The Pinch/Ball Chimney

Over time, some burner manufacturers have developed burners that were operated with glass chimneys specially designed for these burners in order to achieve the best possible brightness of the flame. These are primarily the Kosmos Vulkan, Vulkan, Central Vulkan, Agni and Kronos burners of Wild & Wessel in Berlin and the Brilliant Reform burner of Gebr. Brünner in Vienna.

The special chimneys for these burners are a well thought-out combination of a Kosmos chimney and a Matador chimney. The chimney resembles a Kosmos chimney at the bottom: it goes up cylindrically until it still tapers considerably inwards just below the flame disc. This point is like the constriction of Kosmos chimneys. After this crease, however, the chimney spreads to a broadly spherical shape, similar to a Matador chimney, and shortly thereafter tapers upwards in a narrow cylindrical shape. Because of this special shape, these chimneys are called pinch/ball chimneys (translated from “Kniff/Kugel” in German).

Due to this peculiar shape, the flame is very effectively laced together underneath the flame disc and thus experiences an intensive contact with the air, in order to be spread into the bulbous part shortly afterwards by means of the flame disc. So, not only have Kosmos and Matador shapes been combined, but through clever placement and dimensioning of the flame disc, their functions have also been taken over to help the flame achieve the best possible brightness.

The burners mentioned above not only require the use of such special chimneys, but also have specially designed flame discs that can only be used with these burners. Both parts, chimneys and flame discs for these burners, are very rare.

Pinch/ball chimneys (shown in their correct size ratio to each other - Top row: marks of the chimneys shown)
From left: 16’’’ Kosmos Vulkan chimney (Wild & Wessel)
16‘‘‘ Central Vulkan chimney (Wild & Wessel)
16‘‘‘ Agni and Kronos chimney (Wild & Wessel)
20‘‘‘ Pinch/ball chimney for 20‘‘‘ Agni burner of Wild & Wessel
20‘‘‘ Pinch/ball chimney for 20‘‘‘ Brillant Reform burner of Gebr. Brünner

A Central Vulkan burner with its chimney
From left: 16‘‘‘ Central Vulkan burner, Wild & Wessel, with pinch/ball chimney
Schematic representation of the air flows and the flame
The flame of the burner

Straight Chimneys

As an absolute counterpart to the pinch/ball chimney comes a completely no-frills, downright unambitious chimney, which is absolutely cylindrical from bottom to top, i.e. a glass tube with a given diameter. I call them straight chimneys simply because of their straight shape. This type of chimney was used much more in incandescent burners (with gas or kerosene/paraffin). But also the so-called white- light burners (see chapter on Burners with Flame Disc) were operated with such straight chimneys.

The best-known mantle burner of the Aladdin lamps made by the American The Mantle Lamp Company, which is still in production today, uses a chimney that is a variant of the Vienna chimney, but which is so flattened in the bulge section that it is not far removed from a straight chimney in shape.

Other Chimneys

Unfortunately, the chimney types are not yet exhausted with those mentioned and labelled above. The burner manufacturers, especially in Germany (because the German Empire was really leading in burner development and production at that time), were very active and tried to introduce small improvements again and again, even if it was more to gain new market shares or to circumvent the patents of other manufacturers instead of achieving significant optimisations. Some new chimney creations quickly disappeared from the market. Today, they are hardly to be found. Others have been more successful in the market and are more common today.

Such chimney creations include the so-called Lotus chimneys, which, like the Vienna chimneys, were used with flat burners. The big difference to the latter, classical chimneys is that they become noticeably wider again when they open at the top. These chimneys became very popular, especially in the USA. There, the upper edge of the chimney was decorated with countless frills, or even the whole chimney was embellished with etched, engraved or printed pictures, as they were the only adornment of the simple lamps without a shade.

Another special feature are the chimneys with a large spherical bulge, presumably of German production, which were probably also used for lamps with flat burners and without a shade. With the huge sphere dimension, there can be no question of a dedicated air supply to the flame here.

Finally, I mention the small Stern chimneys. These chimneys are all the same size. Their shape is remotely similar to Kosmos chimneys. They are dimensioned so that they fit exactly into the 5-arm gallery of the Stern burner.

Special chimneys (shown in their correct size ratio to each other - Top row: marks of the chimneys shown)
From left: Straight chimney for white-light and incandescent burners
Lotus chimney for #0 flat burner USA
Lotus chimney made of coloured decorated glass for Turkish flat burners
Chimney with large spherical bulge for 8‘‘‘ flat burners
Stern chimney for Stern burners

A white-light burner with straight chimney
From left: 20‘‘‘ Maxum burner, Eckel & Glinicke, with straight chimney
Schematic representation of the air flows and the flame
The flame of the burner

Chimney Sizes

In the following tables I have compiled the relevant dimensions of the special chimneys. I have used the chimneys that I have in my collection as a basis.

Table A: Pinch/ball chimneys

Tabelle B: Other chimneys