A Victorian limelight illuminant for a magic lantern. It is nicely engraved ‘Manchester Oxygen Company Ltd’, also with the word ‘Patent’ to one side and ‘Injector’ to the other. The trade advertisement (first image, web-sourced) appeared in The Optical Magic Lantern Journal of March 1900, with the manufacturers claiming the apparatus to be 2,000 times brighter than a candle! These burners were developed in the 1820s as an alternative the spirit-based options that were widely used at the time. A cylindrical block of calcium oxide was heated in an oxyhydrogen flame, becoming white hot when up to temperature. This achieved the intensity of light that all magic lanternists of the day were all striving for, but with the significant disadvantage of generating immense amounts of heat - this being the exact same technology that is used to cut and weld metals! Hydrogen and oxygen were fed into the burner by separate pipes, each inlet being fitted with a valve (on this example engraved 'H' and 'O') so the mixture and intensity of flame could be accurately controlled. An arrangement of cogs allowed the lime block to be rotated, raised and lowered.

28cm long, 12.5cm high. Base 20cm x 12cm.