On these older No.2 and No.1 Blizzards,
I wouldn't put too much emphasis on the patent dates being readable, it's nice if you can, but you can't date the lantern accurately by the patent dates anyway, as many of these patents will pre-date the lantern itself because they are for concepts of function, or methods of construction, and many of them aren't even close to the actual product manufactured due to the limitations of the construction of the tooling possible at the time.
If it's pre-1915 Dietz, there won't be a production code anyway. And the other companies, forget about it. Certain attributes of the construction of the Dietz lanterns in this case are a better way to pin down an approximate time of production.
In my opinion, they are all worth the time to restore them to a stabilized and functional condition. In my collection, I would not sell any of my early No.1 or No.2 Blizzards with the outside lifts, brass pull rings and 9/16" fills. I'm happy enough they are over 100 years old and look like it.
As David has already mentioned, it would be of great help to us all if you could be able to post photos of what you have for us to help you identify what you have and details you seek about them.
To post images here you will need an image hosting account somewhere on the "net", like "photobucket" or it's equivalent. If that is difficult for you, then I would suggest sending by email your images to me, via the "envelope" icon on my posts or others who will accept the same. If you can email me me your images, I can post them here for you easily, and have no problems with assisting you to further your knowledge of what you seek.
Willis
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