What IS an Authentic Petromax Lantern?

2790. What IS an Authentic Petromax Lantern? by Darryl Hassell (dhassell@demco.net)
      Posted: May 19, 2004 @ 08:56.
      Location : USA I recently purchased a Petromax Britelyt 500cp from a US firm. I made my purchase after briefly researching the history of the Petromax. At the time of my purchase, I was convinced my Petromax was descended directly from the original German manufacturers. Now, I'm not so sure.
      Since my purchase, I've noted there are several US distributors selling Petromax style lanterns. Some of these lanterns (possibly Heinze & Co.) have "Petromax" and "Germany" stamped into the fuel tank/fount and are reportedly assembled of both German and Chinese parts in China. Other lanterns offered as Petromax are made of nickel plated brass, but lack the stamping in the fuel tank (my lantern). Some are reportedly made by Santromax. All claim their parts are interchangeable.
      What lanterns made today are "Genuine Petromax" with links to the original German manufacturers?
      What Far Eastern companies are making and assembling these Petromax lanterns?
      

• On May 19, 2004 @ 11:22, Fil Graff (fgraff@comcast.net) wrote:
  Darryl: First any Petromax you buy from Brytelite carries instructions that should be disregarded. This is not, and never has been a lantern suitable for gasoline! See the several strings of questions and comments on this subject in the Archives.
  Your Petromax does "descend" from the german design, and has at least a company affiliation. Heinze is the successor company to Petromax/Ehrich & Graetz, but all the metal parts of the lamp (still stamped "Made in Germany", which is pure BS!) are made in China. Perhaps the lanterns are assembled in Germany, but they do carry German glass, and come in a German box. If this is "Made" in Germany, so be it. The overall quality of the Petromax has slipped from what it used to be when made in Germany and then Portugal, but if burned with kerosene, is a safe lantern to operate, and gives good dependable light. It is still a world-recognized brand, and justly so. You take your chances with the knock-offs.
  I'll leave it to Neil to fill in the details, but there are probably a dozen Petromax knock-off brands coming out of China today...I think Santromax is one of them. And cheer up, there are INDIAN knock-offs out there as well! I won't venture a guess as to what is "good" and what isn't, but I will say the idiots at Brytlite are preaching disaster, and customers who believe them are courting danger. I do know they seem to be the only such idiots left marketing this type lantern...all the other legitimate distributors we know have dropped the gasoline recommendation. :: Fil Graff ::
  
  
  
• On May 19, 2004 @ 19:56, Neil A McRae (tilleydoctor@nmcrae.freeserve.co.uk) wrote:
  Darryl: This is not a simple subject but I will try. As a matter of descent every lantern marked as Petromax is certainly descended from the original German made product. However what you are looking at is the brand name which actually has little to do with the manufacturer. In the US the Petromax brand is being used by Britelyt and I am not sure if they own the brand registration in the US or are licensing it from the Aladdin company. Makes no difference really as the lanterns are made in Hong Kong by Santromax. This enterprising company makes product for all comers and will stamp on them anything you like. We know they make Petromax and Geniol product for sale in Germany and the US. The Petromax Brand is owned in Germany by Christof Heinze as is Geniol. The last patent I am aware of granted to the German company is sometime in the early 1950s and a patent only lasts for 15 or 20 years. So after around 1975 or so anyone could make exact copies and out in China they do just that in huge numbers with a bewildering number of brand names. Some of these are available in Europe and the US. One such is Butterfly but others such as Anchor and Sea Anchor are also around.
  
  As for the history you can forget anything Britelyt say because they are just plain wrong and will not listen to the truth so we have given up trying. The lantern you are familiar with as Petromax was patented in the late 1920s by a consortium of Four German companies. Erich and Graetz AG (Petromax), J. Hirschhorn (Aida), Hugo Schneider AG (HASAG), and Continental-Light AG (Continental). All four companies made their own version of the lantern although by 1928 the Aida brand was owned by Erich & Graetz. After WW2 Aida product continued to be made but during the war the old Hirschhorn plant was closed and the product then became just a re badged Petromax made on the same production line. HASAG was principally engaged in munitions manufacture from around 1938 and after WW2 was in the Russian zone and then made BAT and HASAG brand product which were in the Petromax style. Continental were effectively closed as a company by 1943 and after the war only operated in a very small way until the owner died in the mid 1960s. The Petromax plant however was reconstructed in the late 1940s and went on to produce huge numbers of lanterns right through the 1950s and 1960s. At some time in the early 1970s production of lamps in Germany ceased and was moved to the Hipolito works in Portugal. Casa Hipolito then made both Petromax and Hipolito lanterns until around the late 1980s or early 1990s when all production of Petromax was moved to Hong Kong. Casa Hipolito ceased trading by around 1995. So since about 1990 or maybe a little earlier all Petromax lanterns have been Chinese. So right now the only link with the German manufacturers is the Chinese lamps shipped from HK to Heinze in Germany where they are sold throughout Europe, but not the UK. I don’t know where Britelyt get their product from but I suspect it is possibly direct from HK rather than from Heinze, although that may well not be the case because then US law would insist on the “Made in Germany” being changed to Made in China. So it may well be that US sold product does come from Germany where the lanterns have the glass added and are then boxed for shipping. One thing is for sure there is no lantern Production in Germany and has not been for well over ten years. The only truly “Western” product now on sale in any quantity is from Coleman in the US and in the UK Tilley and Vapalux. All the rest is from China, Malaysia, or India and that now includes anything that looks like a Petromax with perhaps the exception of a few small operations in the US like Workhorse and a few Amish businesses. All the great Swedish manufacturers are gone and a whole host of American companies are no more. ::Neil::
  
  
  
• On May 23, 2004 @ 12:54, Wim van der Velden (wim.ve@planet.nl) wrote:
  Hello,
  I want to add some points in addition to the answer of Neil:
  The only real German Petromax lantern at this time can be found on major internet auction houses and it is the German Army (BW) lantern in the metal case as it is used by the Military. They can be found in 250 and 500 cp new (unused!) and old. These lanterns where made by the Graetz factory in Altena Germany.
  
  In fact THE Petromax lantern doesn't exist in a patent as a whole lantern. The petromax lantern as we know today is a long row of developements. The only real mother of the Petromax is the AIDA lantern of Jacob Hirschhorn.
  The patents mentioned above also do not fit the known petromax.
  See also the BAT/HASAG/MEWA entry on my website
  Best regards,
  Wim van der velden with help of Anton kaim
  The Netherlands
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