Weird what you think of sometimes. I was just now sitting here and a pang of nostalgia thumped me when, for some reason, I thought about those old black spherical metal kerosene lanterns they used to set out when they were doing street work. The looked like the fused round bombs that Commie anarchists and the Spy Vs. Spy guys were all the time throwing at each other.
Anyway, I don't know what made me think of those lanterns, but I remember seeing them as a little kid and thinking they looked really cool. I figured they'd be easy to find on the Internets, but I've looked for several minutes using several combinations of kerosene and round and lamp and road and warning, but came up empty, which is unusual. Aaaah--but then I searched on kerosene flare, and found out these things are called "Toledo flares." Also called smudge pots (as I later found out--thank goodness for eBay), many were made by the Toledo Pressed Steel Company (among others) and the company even had a Supreme Court case about patent infringement (I think--it required reading and that makes my head hurt). As you can imagine, there are collectors who know all about them, and the company was around at least until 1986, as this picture from Toledo's Attic indicates. Here's an ad from 1944 about their products (again, via eBay).
Don't know if they're still in business or not--how about it, Toledo?
(I love that Internets.)
UPDATE: Well, would you look at that. Apparently SOMEone is still making them. Some here as well.
Ahh--the lamp history guys have it--they ARE still being made, by a company called Fisher-Barton in North Carolina, but wouldn't you know it, the Chinese have a knock-off!
Posted by Terry Oglesby at June 15, 2006 03:25 PM