Air Release Screw – Found on kerosene appliances this is usually a part of the filler cap that can be opened to lose pressure and stop the appliance burning. Also known as pressure release screw, pressure relief valve or air valve screw. Warning: On petrol / naptha / Coleman fuelled appliances, especially the older ones, there is a similar looking feature which is NOT a pressure release but a filler plug air stem for putting air into the lamp or stove as per the manufacturers’ instructions.

Air Stem – On early Coleman, and other, appliances this is a small fitting on top of the filler plug that is turned one turn to allow air to be pumped in. It is NOT a pressure release screw. These appliances have a separate On-Off valve for shutting the appliance down.

Bail / Bail Handle – This is usually a plain wire carry handle, fixed to pivot at two points, on lanterns, some heaters and most fire pots. Occasionally, a few lantern brands, e.g., Lancaster, wrap their bails in a heat resistant fabric due to high heat output.

Burner – The part that mixes the gaseous fuel with air and has the flame coming out of it.

Burner Cap – Pressure lanterns have these, generally screwed on, circular fittings with a groove around them. The groove supports the tied on mantle where the flame exits the lantern. They often have a mesh or perforated steel fitting just inside the cap. Dual mantle lanterns have two burner caps. The most common material used is brass but some are ceramic.

Burner types – The Primus type brass stoves have three: the roarer (needs a special offset tool to get the nipple out), the silent and the Primus model 96 tube (aka ”lipstick” burner) which is also found on several other Swedish stove models.

Burner-shield – A set of two metal flaps forming a removable collar that clips around Primus type stove burners to minimise the effect of wind on the pre-heating and burning processes.

Cage – A frame that holds the ventilator up above and helps position the globe.

Check Valve – A device to stop the backflow of liquid. In Coleman products the valve has a small ball bearing that either stops fully (in earlier lamps) or almost stops (later models) the liquid return. In later models the final seal is done by an air stem that is screwed in.

Coleman Fuel – A very clean burning type of gasoline (petrol) that does not have many of the additives that are in normal unleaded fuel. Specifically made for lamps and stoves.

Collar / Base Rest – The metal circular neck usually found between the fount and the globe.

Control Cock – This is a small valve and control device at the base of the generator in many lantern appliances, e.g., Tilley.

Control Valve – Turns the flow of fuel on or off. Often when starting later model devices it is turned a ¼ turn initially to assist with lighting and then opened up after heated more fully.

Filler Cap – The lid that seals the fuel inlet tube after refuelling.

Flame Spreader – The steel or brass ring that sits in a gallery flush with the top of a roarer burner.

Fount / Tank / Reservoir / Oil Container / Font – The tank that holds the fuel. An older term was font and sometimes oil container or reservoir. However, it is usually called a tank on blowtorches and irons. (See above images.)

Fuels – A variety of fuels exist for stoves, lamps and lanterns. These include: Alcohol, Kerosene (Paraffin), Unleaded gasoline (petrol), Shellite®, Coleman fuel® and Diesel. Some stoves also use solid fuels such as Hexamine tablets or even wood. The correct fuel for each appliance must be used.

Generator / Vapouriser – The metal tube, often brass, that is heated to gasify the liquid fuel. They can be straight or with various circular shapes added. The mantle(s) sit near it or around it.

Globe – The glass or mica cylinder protecting the burning mantle. Not a globe of the world!

Globe Base Rest – The flat bottom part of the burner cage/frame.

Heater Cone / Glower / Glödkropp – Some ‘Primus type’ stoves are convertible to a heater. In these convertible stoves the heater cone is a hemispherical metal fitting that is suspended above the stove burner and emits radiated heat. A protecting plate is also fitted above the tank to deflect heat.

Hood / Ventilator – The metal cap, often enamelled, sitting on top of the glass or mica globe which is also important for stormproofing.

Inner Cap – The generally solid cap that sits inside the outer perforated cap on a silent burner.

Jet – See Orifice

Mantle – These are delicate woven bags coated with a rare earth mixture which become incandescent when enveloping the flame from a lantern burner. They are usually globular or sock like.

NIB – New in Box

Nipple – The small part at the end of the generator with a very tiny hole, (orifice), that allows the fuel vapour to be squirted into the burner. The orifice is actually made smaller to allow more oxygen to burn correctly depending on the fuel.

NRV – A Non-Return Valve allows fuel or air to flow in one direction. It usually consists of a small spring and cork or rubber ‘pip’ that operate to seal off the flow of air and fuel. Tilley lanterns and Primus type stoves generally incorporate a NRV. (See also Check Valve).

Orifice – The small hole in the nipple through which the gasified fuel enters the burner. A ‘jet’ is the material coming out of the orifice.

Outer Burner Cap – On a silent burner stove the outer perforated cap from which the flame eventuates. The outer burner cap sits over an inner burner cap.

Paraffin – An English name for kerosene.

Pricker – A small tin handle with a very short thin wire on its end for cleaning the hole (jet) in the nipple.

Pricker Handle – The wheel or lever used to prick the jet to remove carbon blockages. Sometimes it is separate from the valve wheel on petrol devices and sometimes it is built to operate as part of the valve wheel operation.

Pump – The pump on the side that pressurises the air above the fuel.

Pump assembly – The parts making up the pump unit that can be removed from the stove or lantern.

Pump cup – The small leather cup shaped washer at the end of the pump handle.

