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Primus stove

Logo: primusequipment.com3

The Primus stove was the first pressurized-burner kerosene (paraffin) stove, developed in 1892 by Frans Wilhelm Lindqvist, a factory mechanic in Stockholm. The stove was based on the design of the hand-held blowtorch; Lindqvist's patent covered the burner, which was turned upward on the stove instead of outward as on the blowtorch. The same year, Lindqvist partnered with Johan Viktor Svenson and established J.V. Svenson's Kerosene Stove Factory for manufacturing the new stoves which were sold under the name Primus.2 It is part of Silva Sweden AB.1 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

1892Founded1

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1921 Primus poster
Photo: B.A. Hjorth & Co. (Sweden), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons5

The Primus stove was the first pressurized-burner kerosene (paraffin) stove, developed in 1892 by Frans Wilhelm Lindqvist, a factory mechanic in Stockholm. The stove was based on the design of the hand-held blowtorch; Lindqvist's patent covered the burner, which was turned upward on the stove instead of outward as on the blowtorch. The same year, Lindqvist partnered with Johan Viktor Svenson and established J.V. Svenson's Kerosene Stove Factory for manufacturing the new stoves which were sold under the name Primus. The first model was the No.1 stove, which was quickly followed by a number of similarly designed stoves of different models and sizes. Shortly thereafter, B.A. Hjorth & Co. (later Bahco), a tool and engineering firm begun in Stockholm in 1889, acquired the exclusive rights to sell the Primus stove.2

Corporate structure

Primus stove is part of a group headed by Silva Sweden AB. 2 entities, 1 country on record. Switch between the flow chart and the network, and select any entity to see its details.

Built from parent and subsidiary links from GLEIF, the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (CC0); subsidiaries, stakes and holdings from Wikidata (CC0). Each entity in the chart links to its source.

Products and brands

  • portable stove

Listed on Wikidata.1

To light the stove, the user pours a small amount of alcohol into a circular "spirit cup" just below the burner and lights it to heat the burner assembly. When it is hot, the user pressurizes the tank by means of a small hand pump integrated into the housing, which forces kerosene from the tank up through the rising tube (A) and the ascending pipe (B) to the pre-heated burner head (C), where the fuel is heated and vaporized. The kerosene vapour is then forced under pressure through the descending tube (D) to the vapor nozzle (E); here it sprays through a jet in the middle of the burner, where it mixes with air and burns in a sootless blue flame. The heat from that flame vaporizes more fuel to sustain the process when the spirit cup burns out. The user can pump the tank more to increase the pressure and make the flame larger; turning a small "air screw" (usually located in the filler cap) will release pressure from the tank and make the flame smaller.

If no alcohol is available for lighting, a twist of cloth or even dry grass will form a wick in the spirit cup. Pumping once will dispense a small amount of kerosene to dribble down into the cup which will then light using the wick. As the flame dies down, a further gentle pump will either ignite the main burner or dispense more kerosene into the spirit cup.

Prior to the introduction of the Primus, kerosene stoves were constructed in the same manner as oil lamps, which use a wick to draw fuel from the tank to the burner and which produce a great deal of soot due to incomplete combustion. The Primus stove's design, which uses pressure and heat to vaporize the kerosene before ignition, results in a hotter, more efficient stove that does not soot. Because it did not use a wick and did not produce soot, the Primus stove was advertised as the first "sootless" and "wickless" stove.

From Wikipedia’s article on Primus stove, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4

Subsidiaries and ownership

Parent company

From Wikidata.1

Timeline

  1. 1892Founded Founded1

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

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    Company websitePrimus stove logo
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