By Alex K., 3rd Grade

Last year, I found a Little Wizard Dietz Lantern under my house! (My house is 100 years old!) It was rusty, The glass was broken. It had an old cut-in-half wick, and it didn’t work at all. Last month, I decided to fix it. I watched a couple YouTube videos about how to restore Little Wizard Dietz Lanterns. Here’s what I did: I cleaned all the rust off it, then I ordered a replacement globe and a replacement wick from the internet. Then I put oil on each part, I put oil on the place where the wick goes, then I cleaned the part of the burner you see above. Then I reassembled it, and then the next day, got lamp oil from True Value Hardware. I filled it up, and waited awhile so the wick could get soaked in kerosene, and then my mom took a match and lit the wick. It worked, except black smoke came out the top! We turned the little dial to make the wick go up and down, and you have to adjust the wick at the right place, and smoke won’t come out. It has to be really low.
And that’s how to restore 
a Little Wizard Deitz lantern.


(photos by Alex’s family)