Carbide bike lamps still being made!!!!

Sgt. Howard

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For real! There's an outfit in India still making carbide bike lamps! http://www.jkdey.com/index.html - copy and paste to get to their site. However, there is no pricing or ordering information on the website- I have sent an inquirey and have yet to get a reply- perhaps translation is an issue, I'm not sure.
Their product is a nickle-plated brass operation, fairly bare-bones, none of the fancy patterns of the Victorian and Edwardian eras- more BauHaus than anything else, but I suspect about as functional as such an operation can get as these folks also make carbide miner's lamps and saftey lamps. Those of us doing retro and/or BTR might want to look into this and see if these are feasable... or even affordable. I don't understand why they bothered to put these on the internet without price or ordering information unless this is just testing the waters- perhaps if enough of us pester them we can do buisness.
the Old Sgt.
 
Images of carbide lamps

This ought to work- as stated before, rather plain but seems rather sturdy
 

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Calcium carbide source

the stuff is actually cheap, but hazmat regs make it pricey! you can get ten pounds in two pound tins for $85, min recommended order... you can buy less, but it would cost the same. That's $8.50 a pound, and one pond lasts quite a while. I need to look into retail regs and where it's legal etc., but here is the link- http://www.karstsports.com/mingradcalca.html - that price includes shipping, and it's 2-5 days delivery. This begins to make sense as a club purchase assuming you have a pack of retro/steampunk/BTR enthusiasts.:geek:
 
Price on the lamp itself? Have you got a response yet?

Jeezalou! Twice in an hour and a half? The guy just posted this morning.
Give it a chance, will ya? Like the Indians have nothing else to do on the weekend.
 
Sorry, I did not notice that the first post was made this morning......His second seemed to give me a price on the fuel. I thought he misunderstood. Thank you for politely pointing out my mistake.
 
Hmmm...think I'll contact my friend at Parkawk Industries, and make an indirect inquiry about the firm. Given that his company makes materials handling equipment in India, some of it for mining, he might be able to assist.
 
re: lamp prices

To all-
I ASSURE you, the INSTANT I find a price on these bad boys, I am posting it! I am also ordering it- my suspicion is that where they are made, they are seen as far more functional and probably cheaper to operate than their electric counterparts... my guess is that they are affordable. While my current rig is a Huffy Cranbrick cruiser, my NEXT machine will be a BTR based on the Worksman Newsboy (a bicycle I would never had known about if not for this website)- and if the first part of the project I purchase is the headlight, so be it! I realise the constraints on product review and why they are in place, but I would like permission to do a review on this once I acquire it... it seems far too important a bit of trivia to pass up. I am familiar with acetyline lamps from other experiances, so I am not striking out blindly here. Meantime- I would ask that anybody who orders from these people once the critical information is out, let them know that the "Old Sgt." sent you-
Thanks,
Gregory F. (the Old Sgt.) Howard
 

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