You can still buy camping lanterns exactly like this today. You probably shouldn’t — LED lanterns are better in just about every way — but these aren’t uncommon at all.
this post was submitted on 04 Aug 2026
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Well, the good ones are superior, but ofc there are a ton of cheap shitty options in today's capitalistic hellscape where so many companies are more interested in ripping people off than making a solid product.
There are cases to be made for it. But Technology Connections did a great video showing how in almost every case it's better to have a LED lamp, battery, and (if you want) solar panel.
Absolutley excellent recommend. While Technology Connections doesn't necessarily capture the whole scope of some problems, they are almost never so far off base as to be "wrong". Especially about LED lanterns vs good gas ones.
I remember a Big Clive video where one lamp had bridged the 240v mains input to the USB output.
ahaha absolutely... I wish his channel was required viewing for anyone who thinks Temu is selling anything worth buying... Sometimes it's true; it's totally worth buying. ... Most of the time ... it's a shockingly hazardous product.
The gas ones are best for taking into camp shitters to mask the smell
I swear, "ur old if you know what this is" type shit is just the gen z equivalent of boomer humor, and just as cringe. Newsflash: some old things continue to exist through to the present day, and at least some young people know about them too.
Hmm, hostile towards gen z and boomers... You must be either an angry millennial traumatized by your days fighting in the generational wars trenches, a gen alpha who learned a thing or two about techbology and has escaped the corporate walled garden and is trying to find their way to the generational war trenches because it seems like a fun and new thing to do. Or maybe a gen Xer, amusing themself by goading gen Zers into fighting millennials or alphas while you consider whether you should be more offended or relieved people mostly forget your generation happened (and is still happening by some accounts).
That's just a camping lantern.
You can go to the store and buy one like that right now.
Or have done a lot of camping (after the eighties) where the relative efficiency of fuel vs battery capacities (before led lights of good quality) makes the old school lanterns a good pick.
They just had to use the most crummy matchstick box they could find.
Used plenty of similar lamps (wick from the bottom) for camping when I was a kid.
Now the real scary stuff is the open flame kerosene lamps. Similar pump, no wick, just a gas ring like a kitchen stove and a continuous unpleasant sound like the souls of the damned leaving the lamp.
Growing up, we had the camping version, but now everything is battery
My family used to have the kerosene version in every room of the house. I always liked them and occasionally look for them, although I no longer live in a rural area with unreliable power
Waking up in the middlle of the night and needing to pump more air into the can just so you can see enough to find your way to the bathroom...
Or grabbing the handle at the wrong angle and accidentally touching the glass for a lovely 2nd degree burn needing some butter on it...
Or taking a big whiff of that black smoke it makes after being lit...
Yeah, I'd rip the insides of that one out and replace it with an LED and battery tyvm.
I remember the mantles (the net part torn off at the beginning of the video) are radioactive.
Radioactive, in the same way bananas are radioactive. Technically yes, but practically no.
Radioactive enough to have them discontinued and taken off the market for being radioactive.
Eh not really. Thorium is used
Is thorium not radioactive? Its not radium or plutonium, but it's still radioactive.
Had it wrong, it's yyttrium.Skynet says;
An intact mantle emits low levels of radiation, mainly alpha particles, which are stopped by the mantle itself, air, or even the outer layer of your skin. The greater concern is dust. If a mantle is damaged, burned, or crumbles, inhaling or ingesting thorium-containing dust is more hazardous than simply being near the mantle. Modern mantles are typically thorium-free, using materials such as yttrium instead.
Considering the mantle is 100% going to be burned, I'd say the radioactivity was an issue.
Well, thank goodness for yttrium i guess
Ah yes, I was born in the mid 80s but my old man had one of these wed take camping. Was heavy, but burned pretty bright and for a good long time.
Well, long enough for an 8 mile trek through the woods in the middle of the night after your kid saws through his pointer finger like a dingus. Good times
I mean irrespective of the other comment which takes about "Genz equivalent" or something. The point I wanted to highlight is I am completely aware of this lamp and have used it multiple times (I was born in 1997 and it was very prominent in India until late 2000's).
And I believe that's the beauty of internet, its so vast and the world is so vast that making a statement like "people born after 1980's" would often be challenged
I'm a '02 European, but my dad has very weird hobbies admittedly
Do the mantles still contain trace amounts of Thorium?
I recall them using something radioactive.