Astro Lite

Comment

Comment by Jonas Clark-Elliott on June 6, 2011 at 6:00am

No idea, save to say that the earliest American Coachlites were, in my opinion, imported from the UK - at least, the metal bodies were, with the electricals and globe added here. I own one, and the construction quality is quite different from American lamps. Sorry to say, I've no clue how to fix unbalanced lava, or change transparent lava, though I think the latter looks awesome.

Comment by Joe on June 5, 2011 at 5:40pm

Hi Jonas, thanks for the terrific information.  I appreciate it.  I guess I should count my lucky stars with this little lite.  I've only had it a few months after purchasing it on ebay.  It flows just fine but it does have its share of bubbles and the lava is transparent when hot.  Do you know what causes the lava to become transparent?

Also, do you know how to repair the dreaded "Consort syndrome"?  I have what looks like a Crestworth Coach from 1971 with beautiful copper but goofy lava that won't flow back down.  This lamp is strange...  It has an American type brown cord and the plug has three imprinted "squiggles" on it which is different from our plugs.  It has a Gilbert switch.  Any info about this model? Thank you for your help, Jonas.

Comment by Jonas Clark-Elliott on June 2, 2011 at 9:45pm

First off: Very rare lamp, the Astro 2500. Second, I have seen perhaps three or four before this, all of them red/clear. You own the ONLY known model in orange/yellow. If that isn't enough rarity, there's more: this is a mid-70s model as far as is known, and by 1975 orange wax had been replaced with red, which was sold as orange/yellow. Last but not least, it flows! Cylindrical bottles used a different density of wax, and they have a tendency to get what I call 'Consort syndrome', where the density changes and all the wax floats to the top and stays there. I'm saving this photo as an example shot.

This is a rare lamp on four counts. Where/how did you find it?