Camping°gaz butane stove (first portable campingaz gassie?)

Hi there,

I'm bringing up to you what I think is the very first model of portable campingaz butane stove. It uses a head burner that attaches to a gaz bottle, could it be 1l, 4l or 6l. The model presented here comes with the 1l original Camping Gaz butane bottle, with its original design. The bottles are becoming even rarer than the stoves itself. It's pretty common here in France to find those "primitive" campingaz stoves, but you have to be lucky to find the original gas bottles.

Here are the pictures:











There are several details about it:

- bottles used have already a metal ball with a rubber that seals perfectly the bottle when disconnected. Even decades after (more than 65 years), it's still working.

- pot supports can't be folded completely when on, so they need to be dismantled for transport. Note that they are wider than the following version, with large "D-shaped" upper part. There is only 3 pot supports, while the newer models have 4 of them.

- the scroll wheel has no stopping screw, a thing that was improved with the newer plastic scroll-wheel version, so it is possible to unscrew it totally, which could represent a danger for someone who doesn't pay much attention / somebody dizzy.

Below is an original avertising dated from the 1950's. More precisely, the oldest advertising I've seen wit this stove on it was dated 1954. It might be a little older, but not that much, in my opinion. As a comparison, the bleuet "cornflower" that uses pierceable / disposable canisters, apparently appears in 1956 (2 years later).

The advertising:



Feel free to ask any question about it, I'll be glad to answer

Merry Christmas to you,

Regards,

Bastien.

 

@blabast88 Thanks Bastien for that insight. So, something that pre-dates the Bleuet ‘Cornflower’. Great to see.

The threads/fitting are the same as the current ‘900 ...’ series bottles?

John

 

Hi John,

I think so, yes. Believe me or not, I don't even have a 900' series bottle to compare. But it looks the same. Threads are identical to a double burner "bidon bleu camping gaz" using the same burners / pot supports, and I've already seen some of them with 900' series bottles.

 

An additional advertising, showing some camping gaz models in 1958. This stove was simply called "réchaud 1 feu" ("1 burner stove"), and as you can see the super bleuet already existed. You can also spot the 2-burners model, which I have too. But at this time, those were plastic scroll wheels with screws that prevent from unscrewing it totally.



You can also notice that back in those days, "camping gaz" was also called "bidon bleu".

Bastien.

 

I have a similar gas bottle, a Primus, made in Australia,
9-65, short and fat, which I rarely use.
had it tested once, expensive business, a few extra dollars would buy a new one slightly bigger. As said, it's rarely used, mainly because it's awkward to pick up - no handle. That said, it's been a useful standby on rare occasions when used with an adaptor to 3/8" LH thread.
Are you required to have your gas bottles checked every 10 years, otherwise shops will refuse to refill them ?
That's a great little stove top you have there. Mine is a much later version, Companion I think.

 

Hi Paul,

Your stove looks nice as well, and that australian bottle is interesting.
About checking the bottle every 10 years, I could not answer about this. I guess there are some rules about it (safety rules), but I couldn't be more precise. I've read somewhere that it is forbidden in France to accumulate more than 10 empty bottles of gas, they need to be taken back by the supplier. But I suppose it is not to block bottles somewhere, that could be used somwhere else (a way to force it to be integrated again in the circuit).

About the stove: I'm still looking for information about it, but I do have more elements at this time: it should be the camping°gaz 901, first of its kind, that appeared in 1949 (the year the brand was founded). "Bidon Bleu" refers to the gas bottles. My exemplar could be the oldest design, but I need to verify (I do own another "901" can that has different markings). The advertising I shared in the initial post is dated 1950, precisely. I asked the seller to check the information, and it comes from a 1950 magazine.

I've read a few things about the creation of the brand camping gaz. Apparently, there were 3 friends / engineers that went to holidays in 1949. When they came back (there are two versions of the story): *they were frustrated because they used to eat cold food all the time, so they decided to create a stove; *they were frustrated because the gas stove they used required to be sent back to Paris to get refilled, which was not convenient at all.
-> so they decided to create a gas stove with interchangeable canisters ("bidon bleu"), the 901, which is supposed to be the one I presented on this post.

Bastien.

 

Hi Bastien.
I saw some interesting old portable gas stoves on Ebay today, or might have been on Gumtree, and close to my home too. Primus, I think. Two burners, with two long narrow gas bottles and hose, all fits in the metal carry case. Interesting because we don't see those bottles much these days, and the hose fittings into the stove looks like a taper. Gets expensive because the bottles must be checked, new valves, about $30 or more to check each one. If out of date stamp, 10 years, no one will fill them. Highly illegal.
With your little stove, do the legs slide out of the housing to be packed away ? Neat and tidy. Thanks.

