Made by a company in Glasgow that manufactured all kinds of equipment to fit out boats and yachts. I featured extracts from their catalogue HERE. A galley stove, powered by a kerosene-fuelled Burmos stove equipped with a silent burner. Here's that catalogue from 1938 and the entry for the No.2 Clyde Cooker A larger version powered by two 'brassies' and made out of duralumin for lightness (as opposed to the galvanised steel sheet of the model I have) was standard issue for the galley of Short Sunderland flying boats during WWII. To reduce the height and provide clearance to slide the stove into place, the pot legs were dispensed with (no traces of solder where they would have gone, so bought in from Burmos without pot legs) and the stove base was soldered into a 3-inch (75mm) hole cut in the mounting tray. A standard pan ring fits into the cooker top. It happens to be a 'Con' product (UK Primus importers) so getting hold of a Burmos equivalent is one of my restoration tasks. That last photo reveals the black paint that a previous owner has used to cover the galvanised finish it should have. Obvious rust pitting to deal with too, but the steel's of heavy gauge and the surface rust here and there hasn't affected the basic soundness of the carcase. I've replaced seals on the stove and de-coked the Primus burner (it has a Burmos outer cap) and tried out the performance of the cooker. I was particularly interested to find out if what appears to be an oven compartment gets hot enough to cook a meal in. With a kettle or pot on board (or optional hotplate/griddle) on the pan ring, some heat from the burner goes up there ... ... and heats the roof of the oven compartment (top removed here to reveal). ... but hot enough to cook in? Well, the catalogue refers to it as an 'oven' but uses the phrase, "The oven will keep one part of a meal hot while the other part is being prepared." I placed a thermometer in the oven compartment and closed the door while the Burmos got to work boiling a kettle of water. After three pints of water had boiled - in six minutes but I kept it boiling longer - the thermometer showed 150 degrees Centigrade (300 degrees Fahrenheit) - so good enough for a stew, slow roasting or a fruit cake but not hot enough for scones. It would certainly keep "... part of a meal hot while the other part is being prepared" as the manufacturer claimed. It works, but more work to do to get it looking ship-shape. I'll get rid of the black paint and get it back to the galvanised finish, which should clean up satisfactorily. Here's the unpainted back of the cooker. The fiddle rail and stanchions will polish up nicely ... lovely form to those stanchions. That one had a set screw missing and I'd to cut away two of the remaining three. None were original, which I imagine would have been brass. I'll certainly be replacing them with brass components. Central on either end of the cooker is a carrying (or possibly tethering, for ship-board use out of gimbals) ring. The cooker isn't so heavy that lifting it by those becomes a finger-breaking exercise. Also brass, they'll polish up nicely too. ... to be continued. John
A lovely old cooker with great links to your 'Yacht Equipment' catalogue. All carefully photographed and explained. Thank you.
Thanks Bjørn and Trevor. I always seem to be frying lardons as a recipe ingredient when I'm getting the hang of a stove! Something I've already learned to appreciate with the Clyde is that the cooker top alongside the pot ring gets hot enough for simmering, so food could be frying on the ring, a pan with a lid on could be gently simmering on the hotplate and something else could be on the go in the oven. Efficient use of a 2-pint kerosene stove's output for sure.
Hi John, great presentation so far. This looks to be a well thought out and fully "sorted" bit of kit. It is amazing what you can achieve with a single two-pint stove in a compact hot-plate /oven set-up. Look forward to reading the next instalments! Best Regards, George.
Nice one as always John, I'll look in the shed for a Burmos ring for you mate, I've got one some where what's the dia? Si
Cheers George, Si. I'd be grateful if you have a Burmos pan ring @Big Si. Standard 8-8 1/2 inch dia. I've a Burmos burner on the way to me from Ian @igh371. John
Cheers Ross. Incidentally, although the one I have is of the pattern shown in that Simpson-Lawrence catalogue of 1938 the Clyde Cooker was evidently in production from a much earlier date. The advertisement from Moeller and Condrup below the one from Simpson-Lawrence must Be post-1901 (when the firm became a Limited company) but before 1915, when it had a change of name to just 'Condrup'. Article about the company in the Stove Reference library HERE. The Clyde Cooker pictured in the flyer differs from the later models in detail. "The most complete stove for small craft yet produced."
Last week, I happened upon a Clyde Cooker No 1 which is similar, but I imagine to be somewhat newer. Mine has two radius ltd(=post nineteen thiry eight) #6 stoves with silent burners. The cooker top and front panels are cast iron and the remaining panels are galvanized sheet metal. The top has removable cast iron "eyes" rather than the sheet metal grate pictured on your stove. This stove is complete with two shallow sheet metal pans which fit inside the oven compartment. Also included were two spare silent burners, wrench(spanner) which fits burner and stem packing gland, burner cover lifter and burner info on a very brittle, non acid-free paper. I was able to make both radius burners functional.
Hi @psuggmog volbenz , welcome to CCS. Great Clyde cooker you have there! The Radius No.6 is one of my favourite stoves with an excellent regulated burner: https://classiccampstoves.com/threads/radius-no-6-from-1940s.9033/ https://classiccampstoves.com/threads/s-korean-silent-burner-caps-stainless-steel.27694/#post-282419 It would be good to see some photos of your two stoves. Best Regards, Kerophile.
Great presentation. I don't know where you guys find this stuff but I'm glad it's ended up in your hands. Thanks for sharing. Ben
Thank you for the catalog reference presscall. Here is a photo with the radius stoves exposed. The stoves have a larger priming cups than I have seen on other #6 stoves and are "self pricking" The original spanner is sitting in one of the oven trays. The upper tray is sideways in this photo. It also has a pull ring identical to the one on the lower tray
Hi, thanks for the photo. When the # 6 stoves are in their operating positions in the cooker are they supported by the priming cups, on the cut-outs of the heat shield? There appear to be no legs or feet on the stove tanks, and the bases ae generally convex (rounded). Best Regards, Kerophile.
Both were originally soldered to the slides and both solder joints failed. There was no solder between to stove font bottom and the slide on either side. This tells me that this was a very poor fit between stove and slide. Capillary action would have flowed melted solder into the overlapping area if properly cleaned, fit, fluxed and heated. Rather than reshape the slide to the curvature of the stove font bottom, I plan to clean up the slide and stove font, the solder little tabs to the stove font and slide which will be formed to a tight solderable fit. I want to keep the soldering heat very localized, so as not to undo the tank assembly solder. This mod will provide a mechanical as well as solder joint and be reversible to orginal configuration, if desirable. I will post a photo after this has been completed.
No problem with that. They're tasty! and it gives you a "standard" by which you can measure performance as opposed to the standard "2 cups of water". Very nice cooker and extremely well presented as usual. Regards John
