Recent magazine article on Optimus Svea 123R

It's amazing how the internet has eased access and sharing of information. I tried probably around 1997 to find out more about the fabled 'Primus' of the Arthur Ransome novels.

All I could discover was that my Grandparents had one in the car for wayside tea breaks when my Mother was young.

Our very extensive books contained nothing of use, although the Ladybird Book 'Camping' in the 'Learnabout' series (from 1977) provided no pictures but the tantalising description 'Pressure stoves. These should not be used by the novice or young camper as they require care and experience to use and maintain. They work on vaporised paraffin, are light to carry and are cheap to run'. Game on!

Discovering CCS a while later was like lifting an unregarded stone and finding a whole new world.

 

Most hiking books in the '70s through the '90s in the US had pretty thorough discussions about hiking stoves. But then conditions of hiking and camping in the US probably differed from the UK.

Just off the top of my head I think of Harvey Manning's "pre-internet" backpacking book, which extensively discussed the options, including the 123, the Optimus 00, Coleman Peaks, and I think Phoebus as well. With illustrations of all of them.

Trangias were usually neglected, though.

"Bushcraft" books in the '60s and earlier tended to emphasize camp fires, and often had no stove discussions at all.

But as far as Coleman white gas suitcases and lanterns were concerned, everybody had them from the 1950s on. Well, almost everybody. Car camping exploded as family recreation in the postwar period, and continues strong.

 

There was very little in the book line about hiking/camping in the UK in the 90s and early 2000s, no doubt due to the tiny size of this Island and the difficulty of having proper adventures!

'Survival' books had just come into fashion when I joined the Scouts, I remember a well illustrated Dorling Kindersley number which covered a lot of outdoor basics. There was a page on stoves, which if remembered rightly included something in the Campingaz line, a hexamine burner, a multifuel Coleman thing and I'm pretty sure a Trangia.

Other than that there were just catalogues from camping shops to pore over. Millets and BCH camping in my yoof. Nothing apart from Trangias appealed.

Along with a minidisc player and an APS camera (remember them?!) One of my brothers bought a multifuel stove to take travelling in Asia, a separate fuel bottle job, no idea what it was. I remember watching him test it before he went, but again it didn't leave an impression on me. He chucked it as soon as he discovered cheap street food meant cooking wasn't ever needed. Only Lonely Planet guides for advice in those days, no watching vlogs before you went!

Only things that appealed were the brassies I had read about, and caught glimpses of, tucked away in the lofts of Scout huts and on trade stands at autojumbles and steam fairs...

 

I was given £5 in the early 1970's as a birthday present (apparently would be the equivalent to about £50 today according to the Bank of England inflation calculator page Inflation calculator) whan I was about 15. That was a good present then!
Following my mum's advice, I opened a Post Office Savings account and deposited the £5.
Not long afterwards I decided I wanted a Camping Gaz Bleuet stove. I have no idea why now, but I went to the Post Office to withdraw my £5 which would close the account. The PO employee behind the counter asked if I need the whole £5, and when I said only £4.75, the cost of the stove, they suggested only taking out £4.75 to leave the account open for future savings.
So, clutching my £4.75, I walked down a shop or two on the High Street to a branch of Robert Dyas the ironmongers and got my stove.
Later when I started caving with some school friends and camping in camp sites when on caving trips, that stove got plenty of use but was disappointing in winter as you all know due to running on a fuel which didn't perform well at colder temperatures.
I had a bought "The Backpacker's Handbook" by Deriick Booth a little later some time in the 1970s and learned about alternative stoves which performed better in colder conditions and found an Optimus 8R in a second-hand camping gear shop.
I bought this stove and couldn't get it to light and found for some reason the tank was full of meths! So I got a tin of Coleman Fuel and replaced the meths with this and it was soon roaring away!
I still have that stove and used it every now and then for a brew when out hiking.
For some reason after joining this site, I seem to have some other stoves now as well, including that Optimus 8R and even the original Bleuet!

 

A book written with the US in mind though... I tried hard when young to find books on camping/hiking, but there seemed to be nothing new or second hand around, apart from some archaic post-war publications, some old Scout literature and the aforementioned Ladybird book. I failed to find anything aimed at adults or real enthusiasts. In reality, there just isn't much to write about regards walking and camping in the UK...

