Does anyone know why Coleman refers to the vaporizer in their stoves and lanterns as a "generator"? I own and have used and have fettled on numerous Coleman stoves and lanterns (a dozen; I lose count) and two Svea 123s over the years (5 decades). As far as I can tell, the "generator" in any of their appliances is merely a vaporizer. Yes, in Coleman stoves, their "generator" may contain a wire coil surrounding the lengthy rod with the pricker at the end. But why the unusual name? Does the name suggest that this part (exposed to the burner flame) does anything more than just convert the liquid fuel into a vapor?
That’s all it does. With Coleman as a player from the early days I’d not argue with their choice of their name for a vapourising tube. It does after all generate fuel vapoor in the heat of the burner flame. ‘Gas tip’ as opposed to ‘jet nipple’ is another Coleman synonym.
I was under the impression that the early Coleman stoves were touted as "easy to use as a gas stove(town gas, coal gas, piped gaseous fuel)," turn a knob and burning merrily immediately. This would be in contrast with the other liquid fuel stoves of the day that people would have been familiar with, which required priming. Coleman pulled this off by "generating" gaseous fuel right there in the stove, hence the generator. I don't remember where I picked this up, I can't post a link documenting it, and I'm 100% open to being educated further on the matter.
I hoped that my query might be graced with a reply from an expert in all stove matters such as yourself, presscall. Thanks much!
Ah, my knowledge of stove design and theory and history grows by the minute. I feel privileged to have the help from you folks at CCS. I may someday arrive at the day when I can answer someone else's stove questions, as I did eventually with carburetion and other engine issues on the air-cooled VW forum, thesamba.com. For now, I'll content myself with ... developing my weird Frankenstove, nightime flame shots may be posted in about a month, unless my safety factor calculations are incorrect and the Frankenstove blows up, ... and, soon giving myself an avatar kinda like presscall's.
Ha ! The avatar is uploaded. My daughter, the baby in the lower left, sketched us in charcoal on paper when she was about 15 years older. Anyway, on to my Frankenstove project, halfway done now, which involves a Sigg bottle, an Optimus mini pump and cap, Coleman suitcase-stove plumbing, a Sears suitcase-stove venturi-tube-burner assembly (which is really just Coleman stuff), and some steel wire and stainless-steel sheet metal (pot supports and windscreen) ... and some welding ... and ... ... results and stove-porn flame shots to be posted, hopefully, if the stove passes tests, in a couple weeks.
@Schnuppiepup Respect to you as a shamen participant in the arcane mysteries of air-cooled VW engines and carburation matters. Picking up stove lore should be a doddle by comparison. The sketch is superb. A fine avatar. John
Although I think vaporizer makes more sense, I thought very early Coleman ads included the statement "generates its own gas" which would make it less confusing calling it a generator, at least in the US. Of course, going through the ads that I've saved, can't find that exact expression, but only "makes its own gas".
All of that makes sense. Thanks to y'all: presscall, marc, and Jim Lukowski. "Generator" = vaporizer.
I believe it was also a carry-over from the hollow wire systems where a large fuel tank was connected by small diameter tubing (hollow wire) to fixed hanging or wall mounted lamps throughout the house.
