Veritas Gas Mantles for domestic use
These mantles would have been an off-the-shelf item at Evenden’s ironmongery beside the King’s Arms in the early 1900s. Formed on a ceramic base, what became the mantle was a fine fabric bag, made from rayon or silk. The fibre was impregnated with metallic salts and when the mantle is heated in a flame, the fibre burns away, and the metallic salts convert to solid oxides, forming a brittle ceramic shell in the shape of the original fabric. In the presence of a gas flame the brittle oxide mantle glows with high efficiency giving a very bright white light source. If touched inadvertently the mantle shatters very easily, hence the joke on the outside of the box.
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