This is an Ehrich and Graetz "Benzifix No.374" form around 1931. There is a one pyce of paperwork for this stove hereL https://classiccampstoves.com/threads/1931-benzifix-no-374.13237/. The only other example of this stove I could find was in Korea, here: 나의 모든 즐거운 삶 : 네이버 블로그. The stove is like an ealy Primus No.71. It has no pressure relief pin or other release device. In its tin it's about the same size as a Svea 123. The stove was found in Australia. It has been cleaned, the rust treated, new packing in the fuel control spindle/packing nut and a new washer in the filler cap. The burner head is brass, and the flame plate is steel. The disc that fits under the burner head is steel. The stove tin from the top. The stove tin from the bottom. The control spindle fits between the two vertical steel plates. There are three steel tabs that act to hold the stove tank in the tin. The bottom of the tin locks onto a bottom plate, with two catches. The steel pot rests are welded to the tin. More to come...
The handle for the pot is home made by the previous owner, and the control key looks like its from a clock. Next to a Svea 123R Up and running A great stove! But it will be a bit of a shelf queen because of its rarity. Cheers Tony
@Tony Press it’s great to see this little gem in operation again, respected in its whole well lived appearance! Great job! E&G early stoves are really scarce and I really wonder why, especially if we think about how many lamps were made and still can be found especially here in Europe, but as well in the rest of the world. 1930s Petromax production was very big! Here in Italy some basic Graezea and Virtus stoves appear from time to time, but in a proportion of 1 to 250-300 at least if compared to Primus or Optimus. Useless to talk about the earliest Adomax stoves. My guess is that probably for E&G stoves production was really secondary compared to lamps, especially if we think that exactly in 1930-31 Optimus “stole” the 821 name for the 200cp lamp that, after the 1931 dispute with Petromax, was renamed to Optimus 200. Nicola
Gloriously original and well presented. Very interesting point Nicola, the dealer network and advertising potential would have been enormous. The competing models from Radius, Primus and Optimus were well-established, but not by many years, this is still the earlier days of petrol stoves with much development work and detail change in progress.
@Blackdog well, regarding lamps, not many years… for the stoves Primus and Optimus anticipated E&G of at least 30 years… three decades to conquer the market. In fact the Virtus and Graezea stoves catalog is quite small, like “we have to offer some stoves as well”. Or maybe they considered the 1 and 5 models type enough for the large audience, with in addition some collapsible/transportable versions of them and an hiking stove like Benzifix. The Plitox is another great stove, that now is in my collection, that puts together a Petromax lamp tank and a Virtus style burner. This anyway is valid for the pre war E&G production. The surfacing of these very scarce and original stoves, made by the big players, makes stoves collecting so much interesting! Nicola
It was the small petrol stoves I had in mind @Nicola Francesco Elia, with the Swedish models appearing in the late 20s at the latest, into the early 30s. Not exactly long established before this E&G offering. I also get the feel of a percieved need to 'offer some stoves as well', but that doesn't tie in with developing this new model No.374. Surely if it was worth designing and tooling up for a production run, it was worth promoting and pushing to make a profit!
@Blackdog I totally agree, I was talking about the “stoves tradition” of the company. Your thought absolutely match mine, in fact as they offered the most common 1/5 pattern, surely the ultra portable stoves success of the middle/late 1920s demonstrated the validity of such model. So that segment was very profitable and they entered into it. So, if “we have to offer some stoves as well”, let’s offer the most successful models. Still the proportion 1 to 10000 (compared to campus 3, 123,42,70,71,80 and so on) is very interesting. Nicola
Exactly in 1931 E&G had a big offer of different lines of products: Ehrich & Graetz Katalog von 1931 Opening a new production line for them probably was not a big deal.
Yes, the tiny ratio of sales compared to the others is interesting as this seems to be the first stove in a tight fitting pierced cylindrical windshield/container (as distinct from the bulkier Primus No.71e)- the inspiration for the Juwel No.33 and No.34, the Svea No.123 et al.... Great link by the way- interesting to see the Virtus, a varient of which was marketed by Veritas in Britain...
Hi Tony @Tony Press and others. This is the first time I have seen this rare stove. Very interesting! I'm looking closely at the photos and wondering how the burner is attached to the tank? Do I think correctly that it is soldered?
@Tony Press It looked as good ”in-the-flesh” as it does in the photos! Great “find”, great restoration and wonderful documentation. Thanks for sharing.
I've just had a close look. Yes, it is hard soldered (silbrazed). It looks to have been done professionally. Tony
This is the first time I've seen one like this. It's a very rare stove, it's amazing. I'd like to know what the unfamiliar metal plate under the burner head serves. Is it a heat shield?
@Camp numao I assume that the metal plate is a heat shield, but I have no paperwork to say that is its purpose. Tony