Pump valve – The one way mechanism at the base of the pump assembly. Often called a check valve or NRV.

Riser – The tube coming up from a stove tank to support a burner.

Roarer Burner – See Burner Types.

Silent Burner – See Burner Types.

Spirit Cup – Bowl shaped holder for alcohol to pre-heat generator. Other names are: Priming cup and Lighting cup.

Spirit can – A small can to hold the pre-heating alcohol, sometimes with an oilcan like snout for filling the spirit cup.

Tank – See Fount

Torch – The small clip holding a wick that absorbs alcohol for pre-heating a lantern; commonly found on Tilley brand or similar lanterns.

Trivet / Top Ring / Pan Support – This is the support for a pan or pot on a stove. The trivet separates the fire from the pan.

Valve Wheel – This operates the control valve.

Windscreen / Windshield – These can be separate screens to shield a stove from the wind or they can be built in features. Often they are sold as an optional component. Many MSR stoves come with an aluminium/aluminum flexible windscreen.

Zora Burner –Has a flattened circular burner plate on top with 3 tabs, similar to the 4 tab burner plates found on top of stoves such as the Optimus 8R and SVEA 123. However, the Zora burner comprises a silent burner unit which utilises the above mentioned burner plate in lieu of inner and outer caps. In the rim of the silent burner are 3 notches to accept the 3 tabs of the Zora burner plate. Two sizes of Zora burners have been noted and they are usually associated with Parasene brand stoves.

Blowlamp Terms

Air-regulating Cylinder – A cylindrical covering on some old blowtorches that can be rotated up or down to adjust the flame. Often on vertical blowtorches used for laboratory work.

Barthel Patent – A government sponsored super-brazer design, based on a model by Barthel that was manufactured by several companies including Monitor, Veritas and Burmos.

Blowtorches / Blowlamps – Covers the common torches, often of no more than 1 quart or 1 litre capacity. Good examples would include the Primus 632, Sievert 542 and the C&L 114A.

Brazing torches – These look like blowtorches but are generally much larger and more industrial looking. Often with steel coil burners fitted. Good examples would include: Primus 615, 685, Monitor 46 and Optimus 5237. They are more suited to more demanding work such as brazing.

Burner hook – A support hook on the top of a blowtorch for assisting in resting a soldering iron in the flame.

Burner tube – On a blowtorch, the cylindrical casing covering the burner and vapouriser. Sometimes also known as a flame shield or flame tube.

C&L – Abbreviation for Clayton & Lambert Manufacturing Company

Dip Tube / Fuel Feed Pipe – The tube inside the tank that feeds fuel upwards to the burner, usually under pressure. In petrol blowtorches, it generally contains a wick.

Filler Plug – On blowtorches that have a bottom filled tank the base is often funnel shaped and a filler plug is used for sealing the tank, (cf. filler cap).

Furnaces / Fire Pots – Usually with a vertical outlet and a large steel tank, often of a gallon capacity. The top often has a tapering plumbers shield. These are used for melting metal, heating things, starting older oil engines. Good examples would be a Sievert 590, a C&L 22A or 71 and a Primus 710.

Gasoline / Petrol – USA users are familiar with the term gasoline but in many other places it is called petrol. Coleman Fuel is a similar product preferred by many because of it’s cleaner burning.

Helical coil burner – Preheating coil used on many furnaces and brazing torches; often steel.

Manometer – A pressure gauge often fitted to larger brazing torches and Super-brazers

Nozzle – On a blowtorch, the reduced part that the flame exits from when burning.

Plumbers shield – The tapering top shield that sits above the top plate of a furnace.

Pump in handle – Blowtorches where the pump is located in the handle rather than fixed into the tank.

Rising Tube – In ‘pump in handle’ blowtorches, this is the tube that connects the bottom of the pump directly to the air at the top of the tank. This prevents any possibility of fuel seeping back into the pump tube.

Safety pin – Some blowtorches have what appears to be a thin rod sticking out of the top of the tank for no good reason. Actually this is a safety device that, in the event of a very hot tank pushing the base out, pulls the pin from the upper tank venting the pressure. This only happens in extreme cases and normally it is just there.

SHSI – (Self-Heating Soldering Iron) A handheld blowtorch incorporating a soldering iron which maintains its heat. The unit can also be used as a blowtorch and was sometimes called a combination soldering iron (Primus).

Steel cushion band – A steel band around the base of larger blowtorches and furnaces protecting the base by elevating it slightly.

Straps – A burner strap is a metal frame holding the burner tube on and often with supports for soldering irons.

Super-Brazers – Very large industrial blowtorches, often with a large fuel capacity and usually top heavy until filled. All ‘Barthel Patent’ types are in this category. Many of these have an option to extend the burner out on a long flexible tube. Examples include Monitor 52 and 79, Samuel Heath and Sons T206 and Sievert 583.

Top plate – On an upright furnace, the metal plate near the top with a hole for the burner flame.

Triple coil burner – On some blowlamps a coiled triple wrap burner.

Twin coil burner – A blowlamp burner with two parallel coils

Wick – On pressurised and non-pressurised gasoline (petrol) type blowtorches, the fuel pickup tube is filled with a wick, often cotton, that supports the correct fuel flow, filters particles, e.g., rust, and enables the fuel to gain some benefits from capillarity.

Windshield – On a blowlamp the metal cover that sits over the top of and on each side of the burner to reduce wind effect on the blowtorch. Also known as a draught hood.