Last week's History Mystery question: What was the main product made at the Badger Brass Manufacturing Co. Inc. located in Kenosha around the turn of the 20th century?
Answer: The product was a Solar Bicycle Lamp, and there are a few collectors in the area who have these babies.
The lamps were initially manufactured at the Badger Brass Manufacturing Co., which was founded in 1898 by four businessmen, Charles N. Frost, George A. Yule, Richard Welles and E.L. Williams.
The factory was located initially on the corner of Elizabeth Street (63rd Street) and Pleasant Street (18th Avenue), but a new plant was built one block west on Lyman Avenue (20th Avenue) in 1905.
The product that started out lighting the way for bicycles did the same for motorized vehicles.
The factory employed 200 people in 1917 and boasted annual sales near the $1 million mark with an annual production of 100,000 cycle/bicycle and 400,000 auto lamps.
The Solar Lamps were known all over the world. They were adopted as standard equipment of the Cycle Division of the Dutch Army.
The lamps were standard on at least two automobiles — the Lancia, made in Turin, Italy, and the Berliet, made in Lyons, France.
Shipments of lamps were also sent to England, Russia, Norway, Sweden, Spain, Portugal, India, Australia, New Zealand, Cuba and the West Indies.
Throw out your conceptions of today's sun-powered solar lamps, as they were named Solar only because of the equivalent brightness of the light they shed.
Antique collector John Davison of Bristol has a couple of these lamps, and one has been in his family for about almost 100 years.
Based on the same concept as a miner's lamp, pieces of carbide are spaced in the lower compartment of the lamp. The small tank at the back is filled with water and the flow is regulated, drop by drop, by a key valve on the side of the lamp.
When the water hits the carbide, acetylene gas is formed and is forced into the upper camber burner.
The front glass is mounted on a hinged frame, so you can open up the chamber to light it. A flick of a match to the burner and ... Bumph!
The light produced is extremely bright (picture the flame of a cutting torch), and the front glass is actually a magnifying lens, increasing the power of the lamp.
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