R.E. Dietz Company made tubular lanterns from 1868 until about 1970 in New York and Syracuse, and afterwards in Hong Kong and China. This page shows the best-known Dietz models, with lanterns from my own collection, and explains how to date them. The history of the company is on a separate page: Dietz: The History of R.E. Dietz Company, 1840–1992. The model dates are based on Anthony Hobson's Lanterns That Lit Our World, Dennis Pearson's Classic Lanterns and Bill Kirkman's Dietz compendium, checked against Dietz's own catalogues and advertisements. Where these sources differ, the page gives a range. Nothing on this page is for sale.

The name. In 1930 Dietz stated: "Every lantern produced in the Dietz Factories has the Dietz name stamped into the metal of the frame. There are positively no Dietz Lanterns made or sold under a Private Brand." The model name is usually stamped on the top or on the fount, for example "Dietz Hy-Lo" or "Dietz Monarch".

The place. A Dietz leaflet of the 1950s, printed in Syracuse, shows founts stamped "DIETZ NY USA". "NY" on the fount does not mean the lantern was made in New York City. All production had moved to Syracuse in 1931. Lanterns made after about 1970 come from Hong Kong or China and are marked accordingly.

Patent dates. Dietz stamped patent dates into the front of the right air tube, into the top or on the burner chamber. The last date shows that the lantern was made after that date, not when. As a rule of thumb, a patent date is rarely more than about 17 years older than the lantern.

The globe. Dietz globes have the name Dietz blown into the glass, and from the 1920s often the model name as well, such as "Blizzard Fitzall Locnob", "Little Wizard Locnob" or "D-Lite Locnob". "Loc-Nob" globes have two small knobs halfway up that lock into the wire guard, so the globe cannot fall out when it is tilted back. Dietz advertised them as patented in 1919. Globes break and were replaced, so a globe, and a date on a globe, says little about the age of the lantern itself.

Construction. Most founts before 1893 were soldered by hand. After 1900 the seams were folded and crimped. A small brass fill cap usually means a lantern made before 1912. From 1926 Dietz made fount bottoms of terne plate, a coating of lead and tin against rust.

Streamline models. The rounded "streamline" versions of the Blizzard, D-Lite, Little Wizard, Monarch and others came in 1936–39. From about 1938 the fount has a reinforcement step in the side wall. Some streamline lanterns made after 1940 carry a fount size number, "No. 1" to "No. 8", which is not the model number.

Other clues. Junior lanterns made from 1915 into the 1940s can carry Hindi writing that reads "Real Dietz – Made in America". In the 1930s Dietz also made cheaper "utility" versions, such as the No. 2 Crescent, of unpainted tin without beading in the tubes.

Dietz made a line of very small hand lanterns. They were sold as night lights, children's lanterns and lanterns for skaters, and later for campers and motorists. They are shown here from small to large.

Lanterns of this size are often called skater's lanterns. Ice skating on frozen ponds and rivers became popular in the United States in the second half of the 19th century. On 7 September 1875 John Stevens of Orange, New Jersey, received US patent 167,479 for a pocket lantern "especially intended for travelers, skaters, and others that require light at night". Dietz sold it as the Dietz Pocket Lantern.

The Boy and the Baby were the two smallest lanterns in the Dietz catalogue of 1894. Both are made of brass, have no side tubes and are lit and regulated from the outside.

The Boy is a smaller version of the Racket, about six inches high, with a No. 0 convex burner and a ⅜ inch wick. It sold for 40 cents. It was used by servants for jobs outside at night, by skaters and as a children’s lantern.

The Baby is the smallest lantern Dietz made, about 4½ inches high. The catalogue calls it the “Smallest Lantern made” and says it “Makes a perfect night light”. It has a Firefly burner, burns about twelve hours and sold for 25 cents.

Both were made from about 1881 until 1906–08.

