Restoration of Forgotten Railroad Carbide Lantern - World War II

Restoration of Forgotten Carbide Railroad Signal Lantern - World War II I saw this abandoned carbide lantern in my friend’s house. It was threw aside with junk item waiting to be sent to junkyard. I fell in love with it at first sight and asked my friend: ’Hey, why is it here as a junk? It should be displayed nicely somewhere as a treasure piece..’ . He said, ’Well, the current look is ugly, and not functioning.. my wife said there is no place for this ugly thing to fit in the house...’ So I took it this project and help him to restore (look nice and functioning again). According to his story, he bought this from Austria flea market, it has around 100 years of history as this lantern was used during World War II around 1930’s. What really grabs my attention is ’Carbide’ instead of kerosene or battery powered. By doing some research online, carbide was widely used as light source in railroad signaling (like this one), headlight for miners, headlamp for bicycles, etc in the old days. As carbide reacts wit