Charles Twigg & Co of Perry Bar, Birmingham, were light engineering manufacturers during the 40's and 50's and went into receivership in 1957. Odd one this with some unusual features. The fuel tank is steel and the camouflage effect is unintentional, the gold paint having largely flaked off, revealing an olive drab finish beneath Unlike a conventional collapsible stove, the pot rest supports obviously can't be used without the pot rest The pot rest was missing one of the support mounting lugs ... ... so I'd to make one out of strip steel and braze it in place The burner has a built-in tommy bar to enable it to be fitted and unscrewed from the burner riser tube without the use of a spanner (wrench). I replaced the heat-proof washers Unconventional, more obviously so when set alongside an Optimus 45 Assembly of the pot rest has to be in this sequence, so no fitting the pot rest supports to the fuel tank first The pot rest, in painted, pressed steel, is an obvious legacy from Twigg's 'Buflam' line of wick stoves No sense in fixing a securing chain to the air screw!!!. It would be understandable if the keeper cap (which the stove has) was attached to the chain, but there's no obvious way of attaching the keeper cap to the chain ... The steel tank is perfectly sound, with no rust. Note the fact that the leg tubes to take the pot rest supports have stopped and rounded ends - a refinement that prevents bringing home soil samples, though I'd be surprised if that was the intention I've seen this pattern of non-return valve before, with the seal cup 'tail'. The cork seal was discarded in favour of a nitrile 'pip' TO BE CONTINUED John
Military precision is required to pack the stove away. The tank has to be orientated just as illustrated or it won't fit in the box. It becomes clear why there's that large hole in the pot rest - fits over the filler cap when packed Fibre seal in the filler cap was ripe for replacement with a nitrile disc Priming flames licking around the burner tommy-bar Powerful and loud Nearest I could get to a simmer without the flame yellowing up John
A fascinating stove John. I've not seen one like it. The first time I have seen a stove like this that needs the pot rest before a pot/pan can be used. Yet again, a great bit of fettling with that clip. Great photos suitable for an archive. Have you an idea of its age?
Hi Trevor. Well, as I said at the outset, Twigg weren't in business for as long as some. They made kid's bicycles too apparently and a shipment of 85 intended for Costa Rica made a legal precedent (Carlos Federspiel & Co. vs Charles Twigg and Co. Ltd. - 1957) when the buyer of the bikes lost the money he'd paid to Chas Twigg because the court held that since the crates containing the goods were still on the dockside at Liverpool and hadn't been loaded onto the ship, they belonged to the receiver and not the buyer. An aside - pardon. So, as to the age of the stove. Intriguing. Apart from the burner, filler cap and the air screw, there's no manufacturer's mark and in spite of the 'military' look about it, no War Dept broad arrow either. Could have been a prototype for a hoped-for army contract maybe? I don't know and a literature search hasn't come up with anything as yet. John
Very unique.I like the diversity in design we see again and again. I love those flame pics John.My camera can't seem to catch the detail you have on those close-ups. Thanks for sharing.
After years here, along comes a completely new and different one that we haven't seen before! Great post; amazing.
Wing nuts and Tommy bars,why did they change this method of fixing the burners to to the tank? Nice Stove
Hi John. Another great post and another 'conundrum' stove. The green tank and case do suggest a military role rather than civvy. Perhaps the gold on the tank was a later addition? It doesn't seem to have taken very well. The tommy bar is interesting. The bars are attached to a hex nut. Why produce a hex nut if you are then going to attach the bars preventing the hex nut from being used? The fact that the stove can't be used without a pot rest may have been it's downfall. Squaddies the world over are experts at losing things, and the loss of the pot rest would have rendered the stove unusable. I wonder why they went with the shorter supports and a pot rest with raised lugs. What was wrong with the tried and tested long supports and stamped flat pot rest? That pot rest must have cost more to produce that a flat one. It's amazing what must be out there in the big wide world waiting to be re-discovered. I remember watching Antiques Roadshow many years ago when a very old lady turned up with some cloth in an old carrier bag. It had hung for years on a rail behind her front door as a draught excluder. Turned out to a a Jacobean tapestry worth more than her house! Terry
Lovely stove and a nice conundrum. The whole pan rest thing seems very curious. Close examination of the pictures shows that each of the four pan rests have a square cut out on their outside top corner. As if something might sit over the top? Possibly some sort of heater conversion/option? I can't work out any other obvious manufacturing need for those cutouts. And why four rests when three producing the well known tripod effct would be more stable? My opinion is its got to be part of some bigger modular design otherwise it just doesn't make sense, especially given the steel tank pointing to it being produced during a period of general materials shortage. Cheers, Graham.
Thanks all, some interesting feedback there. I'm assuming it's original to the stove, but this travelling/keeper cap wasn't well thought out. Although the burner has that useful tommy bar, a spanner (wrench) would have to be packed with the stove just to remove and replace the cap I'll keep the cap with the stove as a curiosity, but I'll be using this - made up from a short length of brass rod and a remnant from a junked silent burner - to use with the stove. Far more in keeping with the spanner-free concept Handy too for lifting out and lowering the stove into the box Next job is to sort out an arrangement to attach a longer chain from the stove leg to the cap in place of the existing chain affixed to the air screw. John
