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Petromax is a brand name, for paraffin lamps that use a mantle, they are as synonymous with the paraffin lamp on the continent as Tilley lamps in the UK and Coleman in the US. (Paraffin is called kerosene in the USA.)
Max Graetz (1851–1937) was the President/CEO at the firm Ehrich & Graetz in Berlin. He also was their main inventor.
He was seeking a solution for lighting around 1900, for the new product Paraffin. Mr Max Graetz invented a process to make gas out of paraffin; it has a very high caloric value and could make a very hot blue flame.
Max Graetz then designed a pressure lamp, working on vaporized paraffin. To start this process, the lamp was preheated with methylated spirit (denatured alcohol). In a closed tank paraffin is pressurized with a hand pump. The heat produced by the mantle was used to vaporize the paraffin, which is mixed with air and blown in to mantle to burn. Around 1916 the lantern and its name started to travel around the world. The name Petromax derives from Petroleum and Max Graetz. It has been said that it was a nickname his friends loved to use as well.
The design was such a success that it still is being used to this day. The name Petromax has become synonymous for paraffin pressure lamps in many countries and for many different brands. The name as well as the design was so good that it even has been used for stoves working on the same principle.
In many countries "Petromax" is a registered Trademark, e.g. for the USA by Britelyt Inc. or for Germany and some other European countries by Pelam International Ltd..
The Petromax design was and is often copied, today e.g. by Tower in China, Lea Hin in Indonesia or Prabhat in India.
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