My latest find as of the weekend of 8-27-11

http://www.etsy.com/listing/80643820/vintage-clayton-and-lambert-brass-flat

Found this hot little item when I was out vintage hunting last weekend with my wife. I found cool items here and there but overall it wasn't going well. We walked into the second to last shop we visited for the day and there were some cool items, then I happened to look up and right in front of my face I cound this bad boy.

A Clayton & Lambert brass blow torch from around the 1930's or 1940's. What's really cool about this torch is that it has a flat/narrow tank, most torches in its day were round. These narrow tank torches were ideal for workers who had to get in tight spaces with heat and for an easier fit in someones toolbox.

A little history note about the Clayton & Lamber Co.:

In Ypsilanti, Michigan, in the year 1882, three young and aggressive brothers named Lambert started a pioneering venture - the manufacture and sale of gasoline burning blow torches. Mechanics found the intense portable heat of these torches useful and time saving in the soldering of pipe, etc. Also In 1888, a patented firepot for melting lead was added to the torch line. It's inventor, a Mr. Clayton, was included in the partnership, beginning the long namesake history of Clayton & Lambert. The Clayton & Lambert company also served a big purpose during the first and second world wars by providing items such as pressed steel cabs for trucks, powder time fuses as well as many torches. In WWII they were contracted by the Navy to make steel bullet casings due to the shortage of brass and were very successful in doing so.