Posted 8 years ago
Juliet78
(2 items)
Civil war era rare Vintage.... presto dark room lantern.
Transforms well opens up to turn into a little dark room to develope pictures in...it was used a very long time ago and is still used by some photographers today...
Http://m.ebay.com/itm/vintage-presto-dark-room-lantern-rare-and-complete-/152153558247?nav=SEARCH
Thanks for searching this issue! I don't know if you saw my reply to your last post on my mystery page.
http://www.collectorsweekly.com/stories/197413-identity-request?in=activity
However I don't believe it's a darkroom lamp for the three reasons stated there with some additions below, which I believe rule that usage out. The reflectors, if they have one in darkroom lamps all appear to focus the light through the maximum amount of glass and none have the square lenses blocked out in a round light opening. Except for the on you've posted here with two red lenses none of the others have more than one. I can see two red lenses needed if the film being developed is "fast" as it would require dimmer red light to prevent fogging of the negative during the process. As the mystery lamp has three lenses, albeit the lensed are square glass, the aperture is round and the reflector is designed to produce a beam as opposed to general lighting. My apologies for this disagreement, though it may not be a RR lantern I believe it to be a signal lamp of some kind.
With further thought, the lamp you picture here having two lenses, might actually be for a red lens while developing film and a clear lens for bright light after development. Which could mean a three lens lamp could be for a clear lens and two red lenses if a very dim red light is needed. However that doesn't bear on the lamp producing a focused beam or the round aperture. Hmmmmmmm?