 

Hi Paul,

Yes, legs do slide out for packing. I will take more pictures later, I'm currently waiting for another model, quite similar but with some small differences. I will post a comparison picture at one moment, be sure of that

 

Hi Paul,

Here are some additional pictures I took today:

The burner, with legs taken apart for transport.



The burner, again, with parts dismantled.



The two 901 canisters / bottles I have. On left, original design. On right, what seems to be a newer design, but still dating back from the 1950's.




And here are two pages of a 1954 leaflet I received today: front page and a picture showing the different stoves / lamps sold by camping gaz back then.





Very interesting document. You can see that the two-burner stove can be used with 904 or 907 bottles (legs are longer for the 907). Other pages are just lists of the camping gaz resellers / dealers eveywhere in France (also in Morocco, Germany, Tunisia, Belgium, Luxembourg, Portugal and Switzerland). I wasn't expecting nothing but this list, so the advertising page with the different models is a bargain.

Bastien.

 

Thanks, Bastien. Very interesting. Good idea, that double burner.
I love that little valve body, with the holes for the pot supports. A really good idea. I have a later, valve, Primus, but no holes for detatchable supports. That list is great. "Pare - vent" means no windscreen ? 'Cut wind' ? And an early gas blowtorch also.
What is that fitting on the bottle, bottom right ? Robinet Raccord ?
My schoolboy French gets worse every year. Cheers. Paul.

 

Hi Paul,

You're right: "pare-vent" means windscreen. "avec pare-vent": with windscreen; "sans pare-vent": without winscreen. So your french is not that rusty

An early blowtorch, as you mentionned. I've found some blowtorch model that is supposedly the link between the first bleuet stove and the super bleuet: it uses small canisters as the bleuet does, but with similarities to the super bleuet on the body. I should receive it in the following days, then I'll post something about it (looks like something that was quite succint in their product line, I cannot find any info about it, on any original advertising... so it makes it even more interesting!).

"robinet raccord" is an adapter tap / cock, for using the bottles with standard gas hoses (to plug heaters, bigger stoves / ovens...).

Camping Gaz appears to have a really interesting product line, in the end. Even in the early years, it was quite complete and with some very nice features, in my opinion. I received something quite special two days ago: a portable heater, same body as the super bleuet from 1958, but with its own heating head / system, and its own name written on it (like campingaz did with their products: "super bleuet" body could also be named "soudogaz" or "lumogaz", depending on the use / the upper part). That little curiosity is amusingly called "baby BRASIL". Nothing on the internet about that one, single one I've seen in months of research... It also came with the original dark blue canister (first design of the main campingaz pierceable canister), which was a good surprise!

Bastien.

 

I want like this Any of you?

 

Hullo Bastien. I found one on Gumtree, got all ready to buy, took me a while to wake up - it uses disposable can only, so the top of the can is pierced when fitted. The can fits inside a wire frame, and the pot support wires do fold in but are not removable. I did download a picture, but of course it's lost in the pc somewhere.
Also found a small Primus bottle, like yours and mine, with the internal right hand thread. A gas lantern on top, but still not worth $50.
Cheers. Paul.

 

Hi "lamp". What do you mean?

Hi Paul. Did you find back the picture of the stove you're talking about?

Bastien.

 

Hi "blabast88"

I want this item



Where can I find it?

 

Hi lamp,

Well, I guess you'll need to look for it in France. But you'll only find the burner, not the original canister. They are very rare in this design now, plus it can't ship as it's a gas container. The best you can eventually do is to find the burner, and buy a regular 901 bottle that you can find in shops, maybe not everywhere but it's still for sale now. Then, you do a little paint job to get the original color and logo and that's it. This original bottle is the only one I've seen for sale in France at this moment. There should be some other like that, but they're not common at all. People replaced their canisters with newer ones when empty, so the only chance to find one like this is to find material that hasn't been used since the 1950's... And that's pretty rare. Good lucky with your search

Bastien

 

"blabast88"
Thank you very much for your advice.

 

No, sorry. Haven't found the picture yet. Will keep looking.
There was a blue metal sleeve which fitted over the cannister and also it carried the control wheel and valve, and the four pot supports. Was similar to yours, but with a disposable can.
Cheers. Paul.

 

Well, that should be something like a S200 stove, or something similar. They appeared in the 1960's, more precisely in 1962 if I'm correct. If you find that picture, send it here and you'll get a quick identification

Regards,

Bastien

 

Hi blabast88

I am wondering what are the differences between these 2 logos?