This was made in October 1958 and exported to the USA, being distributed there by C.L. Shively Co., Midwest Distributor, Box 332, Bedford Ohio. It has the more unusual speculum-plated tank. Speculum was an alloy of varying composition (the exact Tilley recipe is now unknown) giving a finish akin to chrome or nickel plating. This stove has a vapouriser (=generator) peculiar to the CS56 but working on exactly the same principle as the familiar Tilley 606 and 169 lantern vapourisers, although rather shorter. The vapouriser needs to be kept hot during use and this is accomplished by three vertical tubes descending from the burner, which surround the vapouriser at 120 degrees. Each tube has a series of small, inwardly-pointing holes down it's length, from which flamelets emerge once the stove is lit, thus maintaining the vapouriser at it's correct working temperature - very clever! (but expensive - at the time, the CS56 was about twice the price of an equivalent brass three-legger) Someone has added a spirit cup seemingly made from a plumbing fitting, but which works well and saves faffing about with one of those pesky Tilley preheating torches.
Hi david great stove you have there most you see are usually converts as you mention they were twice the price back in the day probably why they are quite rare.A good idea with the spirit cup i am surprised tilley never copied the idea from bialaddin and vapalux having a spirit cup fixed to the vapouriser
Hi David, Enjoy your stove. Indeed it looks outstanding. However I always wonder why these stoves are too high, ie they have very long riser tube? Half height could be adequate. Any thoughts?
Hi Sefa. The height's determined by the straight tubular vapouriser, which is a kero lantern design (Tilley/Vapalux/Bialaddin type) rather than that of a stove of the Primus type, where the vapouriser tube loops around on itself. Even so, the vapouriser on the CS56 is a lot shorter than that on a Tilley Guardsman lantern, which in turn is shorter still than that on the older PL53 model lantern. Regards, John
The whole stove is based on the contemporary Tilley X246 Guardsman lantern design, but with different upper parts to produce heat instead of light and provide somewhere to rest your pan or kettle. As mentioned elsewhere, you could buy a lantern head for your stove (or was it a stove head for your lantern? - can't remember) so you could easily convert one to the other with a change of vapouriser. I seem to recall Tilley even sold a bit of kit which contained the stove and lantern tops, both vapourisers but only one tank so you could have either the lantern or stove as appropriate. I'm always puzzled by these kits - wouldn't you go hungry after darkness fell? - for me, the best bet would be to have both a stove and a lantern. In the USA at least, Tilley sold what was called a 'Sportsman's Kit' which contained both the lantern and stove, spare vapourisers for each, a lantern reflector and mantles, dipstick, funnel, fuel bottle and preheating torch. All that came in a hard-fired enamel, rust resistant case weighing in at 23lbs all in. That would set you back $59.95 at the time, compared with just $19.95 for the stove alone. The use of the lantern-type vapouriser gives the CS56 it's only real advantage compared with traditional-type stoves - you don't need to faff about with prickers. If the jet gets blocked on the CS56, you can clear it with a quick flick of the pricker knob. Beyond that, it's downhill all the way, although the flame pattern is very pretty, it has to be said - if you're a Tilley saddo like me, anyway... )
