The technology sounds familiar -- it's the Galvanick Lucipher from Neal Stephenson's fantastic book 'Cryptonomicon'.  Didn't realize that they still made lights like that.

Please post a link to a product page if you have one.

-AG

carbide is very cheap (if you don't have to pay for hazmat shipping), has a high energy density, they are bright compared to candles, and the lamps can take a beating. Be warned that carbide lamps are contankerous. Gas production can vary and the flame can go from 1/4" to 4 inches long, so keep flamables away. If you plan to use a carbide lamp, read caving books. Carbide lamps require small quantities of water to operate. In an emergency, you can use urine; it works but you won't like the smell. You can also use contaminated water. Before I could become a member of the local (at the time) caving club, I had to demonstrated that I could dismantle, reassemble, clean the nozzle, fill, and light the lamp while blindfolded. To obtain carbide, try to find a local caving club and see if they are still using it; the club I was a member of bought it in bulk. Store (particularly in bulk) away from the house as it produces flamable acytelene gas when you attempt to extinguish a fire with water. Spent carbide continues to generate gas and many a caver has singed their eyebrows by looking in their dump bottle (with a lit lamp on their head). Baby bottles are good for storing carbide and waste if you are traveling. Don't seal the dump bottle tightly (remove the rubber gasket/nipple). A survival trick used by cavers is to keep a trash bag in the helmet. Make a hole and wear the bag while sitting (knees inside bag) with the carbide lamp inside the bag between your knees for heat - but be carefull not to set yourself on fire. An 8 oz (volume) bottle of carbide will fuel a lamp for 18-24 hours. Fuel is harder to come by now and isn't likely to be resupplied in an emergency. You can buy 12 oz for $13.80, delivered. Carbide is corrossive.

If you don't already have a lamp, though, I am not sure I would recommend running out and buying one.

In a disaster situation, it is difficult to get resupplied with any fuel at all let alone the particular type of fuel you need for a particular device. And with Peak Oil and other petroleum supply problems and global warming, investing in petroleum based products is not a great idea. Its a bit pricy ($190 with accessories for the high end version), but I just discovered that britelyt makes multi-fuel lanterns that convert to a stove (light and heat simultaneously) and will apparently burn almost any liquid fuel including bio-diesel, ethanol, methanol, vegetable oil (third party claim), kerosene, diesel, gasoline, mineral spirits, charcoal lighter fluid, lamp oils, Citronella oil, coleman fuel, charcoal lighter fluid, used motor oil, and waste fuel (>6mo old). In stove mode, it is rather tall. Provides light, heat, and cooking. Safe for use indoors with methanol (which doesn't produce carbon monoxide), not sure about other fuels. This lantern is a multi-fuel descendent of the petromax. They say it produces 400W of light; is that the equivalent of a 400W incandescent bulb or 400W of actual visable light energy. The web site is very disorganized, incoherent and inconsistent in places, and makes some suspicious claims such as the safety of methanol (methanol is toxic when absorbed through skin), and does not list all the fuels in one place. For what they are charging, I would like to see lab reports where they burn every type of fuel claimed (and maybe crude oil, too, considering that in some situations, such as after Katrina, using crude might make sense), for one week continuously with carbon monoxide measurements, fuel tank temperature measurements, report of the number of times clogs must be cleared, report of any fires, fuel usage, heat output, light output, etc. Some fuels, such as vegetable oil, contain constituents that polymerize when heated and create clogs. I also find it suspicious that the organization that provided the intended to appear independent safety report is in the same town as the manufacturer. I also think the lantern should have extra leg attachements (or maybe modify the reflector attachment to double as a base) to reduce the risk of tipping when used as a stove. From the forums, it appears that straight vegetable oil or homemade biodiesel might cause clogs. And methanol might be a separate lantern. I also think they are abusing the patent system by patenting their design changes that are pretty trivial looking and sufficiently obvious to anyone sufficiently knowledgable in the art. Fuel tank gets hot? Make minor modifications bottom plate between the fuel tank and the burner. Replacing the seal on the pump with an o-ring? (Optionally) replacing the pump with an intertube nozzle so you can use an external pump to pressurize tank (as if that fitting wasn't used on lots of pumps). I didn't look at the changes made to the nozzle in detail but there was nothing that appeared innovative about the result. I realize they may have problems with cheap knockoffs but their abuse of the patent system could have serious negative consequences for the alternative fuel device industry and society as a whole. If these patented things are actually new to the lamp industry, it is because no one with any talent has been doing anything significant with lamp designs (at least not anyone who has the resources to bring a product to market); the same techniques are used in other closely related market segments all the time. Not that they haven't spent some time developing things but their patented "innovations" appear to be nothing more than someone finally updating a 100 year old lamp design with 50 year old technology but the patents could interfere with anyone doing truly innovative work from using 50 year old technology in other areas of the design. As many tech folks are now aware, the patent system has become more of a hindrance than an incentive for innovation. While I would like to see a true multifuel design, I am not sure if this is the company that will bring it to us (and make it widely availible) or the company that will interfere with people who really can.