I have had a brief look through the Optimus catalogues, closest to coming to identify this No 2, is in the Optimus Catalogue No.70 This is the only catalogue, that shows the bowl shaped spirit cup, see image 15 - part no 295b.
Hi, Iani, Wonderful old #2, Sir! This is an outstanding addition to your collection of "special" stoves, many of which are very hard to acquire! I got my own through the kind auspices of my good buddy, BernieDawg, and love seeing it sitting next to my #3! Thanks for sharing yours with us, and God Bless! Every Good Wish, Doc
I have just found an Optimus Nr 2. What does the «L» stamped on the bottom of the tank mean ? The one I have has «O» Cheers Alastair
@A A C the 'L' on the tank bottom of the No.2 in this thread, and 'O' on your stove, is a factory production mark of unknown purpose. Most older Primus type stoves seem to have one or more of these random letters somewhere on the tanks and often on other components too. There has been speculation about whether they may have been linked to specific machines for quality control traceability purposes or to individual workers for piece work payment calculation; but as yet there does not seem to be any definitive answer. The one certainty is that they must not be confused with Primus make date codes! There will be other more dateable features on your stove if you post photos of it in a new dedicated thread. Ian
Thank you Ian , I had a suspicion that it was a machine code . Good to add that to my knowledge. Cheers Alastair