13 Aug
2010
13 Aug
'10
6:13 p.m.
There was some discussion earlier about the nature of the fuel for the
lamp. Although it is explicitly battery operated (see vending machine!),
It was generally assumed not to be a conventional torch/flashlight.
I always assumed it was an electrically powered lantern (one game
described it as a 'brass lantern' IIRC. In other words electrically
identical to a nromal torch/flashlight, but mechancially different.
Well, a friend knew that I was in need of a better power failure light,
and gave me a lamp. It looks like an ordinary "hurricane lantern". But,
instead of combustion, it has more than a dozen LEDs! The "fuel tank"
Colossal Cave and Zork long poredate whtie LEDs :-)
has a door on the bottom for batteries. What appears
to be
a liquid fuel tank cap rotates, and is actually an ON/OFF switch and
They should have had a little rod coming out the side below the glass
part for that, like the wick adjustment on a real huricane lamp.
dimmer control! I'm not used to seeing
reasonably smooth dimming with
LEDs.
I would assume it varies the mark:space ration of a drive waveform. Have
you dismantled it to see what's inside?
-tony