I inherited a vintage AutoLite Carbide Lamp, but I have no idea how old it is. In my research, I discovered that throughout the production years, at least "6 top designs styles, 4 bottom styles, 6 cap mounting hooks, 3 water valves cvariations, 3 water doors, at least 9 top markings, and 7 bottom markings" were used. How do I go about finding how old this lamp is? Can anyone help me?

Hello,

Welcome to the forum. While I am certainly not an expert myself, another thing to note is while these lamps got damaged frequently while being used. As a result, many of them have mis-matches of parts on them as there were only so many replacement parts available. So the reflector, carbide chamber, and even some of the helmet clips were modified to be used with the newer flat helmet brackets. I've seen Auto-Lite's which had other brand carbide chambers on them. I know this doesn't help identify when yours was built, but keep in mind it may have been rebuilt many times!

Miner Greg