This Australian Galliers & Klaerr Patent 'Acme Gas Kettle' seems to be the same as the first of the two that @Rodger Willows showed in this post back in 2018. There are nevertheless a couple of differences to beware of, one, this example is rather more battered than Rodger's, and two, the 'Linaglow' pattern lid that it sports is clearly not original! That said it is still a formidable piece of engineering worthy of display. The main photo at the top above shows how closely this kettle matches the basic outer dimensions of a standard 2 pint Primus. But in reality it far outweighs the Primus at 4lb 11oz empty, and an astounding 10lb 15¼oz when loaded to its safe maximum capacity with 5 pints of water. All of this makes it an unpleasantly top heavy load on a 2-pint Primus, and much more suited to the larger 4¼ pint Primus No.6; as here - On 2 pint Primus No.5: On 4¼ pint Primus No.6: The surprising weight of this kettle derives from its construction. The construction is a marvel. Obviously it has a sleeved outer skin to hold rising heat in against the inner vessel. This is best seen from below: But there is more to than that. The main part of the outer skin, between the plain lower rib and the upper rib with the vent holes, is itself built as a water jacket to further maximise heat transfer. The water jacket is connected to the main inner vessel by 2 tube connections at opposite sides. One right down near bottom of the inner vessel, the other only a little below max fill level! Upper connecting pipe: Lower connecting pipe : This vertical offsetting of the connections facilitates a convection current through the jacket and between main vessel and jacket. Here is as good a photo as I could manage through the steam of a small steam bubble emerging from the upper connecting pipe as the kettle began to approach boiling: But now I am pondering a question. If a full 5 pint fill is required to submerge both upper and lower connection tubes in order for the jacket convection current to operate, does that mean it would be unsafe to use this kettle with anything less than a full fill?
Yes indeed. I've often wondered, since first seeing yours, about the designation of these as 'gas kettles'. How common would domestic town/coal gas supply have been in Australia at the time these kettles were made?
