At the time of writing this is the 4th example of an early Monitor stove with embossed inscriptions. This one, however, is different to the other 3 currently in the gallery (@Kengal00's here; @presscall's here; and Bernie Dawg's here. The very big and obvious difference is that there is no model number or reference to Parkinson Cowan, the manufacturer, on this one; only the bold bald plain legend: 'MONITOR British Made Throughout'. This 'British Made Throughout' assertion fits a particular, fairly narrow, time slot in the very early 1920s when there was a strong upsurge of anti-German and 'jingoistic' feeling and quite a range of manufacturers took up this advertising slogan. Here it is on an apparently similar date Monitor blowlamp: and on a 1921 Parkinson advert: The pump rod assembly has some interesting features: As does the NRV with it's notably large air transfer holes: The above features could all point to an early production date, but the side panel inscription seems to foreshadow those found on much later Monitor stoves such as the 1930s Regal: The trivet is interesting in that it seems to be exactly the same pattern as on another early Parkinson Monitor too, suggesting that it is very likely original and that the different versions of the embossed Monitor stove could all be very close in date to each other: One fitment that may not original on my stove is the SRV type filler cap.
Unless things have been altered, would it be a safe assumption that this is the most recent of the four embossed tank Monitors uploaded here? The spirit cup mounted up the riser on this model, rather than on the tank, suggests Monitor were following the practice of the Swedish manufacturers who were relocating spirit cups to this 'new' position? Forgive me if this has been covered elsewhere, but is it known when production started? And does the 'Monitor' name come from them being used in Monitor class battleships during or before the Great War? I'm sure I read that suggestion on here somewhere.
@Blackdog thank you for your contribution. My feeling about the likely place of this stove in a timeline of the embossed tank Monitors is the same as yours, with the Kengal100 and Bernie Dawg pair being the earliest. It may be that the Monitor relief pressed tanks remained in production for longer than we have previously thought. The biggest dating puzzle on mine is the filler cap assembly, if the SRV cap isn't original what would have been fitted previously? It couldn't have been the same as on the other 3 as mine has a separate side exit pressure relief. (@kerophile ?) I like the suggestion that the Monitor name may have been linked with the naval Monitors, never heard that suggestion before. As regards the low positioned priming cup on the other examples that was actually a Swedish innovation which was quite widely offered in the years just before and immediately after WW1. Ian
The SRV does seem to be an addition favoured by Monitor on many models throughout production, more so than other manufacturers? One wonders if they were early adopters and developers of the feature and whether yours could be an early example, I'd expect there would be patent records if so. An extra selling point over the long-established Swedish brands would be an understandable desire. I'm sure I read about the naval theory years ago on here, possibly even before I joined CCS, but there were no references. I liked the idea at the time though and it spurred me to start chasing down a few Monitors. A quick search on here found Presscall's 2015 thread here where it is stated in a Bukta catalogue (shown in page 2) that the name comes from the stoves serving on Monitor battleships. I think this is entirely probable, they could well have been used in addition to, or as a backup to, the usual galley arrangements, if the Navy put out a tender for a batch of stoves there is no reason Parkinson Cowan wouldn't have stepped up to it, it seems they were advertising stoves by 1919 at the latest so may well have got in a government contract well before then.
