Today I want to introduce you to the Chalwyn Tropic Mk.II, a classic British cold blast tubular lantern. Commonly called "Hurricane Lanterns" this is a design seen all over the World now.
In the "Bushcraft" community, Feuerhand lanterns seem to dominate the market because they are still available new but Chalwyn lanterns are just as good and can often be found for pennies on boot sales and junk shops. They are terrific lanterns that may just need a little TLC to restore.
If you are looking for a good solid storm lantern you can't go far wrong with a Tropic or any Chalwyn lantern to be honest.
To give you a little flavour of their history I will include here what I have been able to garner from the internet and discussion with other collectors.
Chalwyn was formed in 1943 when Wyndham Hewitt, the founder, looked towards what type of business might do well after the war.
Chalwyn is made up ofthe first names of two of the original directors: Charles Allen and Wyndham. The third, Nigel Page-Roberts, was Wyndham Hewitt’s nephew.
He was a skilled toolmaker and made the first press tools for Chalwyn lamps. He was running an engineering, sub-contract business in Romsey for Wyndham Hewitt and found the factory site, which is now Chalwyn Estate, inPoole in 1952. Jack Drewett was its first Managing Director. The factory was ideal as the previous company, Mass Products, had gone into receivership having made Sten Guns during the war and had the presses in situ to make the lanterns. At its height in the 50’s,Chalwyn became one of the biggest employers in Poole.
Chalwyn started to make storm lanterns in 1946. Tropic, Far East and Pilot
Their great competitor was Feuerhand who had the latest equipment due to the US Lend Lease program after the war and was able to produce lanterns far cheaper than Chalwyn and soon dominated the world market.
Chalwyn was always trying to diversify and they went into mass manufacturing of Road Danger lamps till the early 80’s. Lantern production ended around the late 60’s or so, however, the company continued to sell the glass globe- or ‘chimney’- to East and West Africa until the 00’s. 6-8 Million being sold a year was not uncommon - the Flag &Torch trademark label was well known and much copied!
The South African company was closed due to the fact Wyndham visited and found they were apparently doing some ‘home’ work.
The Flag lantern was not made by Chalwyn Ltd. company but the by VEB SturmlaternenwerkBeierfeld, East Germany. I'm not sure if it was produced in the 1970sonly or maybe in the 1980s too. Exactly therefore it has the embossed words 'FOREIGN' on the fount of the lantern.
The lantern production at the Chalwyn works finally ceased in April 1970. Because there was still a market for Chalwyn lanterns perhaps Chalwyn asked the Sturmlaternenwerk for help.
The Flag is similar to a Bat 158 hurricane lantern except the globe. The Bat 158 is a copy of the Feuerhand 275 lantern.
Later in the 1990s the Chalwyn lanterns were produced by the Meva concern in Prague.
In the 80’s, Chalwyn distributed Feuerhand lanterns into the UK then, in 1990’s,imported Meva lanterns from their factory in Roundnice, Czech Republic, which they badged Chalwyn ‘Tropic’ which was Chalwyn’s old brand name in the early days. These were painted silver but also different colours. The original Tropic lanterns were pressed,nickel-plated steel - Hot nickel plating being outlawed in the UK.
The EFAR 609 was manufactured before the war by the Nier company for Franz Racek. F. Racek was the main importer for Feuerhand lanterns since 1925.
But F. Racek also imported lanterns from Ehrich & Graetz and from Hasag AG.
Besides the EFAR 609(aka Feuerhand 252) there was also the model EFAR 610 (aka Feuerhand270).
F. Racek died on 14.03.1943 in Bombay. His widow and his son Walter continued the company at least until 1950.
EFAR and RAX were the house brands of F. Racek company. Not only lamps were marked with them.
In the 1950s (?) the company passed into Indian ownership.
From then on, the models EFAR 609 and EFAR 610 were ordered from Chalwyn Ltd. The lanterns Chalwyn Far East and Efar 609 are identical
There was a Chinese company that produced some lanterns right at the end, but they did not conform to British Standards thus were soon withdrawn.
The Bat trademark was owned by a Leeds-based company. ( Hudswell Clarke & Co. Ltd link perhaps? Makers of Gremlin Lanterns, based in Leeds. ) The company made glass bottles and so made the larger Pilot style globes predominantly for East Africa. They also made Chalwyn torch-branded globes and, for a time,these were made in the Czech Republic by a small concern, but the supplier closed in the end.
( My thanks go to the numerous collectors of this historical information that I have gathered together from various on-line sources. )
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