The Boy is a smaller version of the Racket. A Dietz catalogue describes it as "much smaller, being only six inches in height", lit and regulated from the outside. It has a No. 0 convex burner with a ⅜ inch wick. The 1894 catalogue lists it at 40 cents. It was used by servants for jobs outside at night, by skaters and as a children's lantern. The Boy was made from about 1880 to about 1906–08.

The tank is marked “New York USA Dietz Boy,” while the globe is marked “Dietz Boy New York USA.” The wick holder features a star logo.

The Racket is a small brass lantern without tubes. The 1894 catalogue offers it at 60 cents as the "Best small brass Lantern made" and says it is "Lighted and regulated from the outside". It has a No. 1 convex burner with a ⅝ inch wick and burns 18 hours. The Racket was made from about 1880 to about 1910, and was then replaced by the U.S. lantern.

The lamp is marked “Racket” and “PAT. SEPT. 19th 76.” The burner cone is stamped “CONVEX PAT. MAR. 11 1864,” and the glass globe is marked “Diamond.”

The Scout and the Sport are the smallest Dietz lanterns with a globe guard, both 7¾ inches high. They weigh about one pound with oil and burn ten hours on one filling. Both are dead flame lanterns.

Around 1923 the Sport replaced the Scout. It was made on new tooling that needed less soldering, and stayed in production until 1947. A camping catalogue of 1929 calls it “the smallest hand lantern ever offered to the public” and lists it at $1.50. Its globe is marked “Sport”.

The Scout was advertised as the "smallest practical hand lantern made". Dietz gave it as 7¾ inches high, weighing one pound when filled and burning 10 hours on one filling, at a price under one dollar. The globe could be white, red or green. In 1922 Dietz sold it to motorists, hunters, fishermen and campers, and advertised it in National Sportsman, Field & Stream, Outers' Recreation and The American Boy. It fitted into the tool box of a car.

The first Scouts have a name tag soldered onto the fount. Later ones have the name and patents stamped into the top. The Scout came on the market between 1918 and 1922. The trade advertisements of 1922 and 1923 still call it the "New 'Scout' Lantern".

The top is marked “Dietz Scout Made in USA” and lists three patent dates: July 26-04; May 19-08; and Feb 10-14. The globe is marked “Dietz Scout N.Y. U.S.A.”. And on the other side H4.

The Sport has the same size as the Scout. A camping catalogue of 1929 describes it as "the smallest hand lantern ever offered to the public", 7¾ inches high, 1 candle power, with a ⅝ inch wick, burning 10 hours, at $1.50. A Dietz globe advertisement of 1925 already shows a globe marked "Sport".

The Sport replaced the Scout around 1923 and was made until 1947, on new tooling that needed less soldering. Dietz's own leaflet of about 1926–35 calls it a hot blast lantern; collectors usually class it as dead flame.

The top is marked “Dietz Sport Made in U.S.A.” and lists three patent dates: July 26-04; May 19-08; and Feb 10-14. The globe is marked “Dietz Sport N.Y. U.S.A.” on one side and “H6” on the other.

Dietz made lamps for motor cars almost from the start of the motoring era. The company’s own timeline credits it with an original cold blast motor lamp in 1896. In 1904 it advertised the Runabout Searchlight, an acetylene headlight with a built-in carbide generator, for $30. By 1908 the range included Majestic mirror lens headlights and square Sterling lamps on kerosene, and the 1909 catalogue offered lamps for oil, acetylene and electricity.

The kerosene lamps were meant as side, tail and parking lights, not as headlights. Many were adapted from the driving lamps Dietz already made for horse-drawn vehicles.

Dietz kept making car lighting long after the oil lamps were gone. In 1983 a newspaper described the company as a maker of “automobile and hazard lighting parts”.

Dietz dates its original cold blast driving lamp to 1887. It was made for carriages and wagons, with the lamp fixed to the dashboard or to the side of the vehicle.

The 1894 catalogue lists it as No. 19, in two finishes:

• japanned: $3.00;
• nickel-plated: $3.50.

