The triangular lantern has three panes of glass in a tin frame, two red and one clear. Above the glass is a band of air holes under a curved top with a tall wire bail. It stands on a stepped brass fount of bell shape. To light the lamp, the glass frame is slid up on three upright wires, which leaves the burner free. The thumbwheel reads "HOLMES. BOOTH & HAYDENS. WATERBURY. CT." The lantern is 24 cm high, without the handle.

The design of this lantern was patented on 8 May 1877 by Charles J. Rogers of Norwich, Connecticut (US 190,449), who assigned half of his rights to John M. Brewer of the same town. Brewer was probably the Norwich pharmacist of that name, who had kept a pharmacy on Franklin Square since 1869. Rogers wanted a lantern that gave a bright light without smoke, was easy to light and to clean, and could be made very cheaply from small pieces of tin and glass that would otherwise end up in the scrap box. In his patent a triangular base carries the burner, with a separate metal lamp below it. Three upright wires stand at the corners of the base. The glass frame and the top slide up and down on these wires to light or put out the lamp, and one wire runs on above the top to form the handle. The top can also be raised on its own, so that a broken pane can be taken out and replaced. The burner is soldered to the base, so that the light stays in the lantern even if the lamp comes loose.

The patent does not mention Holmes, Booth & Haydens. Other triangular lanterns by the company are known, and one of them was stamped "Pat. May 8 77" on the top. The lantern in my collection has no patent date. How the company came to make the lantern is not known, and neither is what the red panes were for.

The second lantern has a clear, waisted glass globe under a perforated brass cap with a wire bail. The fount is stepped and bell-shaped, like that of the triangular lantern. The thumbwheel reads "W.B.G. CORP. WATERBURY CT.", so the lantern was made by the Waterbury Brass Goods Corporation in 1904 or later. It is 18 cm high. The number 5 can be seen in the glass of the globe.

Holmes, Booth & Haydens also made small round lanterns with a glass globe. On some of them the globe is embossed "HB & H" and the ring that holds the globe is marked "Pat. Feb. 6th 1877". That date is not one of the company's own patents.

The company had five founders. They were Israel Holmes, John C. Booth, Hiram W. Hayden, Henry H. Hayden and Henry Hotchkiss. Each had his own part of the business. Israel Holmes ran the rolling mill. John C. Booth looked after the finances and was treasurer in the early years. Hiram W. Hayden ran the factory. Henry H. Hayden managed the office and sales agency in New York until 1871, and his brother James A. Hayden took it over until 1875. Henry Hotchkiss had no practical knowledge of brass making and only invested capital.

Hiram W. Hayden was born in Haydenville, Massachusetts, on 10 February 1820 and came to Waterbury as a baby. His grandfather Daniel Hayden had built the first cotton mill in western Massachusetts, and the village that grew up around it was named Haydenville after him. Later Daniel Hayden moved to Waterbury, where he made brass lamps of his own design in a room of the factory of Leavenworth, Hayden & Scovill. Before 1853 he made the dies for buttons and medals at Scovill & Co. In 1851 he patented a new way of making brass kettles, which he sold to the Waterbury Brass Company. At Holmes, Booth & Haydens he was the inventor of the firm. He took out a long series of patents in the United States and Europe, most of them assigned to the company, and many of them for lamps and burners. He also worked on photography and was president of the Waterbury Photographic Society. He stayed with the company all his life and died in Waterbury on 18 July 1904, aged 84.

Holmes, Booth & Haydens was incorporated in February 1853 with a capital of $110,000. It rolled brass, copper and German silver into sheet and drew it into wire. It was the first company to make silver-coated copper plates for daguerreotypes, early photographs made directly on such a plate, each one unique.
Henry H. Hayden brought August Brassart over from France to make them. The company also sold photographic goods from a shop in New York, a trade that Bryant & Smith took over around 1865.

When kerosene came into use for lighting, the company began to make lamps and burners for the new oil. The oldest lamp patent assigned to the company dates from 1863, for a wick tube by Hiram W. Hayden. In a flat wick tube the toothed wick wheels turn in two slots, and their shaft needs a bearing. Hayden pressed this bearing out of the wall of the tube itself, between the two slots, so that no separate part was needed. From then on lamps and burners were one of the main lines of the company.

Lewis J. Atwood joined the company at its founding in 1853. When petroleum came into use for lighting, about 1859, he took charge of the new burner department and made it an important and profitable part of the business. He became a stockholder in 1863 and later a director, until he sold his shares in 1868. His first lamp patent was granted in 1862, and four more followed in 1868 and 1870. The patents of 1868 and 1870 were assigned to Atwood and the company together. The patents of Hiram W. Hayden went to the company alone.

In 1869 Israel Holmes stepped down as president to help set up a new company, and John C. Booth soon followed him. On 4 February 1869 Holmes, Booth and Atwood organised the Holmes, Booth & Atwood Manufacturing Company. Holmes, Booth & Haydens went to court over the name, and in 1870 the new company was barred from using it. From 1 January 1871 it traded as the Plume & Atwood Manufacturing Company. 

