Tiny Paraffin Heater

This may be nothing to do with railways at all but I thought that I'd run it past everyone just in case. Bought for £15 from an antique shop in an old mill at Haslingden near the non-preserved Summerseat to Accrington bit of the East Lancs, it is a mere 8" high and 4" square at the base, similar to a box of Celebrations. The top is held on by a bayonet fitting, it is made of an alloy such as mazak and the red paint looks original. The burner carries the name "Sherwoods B'Ham" who I have discovered were a prolific manufacturer of lamps at Nechells who, as well as making lamps for the domestic maket made industrial lamps and supplied lamp internals and burners to the LMS. The only other lettering is "Regd Design" cast/stamped on it near the burner. Tellingly, there are no indications of any railway ownership that I would have expected if that had been it's origin. But......

This is obviously a heater, but it is very small - the burner is standard lamp size, so it's output isn't great - and it isn't windproof, so an inside application is probable. The hook maybe suggests that it is for dangling under something to keep it warm. Like I say, it may be nothing to do with railways at all, Haslingden also had mills, quarries and coal nearby. I'm guessing 50's or 60's from it's design - it looks to me like something from Dan Dare - but does anyone know for definite?

 

Possibly to hang under a car radiator while parked in a garage to prevent it freezing up? I think it may be earlier than 1950s/60s - my guess would be 1920s/30s before antifreeze was fully developed.

 

I remember my father having one exactly like it which was used to prevent freezing in a garage with just thin asbestos-cement sheet walls. This would have been around 1960.

Andy

 

So.....it looks like it's a sump heater. I suppose I could always warm my Ruston with it to give it a railway connection! Of course it's not just anti-freeze, until the 60's most oils were monograde so in the winter could be thick and sticky when cold. I have an old motorbike that uses SAE50 and it's like treacle in the winter, so maybe I now have the solution.............

Thanks to you both.