A Clamond basket is a kind of gas mantle, invented in the 1880s by the Parisian Charles Clamond,[1] and which he later patented in the United States.[2] It was the first economically practical gas mantle, since prior mantles had involved expensive materials like platinum and iridium.
A dense water-based slurry of magnesium hydroxide and magnesium acetate is forced through a small hole in a metal plate. On exposure to air it solidifies sufficiently to make a thread which is shaped into the required form.
When exposed to a hot flame, a basket made of this composite gauze would burn away the acetate, leaving a brittle but serviceable magnesia (magnesium oxide) basket behind as the mantle. Charles Lungren subsequently patented[3] a support mechanism which allowed such fragile baskets to be employed more easily. Clamond filed a related patent[4] which deals with production, storage, and transport-proofing mantles.