KOSMOS-BRENNER LAMPS & WICKS

Kosmos Lamp Kit - Kosmos-Brenner lamps - Sebastianbrenner - Lempereur & Bernard - Den Haan - Kosmos Concierge - B&H "Imperial" - Wild & Wessel - Veritas table lamp

"Sans Rival" borosilicate chimney for 14''' Kosmos lamps 
New, Superb chimney!

Kosmos Wicks   ~~~   Kosmos Chimneys

Sizes of Kosmos Lamps

Aimé Argand of Switzerland invented and patented the Argand lamp in 1780.  This lamp burned whale oil, but used a circular wick with a separate reservoir.  The invention of kerosene in the early 1850's lead to the inexpensive flat wick kerosene lamps, essentially ending the life of the Argand lamp.  The concepts developed by Argand, however, would resurface with the folded wick Kosmos style burner in 1865 and the separate fuel reservoir being employed for "student lamps" by Manhattan Brass Co. and Kleemann of Germany. 

Wild & Wessel of Berlin in 1865 developed the "Kosmos" burner, where a flat-wick formed is round. To obtain clean burning, a side draft was used to induce combustion air to the center of the circle of wick.   ["Goes in flat, comes out round"... by a process of 'conical curling' ... shows the triangular air port allowing air to centre of flame. Also shows direct gear drive to the wick.] Photo by Alex Marrack

Wild & Wessel of Berlin in 1865 developed the "Kosmos" burner, where a flat-wick formed is round. To obtain clean burning, a side draft was used to induce combustion air to the center of the circle of wick.  The side draft burner obviated the need for a central air shaft through the fuel reservoir, and were easier to manufacture than center draft lamps.  To direct the air flow properly past the flame, these burners used a pinched, reduced diameter chimney.   Emil Wild was granted US patent #303774 on Aug. 19, 1884 for a Kosmos burner with a flame spreader.  This burner was in my opinion the epitome of brilliant design. Sold in the US as the B.B.S. "Imperial" burner. The Central Vulcan was sold by Catterson's in England. these lamps were absolutely outstanding burning lamps, easily putting out as much light as a larger center draft lamp.

W& W continued to make W&W Kosmos burners until  THE WHOLE W&W COMPANY was taken over by Hugo Schneider & Co in 1903, and Schneiders continued to make EXACTLY the same W&W range, with the same W&W markings, so you cannot date them.  (from Alex Marrack)

Brokelmann, Jager & Co. from Neheim A/D Ruhr, Germany may have started making Kosmos burners (Brenner means Burner in German) in 1899.. or before, loads of  makers made Kosmos brenners / burners by then. (from Alex Marrack).

About 1895, Ehrich & Graetz of Berlin introduced the "Matador" burner, in which a flame spreader was used.  Depending upon the width of the disk, chimneys were either straight or had a pronounced bulge.  The "Sebastianbrenner" burner used a medium sized disk on a mesh tube with a straight chimney, for example.  (ALL matadors have a very pronounced bulge and big spreaders (see my article);  other  burners have smaller spreaders and some have straight or Kosmos shaped chimneys.  (Alex Marrack)

[W&W used three names: Kosmos, Kosmos Vulkan and Central Vulkan.  It is ABSOLUTE that a Kosmos burner has no spreader and has a pinched chimney and direct gear-drive to the wick type winder  that is what defines a Kosmos  (Alex Marrack);   the Kosmos Vulkan had a Flame Spreader but not a wick carrier, and the Central Vulcan had both a flame spreader and a wick carrier, were made in both side-draft and central draft versions, and used a Vulcan style chimney.  In the UK the center draft version was sold (exclusively?) by Catterson and so called the GLOBE Vulkan (Globe being Catterson's trademark).  To complicate matters, Den Haan in Rotterdam reportedly purchased the machinery from Brokelmann and produced all versions of the Wild & Wessel burner.  [So my B&H Imperial, with a flame spreader but lacking a wick carrier, is a Kosmos Vulcan burner. 

