Antique Light Sockets - Research - Sales

There are basically three things to watch for when authenticating the glass found in smaller Wheeler shades, or other mirrored shades of these types.

This is a good read as Durand is point to another patent (from another inventor) and explaining how it is in error in the makers methods of using shellac, in the place of varnish after the silvering.

If you read the patent, you will see that he then goes on to describe the red backing, that I see on all of my Wheeler glass samples.

Painted with "red lead ground in oil and thinned with spirits of turpentine" as also explained in the other patent.

The Walker patent that he only reefers to as "December 13, 1869" (but the patent office was closed on that day). The patent that he meant to refer to was patent No. 97,838 December 14th 1869 linked below:

So, with the above patent we have the entire process in detail, just should not use the shellac.

This patent was reissued by William Augustus Walker on July 18th 1871, after the death of Henry Balen Walker.

Walker had a method of heating the glass during the silvering process.

His invention of a steam table that he used for this heating process:

Another invention of a stool that he used in silvering was his patent http://patentlink.antiquesockets.com/?110408

The earlier Wheeler shades styles (hard to come by) were mostly used for kerosene and gas.
As shown in the text (N.B.) directly above, the early Wheeler gas shades were sold for both gas and electric use.

Most times Wheeler shades will be marked with a brass sheet tag, which can contain different selections of patent dates.

The patent dates will normally pertain to either the method of holding the glass (the diamond shaped bead around the shade rim), the holding method used, or the reflecting technique (example the shape of the shade).

The shade shown above (Wheeler Style No. 414) uses three patent dates on it.

Sept. 27th, 1881 (Pat. No. 247,589) Reflection Method
Mar. 7th, 1882 (Pat. No. 254,522) Holder/Shade Support
Nov. 28th 1882 (Pat. No. 268,063) Glass Seating Methods (old Fellet-Bead)
Nov. 28th 1882 (Pat. No. 268,064) Soft Lead Seating

Cone, inverted and flat shades (made mostly for electric use), will normally be found with the patent dates of Nov. 28th 1882 (Pat. No. 268,063) the old patent for the lead beading and Oct. 22nd 1889 (Pat. No. 413,242) which was the new patent for the beading.

To be complete, there was a second patent on Nov. 28th 1882 (Pat. No. 268,064), that has to do with the soft lead that held the glass in place.

Here in this patent, Wheeler documents three other patents for reflectors and how their glass attaches.

These patents are William Marot Marshall of Philadelphia, Pat. No. 73,355 dated Jan. 14th 1868 for how glass mirror is mounted, Frederick Hartmann of Chicago, Pat. No. 155,085 dated Sept. 15th 1874 for a kaleidoscopic lantern and Samuel B. H. Vance of New York, Pat. No. 229,212 dated June 22nd, 1880 for a large reflector.

Miscellaneous Remaining Notes - Cleaning glass

Shown above, Wheeler gave safe instructions for cleaning silvered glass.
A dry cleaner is suggested called "whiting".

This is basically pumice sold for cleaning glass even today, but pumice itself is better to use because it is more abrasive than cerium oxide and whiting.
You can buy whiting here: http://angelgilding.com/A2505.html
You can but pumice here: http://angelgilding.com/A2515.html

Another type of reflector to watch out for
Wheeler made what they called the Daylight Reflector.
This reflector was made of corrugated glass and were made of different sizes to fit into a regular house, store, cellar, etc. window frame. The reflector leaned out the window frame at different angles to catch the sun and shine massive amounts of light into a room. A great item to watch for at your local salvage shop.

This reflector is shown below: