@presscall - have you any idea what they meant by 'art metal', John? I've done an internet search, but can't find any reference to it. @Sedgman - Re. the retail price of the Major; for those unfamiliar with our pre-decimal money, 18/- meant eighteen shillings (with twenty shillings making one pound). Around that period, a time served boilersmith (i.e., one having completed an apprenticeship and qualified for full pay) working at the Swindon Works on the Great Western Railway was paid 40/- a week, before tax and pension contributions - so that stove would have cost him more than half a week's pay. A sobering thought. With best regards, Gunner
I’ve wondered about that too. All I could suppose is that the distinctive pierced trefoil design of vents in the windshield - rather more elaborate than the patent drawing’s diamond pattern - was something the makers prided themselves on as artistry in metal, or ‘attractive art metal’ as they expressed it. Which might explain the relatively short production run and the comparative scarcity of survivors, likely not to have sold as well as contemporary Primus stoves, equivalents priced around 12 shillings according to catalogues from the 1930’s in the Stove Reference Library.
@presscall. Thank you John for a full comprehensive Post of a very good stove, prompting me to make the stove a MUST have. Your enthusiasm about your finds is infectious. a Big Thank You. OPTIMUST.
I was going to ask about this, the "18-" price tag I assumed meant £18. So that stove was less than a single Limey pound? Naturally exchange rates fluctuated as countries abandoned gold but during the 1930s iirc from my reading history one US dollar bought somewhere between 4 and 5 British pounds. It doesn't any make sense to me that a brass stove would have cost less than a dollar in American terms? Maybe.
Correct. Eighteen Shillings (written 18s. or 18/-) with twenty Shillings to a Limey Pound (£). I guess the apparent lack of correlation between a stove’s value here and in the UK based on currency figures alone isn’t the whole tale. Presumably export/import taxes evened it out? At that time, the Depression led here in the UK to our Chancellor (Winston Churchill) pinning the Pound to the value of gold, which made our products unattractive (too expensive) to other countries.
I think your reading of Pound / Dollar exchange rates in the 1930s got cross threaded, Fettler; it was approx. 4 to 5 US Dollars to £1 - so a stove costing 18 shillings cost something like $3.50 to $4. HTH Gunner PS - I don't know about other people, but I've always felt the term 'Limey' was . . . somewhat less than polite. MTA - "The graph here starts in 1915, showing that there was some stability up to 1919, with the pound worth around $4.70, after which the value of the dollar dropped, followed by the typical variability of an upegged currency. Then, in 1925, Britain re-adopted a form of the Gold Standard, and the £/$ rate was again determined by the relative values of gold in the two countries, with the rate becoming fixed at around $4.87. But this high value of the pound, compared with what it had been over the previous ten years put the UK's balance of payments under stress, and created a run on the pound. Many steps were taken to try to prevent economic collapse, including borrowing money from New York and Paris. In the end, the UK left the Gold Standard in September of 1931, and the floating pound dropped quickly to around $3.69." this chart shows the numbers: Graph of £/$ exchange rate (1915 - today)
@Gunner - now that makes sense - $3 to $4 on 1930s then-current exchange rates. I've never heard of Limey as a perjorative term, although I suppose anything is possible these days. It's an old slang term for the English because Limes were found to prevent scurvy on long sea voyages, a serious problem for the Royal Navy. "Yanks" would be roughly an equivalent for Americans. Let us not "get our knickers in a twist"
@Fettler - I suppose what shaped my views on the term 'Limey' was that whenever I've seen a quote, or a post on the 'net by an American being deliberately insulting or dismissive, 'Limey' seems to be their first choice of description, rather than English, British, or Brit. With best regards, Gunner
Well, yes I Suppose ... it can be used in a derogatory manner when it is given, and taken, in such a context. As you could see (I hope) no such offense was implied, intended, or taken. "Bloody Yanks" (for an example) would be a G-Rated (?) adjective placed before the descriptive noun, and might be less than glowing terminology. Of course the blue haired English professors could probably explain this much better than I, as we are now way, way off into the weeds from the original content.
I've never conceived of 'limey' as a pejorative. Seldom have used it, but not because of that; more that it has become somewhat obsolete. "Rummy" never caught on....