Augustus S. Chase followed Israel Holmes as president, from 1869 to 1879. After him the company was led by Gordon W. Burnham, Henry E. Russell, Chandler N. Wayland and, from 1893, Thomas B. Kent.

The factory stood in the South End of Waterbury, on the west bank of the Naugatuck River, with the main gate and the offices on Bank Street. The Benedict & Burnham factory stood across the river on the east bank.

In 1880 the factory burned twice. On 19 February the department for silver-plated spoons and forks was destroyed. On 5 October the building with the rolling mill and the lamp factory burned down. The insurance covered only part of the loss. Larger buildings were put up straight away and built to resist fire. The plant was extended again in 1885 and 1886, when new offices were also finished. The three views below show the factory in 1879 before the fires, about 1889 and in 1896.

Lamps and burners were only part of the business. The company also made sheet brass and copper, wire, rivets, jack chain, seamless tubing and silver-plated ware. From 1881 it made insulated copper wire for electric light.

The earliest burner of the company known by name is the Comet of 1867. In 1883 it sold its burners as the Waterbury, No. 1 Brilliant, Star, Sun, Windsor, Richmond, Pinafore, Eastlake, No. 3 Brilliant, Aladdin, Callender, Hinge, Spring, Screw and Electric. The Waterbury gave 35 candle power and was meant for fine vase lamps. The Star was the favourite burner for family use, and the Richmond was made for railway use. The No. 3 Brilliant was an Argand burner for a large student chimney, with "THE BRILLIANT 1880" on the thumbwheel. The older Hinge, Spring and Screw burners were exported in large numbers. The company also made shade rings, hand lamps, lanterns and lamp trimmings.

Hanging lamps were added in 1883, and for the autumn of that year the company brought out a new line of library lamps, called the Library, the Palace, the Villa and the Cottage. By 1903 it advertised library, piano, banquet and table lamps. Its offices were then at Park Place in New York, and earlier at Chambers Street in New York and Federal Street in Boston. In 1879 the Boston house was run by Edward C. Huxley and the New York house by Samuel H. Willard.

The company also made the paper fasteners of George W. McGill of New York, who held the first American patent for them. McGill was a director of Holmes, Booth & Haydens from 1883, and by 1890 the company had the sole right to make his fasteners.

Holmes, Booth & Haydens took out a large number of patents. Between 1863 and 1894 at least thirty patents for lamps, burners, chimney holders, shade holders and hanging lamp fittings were assigned to the company. Most were by Hiram W. Hayden. Other inventors in Waterbury, such as Lewis J. Atwood and Nicholas Jenkins, also assigned patents to the company, and so did a few from elsewhere, such as John C. Love of Philadelphia and James F. Place of Montclair, New Jersey. The company also held patents for gas burners, sleigh bells, rivets, insulated wire and electric lamp fittings. The patent dates help to date burners that carry a patent mark. Four of the lighting patents show the range of the work.

In 1878 Hiram W. Hayden patented a lantern whose glass globe could be lifted off upwards over the metal top. A wire guard, closed with interlocking hooks, held the lower part of the globe.

In 1880 he patented a burner with a matching oval chimney (US 225,929, 30 March 1880). The chimney was widest in the direction in which the flat flame spread, and its sides were drawn in, so that the flame burned evenly and did not smoke. The slot in the deflector was widened at the sides, to keep the flame from turning blue there.

In 1885 he patented a round burner that could be put out with a pull rod (US 322,599, 21 July 1885). Pulling the rod at the side lowered the spreader in the middle of the burner onto the top of the wick tube and put the flame out. When the rod was let go, a spring lifted the spreader back into place.

In 1888 Nicholas Jenkins patented a spring suspension for hanging lamps, assigned to Holmes, Booth & Haydens (US 376,657, 17 January 1888). The chains ran on a drum with a coiled spring inside, which took up the weight of the lamp when it was raised or lowered. A catch locked the drum while the chains were being adjusted.

From the autumn of 1867 Holmes, Booth & Haydens made and sold a burner called the Comet. A spiral of elastic wire was wound into the edge of its deflector. The wire pressed against the inside of the chimney and held it upright, so that no catch or screw was needed.

Wallace & Sons of Ansonia and Phelps, Dodge & Co. owned a patent granted to Michael H. Collins on 19 September 1865, for which they had paid him $30,000. In the Collins lamp the edge of the deflector was cut into slits that worked as springs and held the chimney in the same way. They sued Holmes, Booth & Haydens in the federal court for the District of Connecticut.

Holmes, Booth & Haydens argued that the Collins patent covered burner and chimney together, and that it made only the burner and never sold a chimney. Judge Woodruff did not accept this. A burner was useless without a chimney, and every Comet was sold on the understanding that the buyer would add one. The company had even shown its burners with chimneys in its salesroom. In September 1871 the court granted an injunction against Holmes, Booth & Haydens and ordered an account of its profits from the Comet.