It has a ground lens of 5¼ inches, and the catalogue mentions two patents. A Scientific American advertisement of 7 January 1899 describes the light as “like an engine head-light”, thrown straight ahead for 200 to 300 feet, and says it will not blow or jar out. It burns kerosene.

This lamp was not sold under the Dietz name alone. The front is marked “C. Comiot”, and the inside reads “Made expressly for The Salsbury Lampworks London”. 

This lamp was apparently supplied by Dietz to the London wholesaler The Salsbury Lampworks, which in turn appears to have supplied it to the French vehicle manufacturer C. Comiot, based in Paris.

C. Comiot manufactured motorized tricycles and, later, four-wheeled vehicles around the turn of the 20th century. The company was active from approximately 1898 to 1904.

The back is marked “Dietz Tubular Driving Lamp New York USA Patented Jan. 4. 1887. Nov. 23. 1890.” The wick holder wheel is marked “Dietz Driving.”

The Dainty came as a tail lamp and as a side lamp. The tail lamp was advertised from about 1906 until at least the mid-1910s, and in 1909 it cost $4.00. It is made of polished brass with overhanging tops. Dietz fitted it with two 3-inch lenses, one white for lighting the step or the licence plate, and one ruby facing backwards. The oil pot has an automatic clamp, and Dietz promised that “it will positively stay alight”. Its advertising slogan was “You See Them Everywhere”.

The side lamp has one large round front lens. The Dainty Side Lamp I once owned is stamped “DIETZ DAINTY SIDE LAMP”, with the patent dates “OCT-9-06” and “MAY-19-08” (patents of 9 October 1906 and 19 May 1908). It was therefore made after 19 May 1908.

By 1915–17 a trade directory lists the “Dietz Dainty” and the “Derby” as tail lamps for trucks.

The Eureka appears in Dietz catalogues from 1915 as a driving lantern, a small kerosene lamp for vehicles. In October 1919 Dietz called it “the finest little Driving Lantern for all light horse drawn vehicles” and added that it also had “a considerable reputation as an Automobile Parking Lantern”. A kerosene parking lamp “saves batteries”: the car stays visible at the curb without drawing current from the electrical system.

By 1920 the emphasis had changed. Dietz advertised it in September 1920 and October 1921 as the “Eureka” Parking Lamp, “also known as” the “Eureka” Driving Lantern, and stated that the lamps “comply with State Laws”. The Eureka is found in Dietz catalogues until 1921.

Specifications from the advertisements of 1919 and 1921:

• height 7¼ inches;
• wick ⅜ inch;
• burning time 10 hours;
• white front lens and ruby rear lens, the rear lens 2¼ inches;
• black enamel finish with nickel trim, the door rim nickel-plated;
• supplied complete with a holder, 12 to a case.

The top of this lamp is stamped “Dietz Eureka Made in U.S.A.” and lists three patent dates: July 26, 1904; May 19, 1908; and Feb. 10, 1914. The lamp was therefore made after 10 February 1914, which fits the first catalogue appearance in 1915.

The Eureka shows many similarities with the Dietz Scout. It has the same fount and the same top, apart from the ventilation holes.

The Dietz Eureka compared to the Dietz Scout

In a hot blast lantern the air for the flame comes down through the tubes at the sides, and the air leaving the flame leaves through the top. Dietz explained the difference in its own folder: in a cold blast lantern only fresh, cold air enters the tubes and the spent air is expelled. In a hot blast lantern, “due to the construction of the top”, a portion of the spent air recirculates through the tubes. Dietz claimed that a cold blast lantern gave nearly double the light.

The hot blast lantern is the older design. The first Dietz tubular lantern, the No. 0 Tubular of 1868, is a hot blast lantern. Hot blast lanterns were also the cheaper lanterns, and in 1917 Dietz stated that the sales of its Victor were greater than those of all other makes of hot blast lanterns combined.