Here's my absolute favourite heater. It's a Primus 1010, date U30 (1930). As so often, the guard is missing. It has the "new" type of burner, compared to the 1928 heater shown in Nils post
I can see a slight 'yellowness' shine through at some places where the reflector has been polished, so I would say so. Which was the most common? I'm not sure I have any heater with an aluminium reflector, so I don't really know how they feel and look. I would assume them to appear "softer" and duller in their clang?
Using the evidence of the heaters that are around today, I would say the aluminium reflector was the most common. Then comes the copper, the nickel plated brass and finally the polished brass. It is pretty logical that the aluminium is the most common as it was the cheapest. I have a 1950 price list where the aluminium is listed as 35.00, the nickel brass 36.70 and the copper 38.20 (all prices are Swedish kronor). The polished brass option was not offered after the early 30s, so is not in this price list. With those prices it is strange that the copper is the next most common. My idea is that if the price wasn't so much an issue then they went for the copper as it was prettier. The polished brass is the least common as it was only offered for a short time (actually I have only seen a picture of one I believe is brass). The difference between the aluminium and nickel plated brass is fairly obvious. The aluminium does tend to be more grey and doesn't give the same shine as nickel. It also 'feels' lighter, without actually taking it off and weighing.
I have found this primus 1010 heater. Actually I didn't know what ir was until I started to polish it. Then I got to your web trying to get information about it.
It is interesting how the air inlet tubes have been modified at some point in it's life. Also looking at the top of the cleaning needle rod could indicate further modifications? In the middle under the tank there should be a date code. It would be nice to find out what year it is from.
Well, here you are. I don't know much about these classic heaters... I live in Cádiz, bottom of Spain, and they are/were not very common. One of my neightbours threw it away and I thought it was something interesting... I asked older people and nobody knew what it was. Just trying to discover more.
A date code of AR = 1952. Yes, I couldn't imagine a heater having been used much where you are. It does look like it has been used a lot though. If only it could talk and tell it's story.
