Feuerhand-Storm Lantern, zinc

The Feuerhand Storm Lantern Baby Special 276 “zink”

The Feuerhand storm lantern is made of galvanized material, which is resistant to corrosion. This is also the reason why the Feuerhand Lantern has been able to maintain its tradition for over one hundred years. Today it is galvanized.

Predicate “Made in Germany”

The storm lantern Feuerhand has always been produced in Germany. With its heat-resistant glass it offers a pleasant light with a maximum burning time of 20 hours.

Features

Height: 25,5cm
Width:15,5cm
Weight: 520g
Tank capacity: 340ml
Burning time: 20 hours

History

The early years 1893-1914

The starting point of the Feuerhand Storm Lantern can be found in the Saxon Erzgebirge in Beierfeld. Hermann Nier ran a plumber’s workshop there in the 1870s and built lanterns, among other things. With increasing industrialization, the manufactories were replaced by factories that used machines to manufacture their products – as was the case in Beierfeld, which was known for its metal processing. The brothers Hermann and Ernst Nier founded a production facility for storm lanterns there in 1893.

Five years after its foundation, the company was bought by Frankonia, Albert Frank Metallwaren, and the Nier brothers became plant managers. Due to disagreements with Frankonia, Hermann Nier finally set up his own storm lantern factory “Hermann Nier Feuerhandwerk” in 1902. In the same year, he registered the Reich patent for the production of lanterns using folding and punching techniques with immersion tinning and without hand soldering.

The Feuerhand is given its name

In 1914 the trademark “Feuerhand” was registered for all products as German Reich Utility Model (DRGM) and in 1920 the round Feuerhand emblem was added to the trademark. Finally, in 1926, patent applications and the trademark “Firehand” followed in the USA as well. In 1933, the production of the well-known small storm lanterns – the Baby Series – with fireproof borosilicate glass from the Schott company in Jena began.

Between 1918 and 1938 Nier Feuerhand became the world’s largest manufacturer of storm lanterns. During this period several new patents were applied for, among others the improvement of the burner and the development of a wind protection, the so-called storm cap. With the beginning of the 2nd world war, the world market collapsed, so that there was also a decline in production. Like many factories, Nier Feuerhand finally took up military production.

The post-war period

After the war, the Nier family was expropriated, the machines were dismantled and taken to the Soviet Union. The family fled to the west to Lüdenscheid in Westphalia and built up a small series production there, which was moved to Hohenlockstedt in Schleswig-Holstein in 1949. In Beierfeld both the buildings and original construction drawings were taken over by the Volkseigener Betrieb Metallwaren (VEB MEWA). The brand name “Feuerhand” continued to belong to the Nier family, so that the existing trade mark “BAT” was used for production in the GDR. This production existed until 1990.

The turning point and the new millennium

Since 1989 the storm lantern Feuerhand Baby Special 276 is the only model produced. The world-famous brand and storm lantern production looks back on a tradition of over one hundred years.

Since autumn 2014 Feuerhand belongs to the Petromax Group. It is still produced in Hohenlockstedt and can proudly bear the label “Made in Germany”.

• Petromax GmbH, Sudenburger Wuhne 61, D-39116 Magdeburg