This man has a very interesting job in some remote places, undertaking mechanical and electrical maintenance. I am jealous. Are light houses covered by B.S. 7671?
Paraffin heaters eh. As a small boy awoken by mother entering my bedroom. The sound of striking match. The smell of the oil heater being lit and the extinguished match. The call to breakfast. The warm smell of paraffin heat as it created damp warmth in the room. Then off to school. At times in the day the call of the paraffin man with his small tanker of ESSO Blue. Containers taken out into the road to be filled. Useful during power cuts. News headlines, flat burns down due to overturned paraffin heater. House fire caused by paraffin heater. Person burned to death in paraffin heater fire. Family rehoused after paraffin heater fire. S.W. London.
The advert was used as the basis of a homophobic joke in my youth, about where certain types of people may have purchased their Paraffin. Social attitudes as well as technology, have thankfully moved along way since then.
Paraffin lights in lighthouses had a good record of both safety and reliability, some overseas light houses still use them.
The paraffin was placed in a pressure tight container and air pumped in via a hand pump. The pressurised paraffin was turned into vapour by a small auxiliary burner and burnt in an incandescent gas burner.
The auxiliary burner was preheated with meths, and kept hot by a Bunsen burner fueled by paraffin vapour.
Until recently, special electric lamps were made for light houses originally equipped with paraffin vapour lamps. A cylinder of translucent silica surrounded the filament in order that the light source would be a similar size and shape to the incandescent mantle for which the optical system was designed.
I still use a paraffin burning infra-red radiator in my bathroom in severe weather.
The old forum had a bar down the right-hand side with useful info and a summary of some of the jobs advertised through the IET. I believe a similar job appeared there a bit back.
