“UNION PACIFIC” RAILWAY LANTERN MADE BY STEUBEN?

Bobby here. I would really question the origins of the globe. (see Randy Bly piece in Gazette #1745) I talked to a retired batch mixer for Corning (not Steuben) and he said that they used Selenium Red for the globes. There were American Railroad Association (ARR) rules that were very strict on the color that companies produced. Every globe had to adhere
to these rules whether they were made by Corning, Kopp or MacBeth-Evans. Also
every manufacturer had to have their trademark embossed on all globes that were
to be used as railroad equipment.

Corning’s mark was a “C” with “nx” inside the C, for Corning non-expansion Glass, meaning it was heat resistant. The globe that you see in the photograph, if it’s Corning, is style number 250 and was compatible to Adams Westlake’s number 250 lantern that was produced from about 1923 and into the 50’s. Later on, in the 90’s, Handlan began producing the lanterns as a decorative lantern with modern globes that didn’t need to keep to ARR standards. These were made chiefly by Kopp and most are signed with a K in a circle, but some were made in Mexico and are unmarked.

Also, there are spurious globes being made and put into lanterns using the cheapest materials and are being passed off to the public. Ebay is full of them, some having etched marks and some being embossed with railroad markings. I think that the globe in the picture may be one of these later pieces in an original lantern. These pieces were not made of heat-resistant glass and should be used with caution. Incidentally, Steuben did make some globes that were dual colors for the conductor’s lanterns. These were more decorative and show-off pieces, and were not used in everyday railroad operation. They were generally the number 39 globe or a smaller variant. Johnny Jansen made most of these according to production records.

Bobby Rockwell, Corning

2013 Carder Steuben Club annual Symposium will be held at The Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, NY from September 19-21, 2013. The festivities will begin with Frederick Carder’s 150th birthday celebration on the evening of September 18, 2013.

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