Weekend @ Warren Wilson College - Asheville

Nikki and I met Pinky at Warren Wilson College Saturday night to display some stoves and lanterns. Here are some pictures.

Ken in NC

 

Very interesting display Ken a good mix of stuff! What was the occasion?
Cheers Nick

 

The school calls it Weekend At Warren Wilson. Pinky will know more.

Ken in NC

 

Great display!

 

Wow!!..just when i thought the guys across the Pond had it all wrapped up you fellows come up with a world class heap of gear!!!--

 

That is one impressive display.

I noticed one vertical standing dual burner Optimus stove like this one I just saw on ebay:
What model is it?

It looks like a strange configuration, are the pots really stable on the stove?

That is one impressive sized light, it looks like it could have come out of a lighthouse, where did it come from?

 

Coleman 523 medical sterilizer & Tilley FL6 floodlight.
The Coleman's legs fold out at a tangent from this stored position. Then the box it is stored in can be used as a pot.
The Tilley floodlight is said to light up soccer fields (with 2) and an airfield (with 6 or 8).

Glad we could keep this 'side of the pond' content. I have to say, that is a small part of our collections. Only what fit in a small car trunk (is that boot in UK?), in my case, and the back of a small car, in Pinky's case.

I was thinking the display reminds me of Where's Waldo.

Ken in NC

 

Hey, Ken,

Excellent display, my friend!! You have lots of outstanding stoves and lanterns, including some rare things that I've only seldom seen on this side of the pond!! Great for the two of you to get together, and I look forward to hearing more about the venue as the College, and to any photos that Pinky wants to share with us, too!! Or, was the display a combination of both our goodies? Well done, Ken!! Take care, and God Bless!

Every Good Wish,
Mark

 

Hi,
A very nice set-up, and all very nicely maintained. It's not fare you have too many. By the way what kind of medicine you use for stovepox.

Dariush

 

Svea 121, there is no medicine to cure stovepox. Only time and the Reaper will fix this. Hopefully by then you have spread it throughout your family and neighbours and want few friends you have left.

lance

 

Thanks all of you, I knew you would like it.

It is a combination of both of us. The rare & fine ones I am sure are the ones Pinky owns. So, that was all of the show on the photos you see.

Medicine for stove pox????? Remission is obtained briefly by acquisition of another stove. Until the need arises for another stove.

Not fair -- too many?? This is just a few that fit in my trunk. My shed it already too small.

Ken in NC
A very brief fix is to view some stoves here on this forum, and this afternoon had me sweating while the site was under maintenance.

 

G,,day . lovely display
the modern fire extinguisher looks out of place possibly have it out of sight and an old brass one on display
a broad assortment , something to please just about every one .
cheers
kerry

 

Well, I don't know who's saying this, Ken, but I can tell you with complete confidence it's bunkum.

Some years ago now, I tried to emulate the football pitch idea. I found four FL6s barely lit up my back lawn - and that's a small British back lawn, not the 'yard' most Americans seem to have, half the size of the Isle of Wight.

Further, eight FL6s just about light up halfway round the local church which is quite small and would sit in splendid isolation in the middle of an airfield.

There are pictures on here and CPL of both these events. A small prize for anyone who can find them...

 

There is another Tilley floodlight that is somewhat bigger with a lens about a metre in diameter. I have seen one but not going. Take your lamp and expand everything by the same amount. The whole thing permanently mounted on a trailer.

 

Fire extinguisher. that was a requirement of the school. We were on their property.
As to the ability/inability, thank you, I guess that is how misinformation starts. (Sorry)

Ken in NC

 

Tell me about that, please. As far as I'm aware, the biggest searchlight Tilley produced is known as 'Big Bertha' (actual Tilley designation unknown). That has a reflector 23 inches in diameter - some way short of a metre.

The only Tilley I know of with a lens is the SP1 which is a relatively small thing compared with even an FL6. It has a Fresnel-type lens at the front, IIRC about 8 - 9 inches in diameter.

The only Tilley set-up on a trailer is the SL3 which has 3 x 3-burner SL1-sized lamps on it...

Yeah, trunk is a boot, here. Hood is the bonnet. Fenders are wings. Whatever you call the things front and back to prevent body damage in a small collision are bumpers here. Bumpers used to have vertical over-riders on them. I think I've got that right anyway...

Great display, BTW, and nice to see some British stuff there although, AFAIA, the Sportsmans Kit was export only.

 

Great display Ken and Pinky, you've a lot of nice stuff that is well presented. Thanks for posting.

 

I will bow to someone that knows. When I saw it I didn't have a ruler with me and very little info with it.

 

Ah well, I/we don't know - which is the point and why I asked for further information.

Over the years, Tilley seem to have produced the odd lamp or two which either didn't get into full commercial production or did so in very limited numbers and maybe exported to the far reaches of the world. So it's always good to hear about any oddities, however vague, and even better if they can be substantiated. That was how 'Big Bertha' came to be known - there's apparently nothing in the catalogues but one example has been found in Australia. Who knows what else is out there just waiting to be discovered...


from page 47 of 'Tilley - The Versatile Vapour Lamp' by Jim Dick.

Is this what you saw, geeves? This one's in Australia, I think. Another sighting in New Zealand might be a different lamp altogether and thus, extremely interesting to us Tilley collectors.

I'm pretty sure that's an FL6 tank as per Ken's example in his photos. Given that, it's easy to imagine how big the casing must be...

 

Thanks stove friends!

And Ken and Nikki, thank y'all so much for coming out!



The event was http://www.warren-wilson.edu/~advancement/weekend/index.php]Weekend@Wilson[/url] , held at my alma mater Warren Wilson College, nestled in the beautiful Swannanoa Valley outside of Asheville, NC.