The American Brass Company was formed in 1899 by the Coe Brass Manufacturing Company of Torrington, the Waterbury Brass Company and the Ansonia Brass & Copper Company. In 1901 Holmes, Booth & Haydens also became part of American Brass. At first it kept its own name.

In January 1904 Holmes, Booth & Haydens and Benedict & Burnham, its neighbour across the river, were placed under one manager, Charles S. Morse. The office of Holmes, Booth & Haydens in Waterbury was closed, and the business of both companies was run from the office of Benedict & Burnham.

In March 1904 most of the plant was shut down to be rebuilt. The rolling mill, the seamless tube mill and the wire mill stopped, and their work went to Benedict & Burnham. Most of the machinery was torn out and sold for scrap. Only the lamp department, in the south end of the factory, kept running. Benedict & Burnham could not handle all the orders, and in the autumn of 1904 the seamless tube mill at Holmes, Booth & Haydens was started again.

In November 1905 the whole property of Holmes, Booth & Haydens was transferred to Benedict & Burnham, and the company was formally dissolved on 1 January 1912. The factory became the West Side Plant of the Benedict & Burnham Branch of American Brass. The old factory was pulled down in 1936. Only the office and the hospital at the gate on Bank Street were left standing.

The Waterbury Brass Goods Corporation was incorporated on 23 January 1904. It took over the making of finished brass goods from the companies of American Brass. In March 1904 American Brass planned a new company that would use the closed mills of Holmes, Booth & Haydens to make lamps and similar goods. This was probably the Waterbury Brass Goods Corporation, which had no officers until May.

Among the men who set it up were Charles L. Holmes, a Waterbury banker and a relative of Israel Holmes, and C.S. Dikeman of Torrington, who became its first president in May 1904. Dikeman was probably the Charles S. Dikeman who had patented a lamp suspension with Hiram W. Hayden in 1890. By 1906 John A. Coe Jr. was president.

In 1906 the company was listed among the makers of lamps and lamp trimmings, at 721 Bank Street, the old address of Holmes, Booth & Haydens. Its advertisement of that year put kerosene burners and lamp goods first, followed by hinges, chain, brass rivets and corset trimmings. Later it also made castings, eyelets, grommets and metal stampings, and much of its work was parts for other makers. In 1922 it applied for a trademark for paper fasteners, and in 1925 it registered the name Holtite for solder.

The company worked from part of the former Holmes, Booth & Haydens plant. A one-storey addition was built in 1906, and new buildings followed in 1909, 1911 and 1912. In 1918 it had 500 to 600 employees. In 1922 it occupied a group of three-storey buildings in the American Brass plant.

In 1912 American Brass became an operating company and dissolved its main subsidiaries, but Waterbury Brass Goods stayed a separate corporation. In 1934 American Brass took over its assets, and it went on as the Waterbury Brass Goods Branch. The branch made parts for radio sets in 1935 and had about 400 employees in 1949. On 1 September 1956 it was renamed the Fabricated Metal Goods Division.

Holmes, Booth & Haydens made burners from the 1860s until probably about 1905. Its burners can carry a name on the thumbwheel, such as "THE BRILLIANT 1880", or the name of the company, as on the triangular lantern above. A burner marked W.B.G. Corp. was made in 1904 or later. Online these burners are sometimes dated to about 1880 or to before 1899. Both are too early.

The W.B.G. marks seen so far are "ELDORADO W.B.G. CORP." and "W.B.G. CORP. WATERBURY CT." on the thumbwheel. One prong burner of about 1920 has a shield-shaped tag on the dome reading "THE WATERBURY / BRASS GOODS / CORP. / WATERBURY CONN. / USA". The company also made No. 3 lip burners of the E.F. Jones type, with a Nielson's corrugated deflector.

The Eldorado is a prong burner in size No. 0, for a 2 inch slip chimney. It is made in one piece and has no patent date.

Primary: Van Slyck, Representatives of New England: Manufacturers (1879); histories of Waterbury by Bassett (about 1889), Anderson (1896) and Pape (1918); Waterbury and Connecticut directories, 1881–1906; a business directory of Norwich, Connecticut (1890); trade journals, 1880–1919, including the American Pottery and Glassware Reporter, The American Stationer, The Metal Worker, The Iron Age, The Brass World and The Metal Industry; newspapers from Waterbury, Hartford and Boston, 1904–1956; photographic journals (1865); exhibition reports (1885); Connecticut and federal court reports (1870, 1871); US and Canadian patents, 1862–1894; US trademark registrations (1923, 1925); Sanborn fire insurance map of Waterbury (1922); later trade and government publications, 1935–1949.

Secondary: Mattatuck Museum, Waterbury; American Brass Company records, University of Connecticut; kerosenelampburners.com; auction records and dealers' listings of lanterns by Holmes, Booth & Haydens.

Thanks to John Morris, whose list of American lantern patents led to the patent of Charles J. Rogers for the triangular lantern.