My Primus 1020 lantern from 1937 (AB dated) is a good runner. When I received it, it was complete, including the preheat dish. It has the early style preheat dish. Mine has a small steel insert on one side; the insert has a small round hole on the upper end. There is a special hole/slot in the dish for this insert, to the top left of the "p" of the PRIMUS name. I have always wondered what the purpose was for this part of the preheat dish. Many of these type of preheat dishes do not have this separate steel insert (or are missing it?). Does anybody know what the purpose is?
When they came from the factory, that strip was bent down so it was along the edge of the cup. It had a piece of asbestos string tied to it that lay outside the cup near the lighting hole. When filling up the spirit cup, the string would soak up a bit of alcohol and could be used as a wick to make it easier to light the alcohol. The later spirit cups had a hole on the edge of the flame shield where the string was tied.
Yes, I have a NOS 237B with that same setup. It makes it easier to light. Also have a Primus 1020, circa 1935, and it has the little metal holder but no wick. I guess they weren't too popular (?).
That is a nice feature. Primus must have been ahead of their time, with the concept of such 'gadgets' in mind. I wonder if the thin metal strip might get burnt and corroded after repeated use. Its quite exposed to the spirit flame.
No, the string was very thin and usually didn't last too long. In normal situations it wasn't really needed. Another idea is that people didn't know what it was for and just took it off. Yes they do get quite corroded.
