Optimus Svea 123

The Svea 123 is a pocket stove made almost entirely of brass. A small round fuel tank, holding about an eighth of a litre of petrol, sits inside a slotted cylindrical windscreen whose three folding arms hold a pot. A vertical brass stem rises from the tank to a roaring burner, with a small cup at its base for priming. A brass key on a chain turns the valve. An aluminium cover fits over the whole stove and doubles as a pot with a clip-on handle; packed, it is about ten centimetres across and thirteen high.

It was made by Max Sievert's firm at Sundbyberg, outside Stockholm, which had sold Svea stoves since the early twentieth century. English Wikipedia dates the 123 to 1955, and a French-language Svea brochure of that year lists it, though collectors have found instructions dated 1954. It needs no pump: warmth from a little burning fuel in the cup heats the tank, and the pressure that builds pushes vapour through the burner.

Climbers and walkers adopted it widely, and Wikipedia describes it as the first compact backpacking white-gas stove. Lighter stoves and ones that burn many fuels later displaced it from the top of the market, but it kept a following for being, in its users' word, bomb-proof. Optimus, another Stockholm stove maker, acquired the Svea brand in 1969 and kept the stove in production.

The main change since is the 123R, with a cleaning needle built into the jet, worked with the same key, in place of the separate pricker that came with the early stoves. Production has moved from Sweden to Taiwan, and Optimus is now part of the Katadyn group, which describes the Svea as still selling after more than seventy years. It is sold in the United Kingdom for about £125.