I had to smile when you said, "I am going to attempt to fry an egg". I cooked many meals on 2 Primus 96 half pint stoves for a family of four on our annual camping holidays in North Wales. I still use my Primus (Optimus) 00 stove which I bought in the early 70s. We now have a small caravan but I still like to get the old Optimus out much to the amusement of some of the other caravaners. Primus/Optimus stoves just have that something special. My oldest working stove was made in 1928.....sadly now sold.
I have 3 of these. Fire them up on occasions just to hear and smell them. 28 sec home heating oil works a treat. Reminds me of a Wessex helicopter smell.
I have a stove that is identical to yours but it is not a Primus. It is a Korean copy bought in the late ‘70s for camping using a motorbike as transport so it had to be light & compact. The choices were a methylated spirit stove (not very controllable, powerful or economical) a camping gaz stove with expensive chuck away cartridges or the Primus copy which was competitively priced (can’t remember what I paid for it). It was a good choice as I used it for years (camping, day trips & power cuts) powerful, controllable, cost pennies to run, even ran it on petrol once as I got to a bike rally & realised I had brought everything but paraffin, it worked ok but whet you opened the valve to let the pressure out to turn it off the petrol vapour caught fire so you had to blow it out, quick. I have still got it stored in the shed, I will have to get it out & give it a run sometime.
I like these small stoves, got a few myself, so simple to maintain compared to modern stoves. I don't polish mine, prefer a natural patina. I've a couple of Primus stoves over a hundred years old and still working 100%...great engineering.
Nice video about this classic petroleum stove. I like that you're showing how to fry something. Most people only show how to boil water. Boiling water is not difficult. You can do that with every stove. But frying an egg or baking a hamburger is usually much more difficult. Ideally you do this with a stove that has a controllable flame like you show in this movie.
