A Barler's No. 3 kerosene heater. When I found this in a Florence antique store, it was covered with a thin layer of oily grime. I rubbed the tank with my finger and discovered it was brass. It had absolutely no visible dings or scratches. When I got it home and started cleaning it up, found that it apparently has never been used. The burner and wick are like new, no soot or other signs of having been lit, except for a very small fringe of black around the edge of the wick, like it might have been "test fired" for about 30 seconds to burn off any loose strings when a new wick is installed. There is a heat baffle inside the combustion chamber, about four inches below the top grill, and it had no soot at all on the bottom, which it surely would have if the heater had been used at all. Found a magazine ad that dates it to circa 1905. Polished the tank/burner and painted the parts with hi-temp automotive engine and manifold paint. I've had it several years and can't decide whether I want to fire it up or not. Update: December, 2010. I still haven't fired it up, and, tempting as it it is, I don't think I will. As old as it is, it's just in too pristine a condition to smoke up now. I forgot to mention before, I painted the "silver" parts with "chrome" automotive engine block paint, EXCEPT for the Barler's Company logo, which appears to be solid nickel, or very heavily nickel-plated. It polished up very nicely.

OBI disaster relief teams prepare to distribute boxes of portable kerosene heaters from Craigfront Baptist Church in Castalian Springs, Tenn. Within the first 48 hours, heaters were handed out to victims in the hard-hit counties of Sumner, Macon, and Trousdale.