2 pint Primus No.6, the first Hjorth/Primus silent burner stove; dating from 1896/7. It is important to distinguish this original No.6 2pt. stove from the 4½pt. 'big' No.6 which did not appear until c.1914, one of several instances of Primus reusing earlier obsolete model numbers at a later date. Here it is sat beside a standard pre-1911 2 pt. Primus No.1 for scale to confirm size: These adverts from the 'Melbourne Age' of 26th August 1897, and 'Argus' from the 30th, indicate that the first consignment arrived in Australia in August 1897: Given the shipping time to Australia that makes it possible that some were offered for sale in Europe late in 1896, but Primus production records only begin to show silent burner stoves with the 1897 model year figures: The tank base sports the early crescent shaped B.A.Hjorth provenance mark: This provenance mark couples with the simple form of the filer cap legend to affirm a pre-1898 date: It would be interesting to know why this first silent burner offering was presented as model No.6, and why and when the basic 2 pint silent burner was re-designated as No.5. (c/f here, here & here.)
What a beauty and so nicely documented and photographed as well. Thanks for sharing this great bit of Australian history. It's simply amazing what turns up here. Ben
Thanks, Ian - great post. Where did you find that stove? And, could you photograph the trivet top and bottom if you think it came with the stove originally? Cheers Tony @igh371
@igh371 , Ian, That stove setup is a stunner!! I really appreciate your excellent documentation, too. Very nicely done!! What a rare bit of stove history, and presented in a clear, concise, and nicely photographed manner, too!! Thank you, so very much, for sharing it with us, and hearty congrats on scoring it and being a worthy Caretaker!! Well done, and God Bless! Every Good Wish, Doc
Hi Tony, This stove came out of Sweden, as did the 3 others of this type already in the gallery. A very important model in the history of Primus stove development which has been hiding in plain sight, but has failed to be recognised for what it was for 2 main reasons: the previous absence of original burners, and being mixed in with the later 'big' No.6s as well. It is really only the unearthing of those original Australian adverts, and @optipri's posting of this Primus sales chart, that have finally enabled attention to be drawn to the historic significance of this model. The trivet , unfortunately, is not original, it is a standard later Primus cast trivet that has had its inner tangs broken off to accommodate the sizeable original silent burner. I suspect that the original trivet would probably have been something like this one:
Thanks, Ian. I must keep my eyes peeled for one of these in Aussieland. As it is I grab every pre-1911s I see. I’m sorting through my cast iron trivets to try to work out their relative age. I might come back to you with questions. Cheers Tony
As intimated above the original silent burner, whilst complete, is not in very good shape, suffering from both leaks and a badly misshapen, heat damaged, perforated fixed ring. Cosmetically this is fine for display originality, but it is unusable in practice. So for this test a later Primus unit has been substituted: @Christer Carlsson
It is interesting to reflect on how these first silent burners were received. Clearly there was a great deal of interest in the first 2 years, 1897 and 1898, but thereafter, looking at the chart showing units dispatched (above), sales of the 'tyst', silent, models quickly fell off. Did this just reflect novelty value and curiosity initially? Or was subsequent fall off due to disillusion, realisation that the silent burner had disadvantages compared to the original roarers except when used indoors and shielded from drafts and wind? What ever the reasons these new silent burners could hardly be described as a roaring commercial success. In fact annual sales of 'silents' did not even reattain the raw numbers recorded in 1897 and '8 until 1911, and that despite a massive increase in overall Primus production as 'roarer' sales continued to explode exponentially until the outbreak of war. @optipri @Christer Carlsson
@Tony Press here is that early silent cast trivet now permanently at home on this No.6. Fits perfectly around, and nicely complements, the rather bulky early silent burner unit:
@igh371 Ian, the sales figures between the two types have been commented on previously in passing. Why, when they were being sold as clean and efficient indoors stoves, didn't the silent sell more? Did their inherent transportability take them from the kitchen to outdoors overnight? A market that the wasn't forseen.
Kitchens back then would have been more drafty than they are today, but enough so that a silent burner was a problem?
How long this type of 'No.6' 2 pint silent burner remained in production is still an open question, but it cannot have been very long at all. On the one hand there are currently no known examples which have a round Hjorth base marking in combination with an 'AKT.BOL.' legend filler cap which would positively indicate a production date of later than 1898. And on the other hand the re-numbered, i.e. No.5, presentation of exactly the same 2 pint Primus silent burner is already present in the 1903 catalogue. So an absolute theoretical maximum of only 5 years availability, but with circumstantial evidence that it could have been a lot less than 5 years.
Despite all of the evidence from both production records and advertising that these first Primus silent burners were launched in 1897 it seems that the patent covering this type of burner was not taken out until 1898. The full document of patent SE9916 can be accessed here. Described as "Anordning vid brännare med omvänd låga för fotogenkök" ('Device with burner with inverted flame for kerosene stove'): @optipri @OMC
They also make a certain statement that from now on, all their stoves are marked with the Primus brand logo with the stove between PRI and MUS. So from 1897 for sure. Your stove in this thread may perhaps not be a 1896, but who knows. Perhaps they started earlier with that logo.