Den Haan in Rotterdam (Netherlands) and Gaudard in France (Kosmos) still produce Kosmos and Kosmos-Brenner lamps.  The Kosmos #14 burner without a flame spreader and the Kosmos #15 burner is a Matador with flame spreader, both without wick carriers, but they have never made Vulkans or 'W&W marked Kosmos burners'  (Alex Marrack).

In addition to their fabulous 20''' and 30''' center draft lamps, L&B "Belge" also produced Kosmos-Brenner lamps with flame spreader but lacking a wick carrier, in Kosmos Vulcan style, in various styles.  My L&B Kosmos Vulcan is a 15''' pedestal lamp.

Wicks for Kosmos-Brenner lamps were measured by the flat width by the designation of "lines,"  symbolized by ''' for "line."  Light output being (in part, ( a 10 line spreader type burner, eg wizard, gives loads more light than a 14 line kosmos [A.M.] )  a function of the top surface area of a wick, the wider the wick the greater the light output.  Kosmos sizes are listed below for 6''' to 14'''.  Above 14 line, individual makers and countries had different ''' standards. (No countries had 'standards', and different makers diverged more in the larger sizes than they did in the smaller ones, there were just rather general 'habits' that were followed more or less by most makers. Standards means something fixed and governed by, for instance SAE, or BSI.) [A.M.]

Sizes of Kosmos Lamps

Determining which size wick fits a lamp when there isn't a stub of wick left to measure becomes difficult.  I have listed below the inside diameter of the top of the outside wick tube for various Kosmos lamps I own, shown below the line number and width in inches.  Please note there were hundreds of manufacturers, so dimensions may well vary, in some cases vary considerably. 

KOSMOS BRENNER VS KOSMOS MATADOR

Wicks for Kosmos lamps are available from me - click here.

PHOTOS OF VINTAGE KOSMOS and KOSMOS-BRENNER LAMPS

One of the great advantages of Kosmos lamps is the lack of a center draft tube.  That meant that fonts could be any style or size and constructed of glass, pottery, brass, whatever suited the lamp maker.

Lampe Parisianne

Variations possible with Kosmos burners

Small lamps

<<<  Piano and reading lamp. >>> Wild & Wessel hand lamp. Owned and photographed by Peter Brickell.

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Small Kosmos Table Lamp

As mentioned above, Wild & Wessel of Berlin in 1865 developed the "Kosmos" burner.  Emil Wild was an undoubted genius at lamp designs.  His August 19, 1884 design for a burner with a flame spreader was sold in the US as an "Imperial" brand and in the UK under the "Vulcan" brand name.  The unique chimney for that burner was also patented by Emil Wild.  Unfortunately, Emil Wild was apparently not an astute businessman.  From what I can determine, Wild had an exclusive import arrangement with Bradley & Hubbard in the US and Catterson's in the UK,  yet failed to put a performance clause in either contract.  B &H was far more concerned with marketing their new line of center draft lamps than trying to market the more expensive, exquisite Imperial burner.  And Catterson's in the UK was more interested in selling lamps in their London department store than actually working as a wholesale agent for the Vulcan line of lamps - to the point their Vulcan lamps actually had their own badge on the burner! (There are supposedly Vulcan lamps found in the UK without the Catterson's badge, so they apparently did some wholesale business.)  Thus Imperial and Vulcan lamps are quite rare, which is a real shame because they were one of the cleanest burning lamp designs ever produced.

1 5/16"	6 '’‘ Kosmos
1 7/16"	8 ‘’‘ Kosmos
1 1/2"	10 ‘’‘ Kosmos
1 7/8"	12 ''' Kosmos
2"	14 ‘’‘ Kosmos (British?)
2 1/16"	14 ''' Kosmos (American?)
2 1/8" - 2 1/4"	16 ''' Kosmos
2 7/16"	18 ''' Kosmos

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