Light sets

Miller acetalene motorcycle lighting set (British)

This gas generator was recently sent to me from San Francisco, USA, as a challenge to my sheet metal working skills -- it was terribly crushed and broken in several places. There was a large hole in one side of the chamber which I have patched with copper sheet. During renovation it was discovered that the unit dated from World War 1, and the War Department stamp can be seen on the side of the lower container. The top chamber holds water which is regulated by the top central knob to drip down into the lower chamber, this being filled with carbide rock. The carbide reacts to the water and acetalene gas is formed, this was normally fed to the headlamp and tail lamp by rubber tubing. There it burned as a clear white light, until either the water or carbide rock was exhausted. The bottom chamber is removeable, and the old water soaked rock was discarded and refilled with fresh dry rock.

Powell & Hanmer set (British)

This set was burned and badly crushed by a steel beam in a garage fire in a Melbourne suburb some years ago – it was given to me as irreparable by an old friend in the hope that I may find it useful for parts. It was straightened and repaired, only the headlamp 'peak' has been replaced. The tail lamp from this set is on a 1924 Velocette GS. The glasses were cracked from the heat of the fire, and the red lens rim had melted off and been lost. This (and the hinge) has been replaced by a rim that has actually been machined from solid brass. The red lens was salvaged from a very old electric push bike tail lamp.