Both produced light by heating a fragile cloth mantle, just like the modern Coleman camping lanterns that are their descendants. The difference was that the Coleman hissed as it burned gasoline in a kind of pump-up blowtorch, again just like the modern camping lanterns, while the Aladdin used a system of air channels and no pump, to silently burn the safer kerosene.
I had a couple of the antique Colemans, but had never found one of the Aladdins, and so I ordered the reproduction. It was made of aluminum instead of brass, and somehow lacked the elegance of the old ones, but unlike my antique Colemans, it was complete and I could actually light it. This "justified" the purchase, since we counted ourselves lucky to make it through September without a storm taking down the power lines for a day or two.
I placed the lamp in the center of the dining room table, and invited my parents over for dinner, to be lit of course by the new lamp. My father said nothing, but that was not unusual.
By the time we finished dinner, the lamp had been lit for a couple of hours. I commented that it did make the room smell of kerosene. "They always did," said my father.