Letter Re: A Shortage of Mantles for Aladdin Kerosene Lamps

Dear Jim,
I was trying to buy an Aladdin Loxon Mantle #R-150 for my Aladdin kerosene lamp and found that all suppliers seemed to be out of stock. Even Lehman's Hardware here in Ohio was out of stock and showing an April delivery. I spent some time searching and found some very expensive ones on eBay but that was all. I then did a search for "Aladdin mantle problems" and found a cached press release from the Aladdin company. It looks like we have a major problem for Aladdin Lamp owners. From a loyal reader, - Jay H.

JWR Replies: Hopefully this situation will be resolved soon. An aside: My parents thought that I was going overboard, when I bought three spare Aladdin wicks and a dozen spare mantles, back in 1979. In those days, an Aladdin lamp cost around $60, and spare mantles were less than $2 each. I still have a few mantles remaining from that first batch. As with most of my other Alpha Strategy tangible investments, items bought early on and stored properly have proven to be better that money in the bank!