Lamp - Refracting Tin Bull's-Eye Lantern
1850 – 1900 (Date manufactured/created)
Glass, Metal (Tin)
Tin hand-held lantern with folding handles and double wick oil lamp inside. Thick refracting (convex) lens mounted on hinged door. Metal slide controls light. Crimped double domed top serves as chimney. Double looped handle for portability. OH 6 5/8"; DB 3 1/4".
According to Mike Fitzpatrick (https://www.flickr.com/people/piedmont_fossil/), "This lantern is what is commonly called a policeman's bull’s-eye lamp. It was also variously called a night watchman’s lamp or a picket lamp. It was the nineteenth century oil-burning equivalent of a flashlight and would have been used at night by Civil War soldiers on picket, or guard duty. It has an internal sleeve that rotates to either allow the light to show through the magnifying lens, or to block it out entirely – effectively turning off the light without extinguishing the flame. That way a night watchman (or during the war, a military guard or picket) could keep the lamp lit, but unseen, until the need arose to turn it on suddenly by rotating the sleeve."
According to Mike Fitzpatrick (https://www.flickr.com/people/piedmont_fossil/), "This lantern is what is commonly called a policeman's bull’s-eye lamp. It was also variously called a night watchman’s lamp or a picket lamp. It was the nineteenth century oil-burning equivalent of a flashlight and would have been used at night by Civil War soldiers on picket, or guard duty. It has an internal sleeve that rotates to either allow the light to show through the magnifying lens, or to block it out entirely – effectively turning off the light without extinguishing the flame. That way a night watchman (or during the war, a military guard or picket) could keep the lamp lit, but unseen, until the need arose to turn it on suddenly by rotating the sleeve."
75.3