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Coleman: The Outdoor Company
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 24, 2006 MEDIA CONTACTS:
(for members of the working media)
Jim Reid 316-219-7535
Coleman News Release
History of Coleman Backpacking Stoves
The origin of today’s diminutive backpacking stoves begins with W.C. Coleman and the big lanterns his company was developing in the early 1900s. He made a series of product improvements after founding the company in 1900 as an indoor lamp and lighting service provider. His first outdoor lantern was introduced in 1914. It was a 14-pound monster that customers applauded for its brightness, its safety and its performance in foul weather. But they said it would be better if it were smaller and easier to light.
[Click to download full-sized TIFF] The quest for miniaturization and to meet users’ demands in harsh environments would become a central theme and a challenge for decades to come.
By 1920, the Coleman® lantern was indeed much smaller, lighter and easier to light. W.C. was a tinkerer. He and his Experimental Department turned their attention to portable stoves, armed with new technologies learned while evolving gasoline lanterns. Their first camp stove – an all-black two-burner, the Model One – was introduced in 1923. Coleman’s historian, 96-year-old Herb Ebendorf, marks that date as the beginning of Coleman, the outdoor company.
[Click to download full-sized TIFF] “Coleman had two outdoor products then – the camp stove to go along with the lantern,” Ebendorf says. “This came at a time when the Model T Ford became affordable to millions of American families. They began to travel and vacation more. ‘Motor camping’ became quite popular. The stove and lantern fit right in. They often strapped the stove right on the running board of the car, and they pitched a tent in a park or alongside the road at night.”
Even though Coleman had designed and manufactured a powerful single-burner stove used as a heater and for boiling water during the late 1920s and 30s, the Model 500 Speedster of 1940 and similar editions were not sized for backpacking or carrying any great distances. Although portable, they were simply too bulky and heavy for backpacking. They were used primarily in farming, construction and for other more utilitarian purposes.
[Click to download full-sized TIFF] Historians point to 1942, World War II and the GI Pocket Stove as the true genesis of today’s Coleman® backpack stove, although everything the company had learned the previous 25 years would be needed to develop the Model 520 Pocket Stove. The U.S. Army originally wanted a compact stove for use by a new special unit of ski troopers. It needed to burn a variety of liquid fuels and gasoline, light easily in temperatures ranging from 60 degrees below zero to 125 degrees above zero, weigh less than three pounds, and not be much larger than a quart milk bottle. And, given the pending war circumstances, the product would need to be designed and built with the utmost speed. Ebendorf says it was a daunting task for Coleman engineers, and the assignment set into motion “the most strenuous 60 days in the company’s history.”
But Coleman met the challenge, producing the first 5,000 stoves in time to accompany American armed forces in the invasion of North Africa in November 1942. Use of the stove was broadened beyond its original purpose for ski troopers to include several branches of the military. More than one million Pocket Stoves were made and sent to the battlefronts in Europe and the Pacific through the end of the war in ’45. The little olive-drab painted stoves were powerful, hot and featured very little adjustment. Soldiers said they used the stoves to cook food, heat up rations, boil water for safe drinking, make hot coffee or tea, heat a foxhole, and warm water for shaving, bathing and washing socks. Medics also used them to boil water for sterilizing utensils.
[Click to download full-sized TIFF] The famous war correspondent Ernie Pyle regularly commented on the stove, and his survey of soldiers concluded that the Coleman GI Pocket Stove and the Jeep were “the two most useful non-combat pieces of equipment to come out of the war.”
The pocket stove and a civilian version manufactured from 1946 to 49 were used by sportsmen, travelers, hikers and other adventurers following the war. However, backpacking as we know it today had not emerged as a popular pastime in the United States, and the production of the compact single-burners was halted for more than 20 years. Coleman did make a large single-burner that was known as the Sportsman or Sportster during this period. It functioned as a cooker as well as a heater for duck blinds and other outdoor spaces, but it was a descendant of the Model 500 Speedster, not the 520 military stove.
