We’re fairly sure it’s a Walter Tyler lantern that we have here in the collection as the patent number on it – 2459 – relates to one taken out by him in 1890. Rather confusingly a very similar looking one on the internet has a Horne & Thornthwaite label on it, though it’s possible they were the retailer, not the maker.

Ours doesn’t have a logo other than the Patent No.2459, so we’ll stick with Walter and his helioscope. It’s a classic late Victorian lantern slide projector that used paraffin, initially, to provide the light source, but has subsequently been converted to electricity, though that conversion is now very outdated.

We’ve had this lantern in the collection from the start as it once belonged to our founder, Mick Tighe, though he can’t remember how he got it!