Portable stove

A portable stove is a stove specially designed to be portable and lightweight, such as for camping.

Pressurised burner stoves

History

There is some controversy over the invention of the pressurised burner. Most have given the credit to F.W. Linqvist, who was granted a patent for a kerosene-fueled burner in the late 1880s and went on to develop the Primus brand name of stove into a market leader. However, some have suggested that he bought the design.

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The Primus stoves and their imitators were a significant advance over previous designs that had used a wick to supply liquid fuel to the burner by capillary action. Instead the Primus burner vaporised the fuel in a loop of pipe, and used this to both supply the fuel to the burner as a gas and to maintain pressure in the fuel tank.

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Initial pressure was provided by a small hand-operated pump. It was also necessary to pre-heat the burner with methylated spirits.

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This burner design was also successfully adapted to portable lamps, lighthouse lamps and blowtorches.

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Current models

Pressurised burner stoves are now available to burn almost any volatile, inflammable liquid, including alcohol, diesel or other motor fuels, kerosene, jet propellant, and many others. Work is proceeding on vegetable-oil burners. Some can burn multiple fuels or even mixtures. Some require special low-residue stove fuel, others are either designed to resist clogging or to be easily and regularly cleaned of the residue.

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Most provide some control over the amount of heat produced. Some fuels permit preheating (or priming) with the fuel, others require use of a more volatile fuel, such as methylated spirit or alcohol priming paste, for preheating the burner. Most provide an integrated pump for initial pressurisation, others require the use of a separate pump, while a few need no pump but pressurise themselves when the burner is preheated.

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Although heavier than the simpler designs and more complex to maintain and operate, these stoves can heat food more quickly, and as standard issue to many units in the second world war they enjoyed a large base of competent users in the years immediately following. Another advantage is that hydrocarbon fuels have a higher heat content weight for weight than alcohol fuels, so for extended expeditions the weight advantage of alcohol-fueled stoves is reduced or even reversed.

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