Coleman concentrated primarily on two-burner stoves during the post-war years. That’s where the demand was, although the company did make a little one-burner similar to stoves widely used in Europe by commercial fishermen and shopkeepers. It ran on alcohol or kerosene. A similarly styled two-burner galley stove also came out in 1949. Neither of the aluminum stoves found favor and both were soon discontinued. The company made a single-burner butane stove in the mid-50s, although it was a picnic stove, bigger than a dictionary, heavy because it also held two butane canisters, and it was pink. The first Coleman propane stove, also featuring two burners, was introduced in 1969. Propane, because of the heavy steel cylinder required for high pressure LPG, has never been a serious contender for backpacking application. The fuel cell alone weighs more than a pound, plus there’s another pound of gas inside.
It was 1972 before the company produced its first single-burner, non-military, true backpacking stove. Backpacking’s popularity was increasing tremendously at this time. Coleman’s Canadian division in Toronto developed a miniaturized gasoline pressurized stove, the Model 222, which weighed many ounces less than the GI Pocket Stove and was far more compact. It would become the foundation of Coleman’s entire Peak 1® line of specialized, lightweight, high-performance gear when Coleman launched the line in 1976. It had the familiar integrated fuel tank with fold-out legs for stability situated below a circular single burner, on/off valve with power adjustment built in and a four-bladed pot support with adjoining wind baffle or wind screen. It featured Coleman’s hallmark across-the-burner generator and starting system that precludes the need for priming and preheating. That same stove became the 400 and later the Feather™ 442, production moved to the company’s Wichita, Kan., headquarters’ factory and remains in Coleman’s line to this day, although it has benefited from a series of improvements and evolutions. It is not hard for even the least discerning eye to see the family lineage. The Model 550 Multi-Fuel™ Stove, a first-cousin model that could also burn kerosene but looked similar in design to the others, joined the Peak 1 collection in 1988.
The original Apex® Stove was Coleman’s first detached burner compact backpacking model. It came out in 1992. At 18.6 ounces, it was lighter than the 400 series and Model 550 stoves and had a lower center of gravity, thanks to the detached fuel tank. It was very dependable, featured a nice simmer and full range of temperature adjustment and required virtually no maintenance. It was designed to burn Coleman fuel, although it could run on kerosene when an optional generator was installed. The Apex II Stove followed in 1996 with upgrades that allow it to burn unleaded gasoline as well, plus kerosene when fitted with an optional generator. It remains in the Coleman line under the Exponent® brand today.
Other notable additions or advancements occurred in 1998 when the X Series of three stoves designed to run on Coleman’s proprietary Powermax® Fuel hit the market. Three milestones were attained. One was the introduction of the first ever two-burner backpacking stove, the Xpedition® Stove. It weighs 26 ounces, features 10,000 Btu on each burner and runs on one canister of fuel, providing a breakthrough for hikers or trekkers who wanted two cooking surfaces and only one stove. Secondly, the Powermax fuel brought unprecedented performance in butane/propane blended canister fuel, thanks to new technology that created a liquid-fuel withdrawal system. The stoves and fuel system broke barriers, providing excellent performance in cold weather, at high elevations and throughout the life of the fuel cell. A third pioneering element was the fuel canister’s ability to be easily recycled. Made of aluminum and under low pressure, the Powermax fuel canisters can be punctured easily with a Green Key® tool furnished with each of the three stoves, then recycled conveniently with other household aluminum products such as beverage cans – an industry first.
Coleman brought out its lightest stove ever in 2003. Called the F1 UltraLight™ Stove, the tiny stove weighed in at only 2.7 ounces. It attaches to a standard, threaded butane/propane canister, sports a powerful 16,000 Btu burner and will boil a quart of water in less than three minutes. The same year, the F1 PowerBoost™ Stove – the most powerful stove at the time with 23,000 Btu of firepower – was introduced, also under the Coleman Exponent brand. The two F1 stoves were built in conjunction with a European company Coleman purchased in 1996 – Application des Gaz (ADG), known in the marketplace for its Campingaz® branded products. No stranger to stove making, ADG introduced its first mini burner in 1954, the Bleuet® stove. It went through numerous miniaturizations and improvements in the ensuing 50 years to meet the demands of European and American backpackers. The Bleuet product name survives today as one of the industry standards. ADG also makes a higher performance model, the Turbo 270.
