and remember, the lamp was flameproof!
To soften the blow of parting with the lamps, I sent her a small imitation brass Protector, as in the picture, and, I’m pleased to say, she sounded overjoyed to receive it!
– Information provided by Bosuns Mate.