For many years I have loved oil lanterns and candles for mood lighting. I have a pair of inexpensive imported "hurricane lanterns" as well as assorted candles. The above-mentioned items double as preps for winter time power outage emergencies.
This past February, I did a post on the venerable Dietz oil lantern. In that post I linked to a YouTube video made by "Maine Prepper". You can find my post and the link to the video here
http://inkarlslab.blogspot.com/2014/02/dietz-lanterns-economical-alternative.html. Since watching his video and writing that short blog post linking to it, I acquired my very own genuine Dietz #1 "Little Wizard" model oil lamp. Thanks to Maineprepper's very informative video, I immediately recognized this as a good find when I spotted it at a swap meet for $10.
After about 30 minutes work in cleaning off the soot and general purpose grunge, it appears as shown in the photo. I got a new wick in the camping section at Wal-Mart, as well as some low odor paraffin lamp oil I found in the housewares section. It's old, but as one can see in the following "action photo", it still has life in it :)
This type of oil lantern is FAR SAFER than a candle or the older style lanterns that were made of glass. If dropped, it won't immediately shatter and spill flammable liquid all over the place. Its broad base helps give it stability, preventing a pet or a child from easily tipping it over. And unlike a candle the flame is enclosed, helping prevent the flame from blowing out in a breeze and also prevents casual contact with papers, curtains and other flammable items. And provided one runs the intended oil lamp oil in it, rather than kerosene, odor is not generally an issue.
The warm, soft light these units provide makes for great mood lighting to relax by in the evening, as well as an EMP-proof light source. Dietz lanterns may still be bought new at the following places:
This place has an amazing selection of oil lamps and also carries replacement parts:
http://www.lanternnet.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=WKL&Category_Code=DL
I found parts for my "Little Wizard" at:
http://www.survivalunlimited.com/dietzlanterns.htm
A GREAT source for anything OLD tech:
https://www.lehmans.com/
Whether it be for nostalgia, mood lighting, homesteading or emergency prep, a Dietz lantern is a worthwhile addition to one's home.
This was taken from http://xkcd.com/
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