 

I've told this story before, but...
There's no real history of backcountry camp stove use in California. Wood fires were the only game in town. In Scouts, when we started going above tree line, we would gather wood someplace lower and haul it up (every man for himself). I got tired of this really quickly, so when I saw a Sterno burner, I figured, why not. It worked great at low elevation, but, as it turned out, a good deal less so above 10,000 feet. Wandering about in a willow thicket (hoping my absence would make the soup heat faster), I heard a strange noise and followed it to a gentleman boiling his soup over a tiny stove. Turned out to be a Svea 123, and by the next summer I had one, complete with Sigg Tourist set and paid for by pick-and-shovel slave labor to my parents. For several years, it was my only stove -- I couldn't even imagine a need for any other. I used it for backpacking, winter mountaineering, car camping, canoe trips, domestic use when the gas got turned off, sometimes just to impress girls. I figured that stove would take me to Everest or Antarctica, if I could figure out how to get there.

....Arch

 

Great story Arch.

 

First-(and/or early)-stove stories here are fun to hear and easy to relate to, due in part to similar memories. I have a hard time imagining those now growing up with 2-ounce scew-on gassies will look back on them with fond memories. At least until all forms of carbon-based fuels have been phased out.

 

Agreed, thanks @ArchMc .

@itchy My early camping stove memories are of my parents using a campingaz stove and lantern. I've told them not to bin them, and will probably always keep them at the back of a cupboard in case I suddenly get sentimental about them, but in reality I'll never use them again, or light them up for enjoyment. They are boring and souless as far as I'm concerned, hot food outdoors needs brass and liquid fuels!

 

@Blackdog Thanks for the reminder about Campingaz stoves and lanterns -- they do have a certain nostalgic appeal -- unique and quirkiness, if nothing else.

 

I dunno, I can't get excited by them. Maybe the lack of user input required? Or maybe they are not quite as 'alive' in some way as an 8r or 210...

 

I definitely remember the APS system; I liked it a lot, and have many photos in my archives taken with APS.

It was especially great with black and white; the system made it very easy to take b&w photos and I did a lot of that.

It was an excellent 'point and shoot' innovation. But who knew that the rapid advance of digital would make it obsolete within a few short years.....

 

@Ed Winskill When young photography meant my Father faffing about with his 35mm SLR- having to hold unnatural poses while he messed about with various controls, took another in case he got the exposure wrong the first time round.... and had days disrupted on holiday while he searched about for a darkish public place to change films.

He attempted to foster an interest in photography by offereing me a 35mm camera with the promise he'd buy films and send them off for developing, but I politely refused! The poor chap had put me off cameras!

My brother bought his APS camera (Kodak Advantix F320) to take travelling around the millennium, I was taken by it as it was so practical, and asked for one for my birthday soon afterwards. Not wanting to look like I was copying my brother, and seldom able to leave things alone I 'customised' mine by pulling off the rubber grip parts and adding carved balsa wood instead. Mad! I loved it, it took all of what I considered the boring faff* out of photography and allowed me to concentrate on achieving good composition.

Trying black and white never occured to me, but I loved the different formats, landscape was great! And handling the films was no effort.

It would be great if the film was still readily available, it would be fun to mess about with it again. I probably took over a thousand photos with it before digital came in and the cost saving and ability to review photos instantly made it worthwhile changing, even if it did mean lots of saving up was needed to buy a 'big' 256mb memory card!

*Ironically, four posts previously, I note how I can't stand gas stoves, possibly due to lack of faff!

 

Landscapes with APS were good; the system took panoramic photos with ease.

 

A great improvement on taking sereral photos of a landscape then sellotaping them together for display!

 

Take one along on a trek when it's really cold. I bet you develop a real affection for it!

....Arch

 

Having experienced butane in the cold in my youth, the exact opposite is true! Warming up my fingers while priming a brassie with meths, on the other hand...

 

The book I have with this title is the second edition and was published by Robert Hale, London. The first edition was printed in GB in 1972 and the second edition in 1979, so I probably bought it new in the 1980s. It mentions US-based manufacturers of equipment (pack frames, etc.) but mostly refers to UK outfitters, etc. and locations in the UK to go to, so definitely a UK-based book. I think later editions were authored by Chris Townsend, another British author. So there may not have been many books on camping or hiking of this kind available here, but there were a few.

 

@Paul Lydon So it was a UK book after all... I flicked through a copy when young (possibly in one of them their libraries) but it seemed very American, and yes some of the gear shown was certainly not to be found here, so I wrote it off at the time. I'll keep an eye open for a copy.