It's held on a weekend during summer break, and folks stay on campus and take workshops. Registration is open to the public, but it's mostly folks that have some connection to the college, such as alumni, parents, students, faculty, staff, or friends of the college. Feel free to come next year if you're interested!

Workshops are diverse, but lean towards craftwork, such as blacksmithing, weaving baskets or cane seats, homebrewing beer, using natural dyes like indigo or pokeberries, home fermenting, and so on. There's also nature skills type stuff like birding and edible plant identification. There are kid activities for the young 'uns as well, like making terrariums or felt crafts. The workshops are taught by alumni, parents, faculty, etc. who have a skill they want to share.












A friend and I taught the blacksmithing class a couple years ago when the usual guy couldn't make it, but this year I asked if I could do a stove and lantern display, and they said yes! I asked Ken if he wanted to help, and he was game!

We set up the stove display during one of the dinners, which was held on a large patio with roughly 150 people in attendance. Everyone enjoyed burgers made from grass-fed beef raised on the college farm (veggie burgers optional), and local beer was served as well. The former college president, his wife, and their mountain string band serenaded everyone with singalongs and folk tunes.

Warren Wilson is a very outdoors and adventure oriented college, so there was a lot of interest in the display. There are a lot of climbers and backpackers in the Warren Wilson family, so many were familiar with some of the more common stove models.

Below you can see two WWC students who are not running away from Ken, or passing out from sheer boredom. Surprising, huh?

About half of the display was from Ken's collection, and about half of it from mine. We mixed them all together.









For those curious about Warren Wilson, it's a very unique school. A WWC education is built around a triad of academics, work, and service, and these educational principles are integrated at every opportunity.



Academics:
Warren Wilson has a rigorous academic program that focuses on critical thinking and student engagement, rather than boring lecture halls. Classes are small and discussions are lively.

Over the past 10 years, Warren Wilson students have been awarded more grants and prizes for original undergraduate research than any other college or university in the state. This is a school of 850 (yes 850 students) competing with schools of up to 40,000 students.
Link-

Warren Wilson also heads up one of the hottest archaeological digs in the nation at the Berry site in Morganton, NC. It was the site of the first European settlement in the interior of the United States, predating even Jamestown or the Lost Colony.
Link 1
Link 2


Work:
Students at Warren Wilson are required to work 15 hours a week on campus jobs. This pays for your room and board on campus, and in addition to earning a degree, you get to learn some awesome new skills. As a result, the entire campus is student run.

Warren Wilson was founded as an agricultural school, and still has a full working farm today. Students raise cattle, pigs, sheep, chickens, etc., as well as crops. Much of the meat they raise is used in the school cafeteria, and everything is pasture fresh without weird hormones and such.

Students also run a large garden on campus, which provides fresh produce for the college.

Students build dorms and classrooms on the construction crew, keep a fleet of over 100 vehicles and heavy trucks running on the auto shop crew, learn how to become electricians or locksmiths on those crews, maintain a few thousand acres on the forestry crew, cook all the campus meals, scrub toilets, clean floors, keep the HVAC systems serviced, care for the horses, staff the library, handle the recycling and trash, and on and on and on. There are over 100 work crews. I worked on the blacksmith crew and auto shop.

Students learn the dignity of work, real world leadership skills, time management, and so much more.
Where else can you do groundbreaking research AND get to drive a bulldozer?
Link


Service:
Wilson students are required to do 100 hours of community service to graduate, but most students greatly exceed that amount. Last year, over 54,000 community service hours were logged, which averages out to over 63 hours per student! Community service can range from working in local food banks, to tutoring at-risk youth, developing community gardens, winterizing low income housing, volunteering with wildlife conservation organizations, clearing trails with the Forest Service, volunteering with the Fire Department, or doing other service work with a non-profit agency. Students go across the country and around the world, lending a hand from Chile to China to Mexico to Mali, and wherever else they may end up.

When I was a student, a lot of us went down to New Orleans and the surrounding areas to help with Hurricane Katrina clean-up. Many fell in love with it, and I have numerous friends who moved down there to continue that work after graduating. Today they are teachers and medical workers and community activists and entrepreneurs, all helping to rebuild that city. A Warren Wilson education encourages students to become part of their community, and to do their best to improve it.



Interwoven among those three central pillars of a WWC education, there's a focus on both environmental and social justice issues, and the college has a long history in these fights.

]History of Warren Wilson College[/url]
WWC was one of the first educational institutions in the South to integrate, two years before Brown v. Board, and did it by invitation, not court orders and armed escort. Many alumni go on to work in the environmental or social justice fields.

As I mentioned earlier, WWC is very outdoors and adventure oriented. It was the first college in the United states to offer an Outdoor Leadership major, and has some of the best mountain bike and kayak teams in the country. One of my classmates even became the youngest person to row across the Atlantic a few years ago.
Katie Spotz



Have I convinced you to enroll your kids yet?
If you haven't already guessed, I'm on the alumni board and am absolutely bonkers for this school, but most alumni share this passion. It attracts a certain kind of person that already holds these values dear, and many, if not most of us, find a home on this campus. It's a special place.



Aaanyway, now that y'all have been brainwashed, before heading home, I trekked west and went out to visit Ken and Nikki. They have a wonderful cabin nestled up in the hills, and we hung out for a few hours. Ken made some Papua New Guinean espresso on a Punker single burner, and Nikki gathered some fresh blueberries from the garden.







We sat and visited for a few hours until it was time to head home, and then Ken generously filled up my kerosene jug. Thanks again Ken and Nikki! Y'all are far too kind!!!

On the way home, I had to inconvenience some goats.







Welp, glad y'all enjoyed the pictures, and thanks for checking out our little display!
Thanks so much Ken and Nikki!