Coleman’s latest edition is a high-tech model that takes the multi-fuel concept another step into the future. Introduced as part of the Exponent brand for spring 2006, the Fyrestorm™ Ti stove is designed to burn liquid fuel – including Coleman camp fuel and unleaded gas – as well as standard butane/propane canisters. Notably, the LPG canister is mounted in an adapter that holds the fuel cell upside-down to accomplish liquid-withdrawal of the blended butane and propane fuel, which provides uncommonly good performance in cold weather and at higher elevations plus consistent performance throughout the life cycle of the canister. It marks the first time a stove manufacturer has created a means for this type of fuel delivery system to address age-old problems previously inherent in canister stoves. Extremely lightweight yet strong titanium is used in the burner and pot supports, while magnesium alloy legs help keep the stove weight at 8 ounces. With 14,000 Btu burner rating for LPG and 10,000 Btu in the liquid fuel mode, the Fyrestorm stove has sub-four-minute boil times for a liter of water. It provides users with versatility and fuel options heretofore unavailable.
Two new liquid fuel stoves – the Gemini™ and Apollo™ stoves – introduced for 2006 bring the Coleman Exponent backpacking and trekking stove portfolio to 11 models. There’s something for everyone and their preferences. And to think, it all started with a big, bright lantern and some entrepreneurial tinkering.
— end —
Contact
Careers
Factory Outlets
Company
Newsroom
Sitemap
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© 2011 The Coleman Company, Inc. All rights reserved. A subsidiary of Jarden Corporation (NYSE:JAH)
Coleman: The Outdoor Company
Cart: 0 items View
Gear
Outlet
Trail Guide
Basecamp
Parts
Sign up for savings:
Contact Us
Live Chat - Offline
Print This Page
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 24, 2006 MEDIA CONTACTS:
(for members of the working media)
Jim Reid 316-219-7535
Coleman News Release
History of Coleman Backpacking Stoves
The origin of today’s diminutive backpacking stoves begins with W.C. Coleman and the big lanterns his company was developing in the early 1900s. He made a series of product improvements after founding the company in 1900 as an indoor lamp and lighting service provider. His first outdoor lantern was introduced in 1914. It was a 14-pound monster that customers applauded for its brightness, its safety and its performance in foul weather. But they said it would be better if it were smaller and easier to light.
[Click to download full-sized TIFF] The quest for miniaturization and to meet users’ demands in harsh environments would become a central theme and a challenge for decades to come.
By 1920, the Coleman® lantern was indeed much smaller, lighter and easier to light. W.C. was a tinkerer. He and his Experimental Department turned their attention to portable stoves, armed with new technologies learned while evolving gasoline lanterns. Their first camp stove – an all-black two-burner, the Model One – was introduced in 1923. Coleman’s historian, 96-year-old Herb Ebendorf, marks that date as the beginning of Coleman, the outdoor company.
[Click to download full-sized TIFF] “Coleman had two outdoor products then – the camp stove to go along with the lantern,” Ebendorf says. “This came at a time when the Model T Ford became affordable to millions of American families. They began to travel and vacation more. ‘Motor camping’ became quite popular. The stove and lantern fit right in. They often strapped the stove right on the running board of the car, and they pitched a tent in a park or alongside the road at night.”
Even though Coleman had designed and manufactured a powerful single-burner stove used as a heater and for boiling water during the late 1920s and 30s, the Model 500 Speedster of 1940 and similar editions were not sized for backpacking or carrying any great distances. Although portable, they were simply too bulky and heavy for backpacking. They were used primarily in farming, construction and for other more utilitarian purposes.
[Click to download full-sized TIFF] Historians point to 1942, World War II and the GI Pocket Stove as the true genesis of today’s Coleman® backpack stove, although everything the company had learned the previous 25 years would be needed to develop the Model 520 Pocket Stove. The U.S. Army originally wanted a compact stove for use by a new special unit of ski troopers. It needed to burn a variety of liquid fuels and gasoline, light easily in temperatures ranging from 60 degrees below zero to 125 degrees above zero, weigh less than three pounds, and not be much larger than a quart milk bottle. And, given the pending war circumstances, the product would need to be designed and built with the utmost speed. Ebendorf says it was a daunting task for Coleman engineers, and the assignment set into motion “the most strenuous 60 days in the company’s history.”
But Coleman met the challenge, producing the first 5,000 stoves in time to accompany American armed forces in the invasion of North Africa in November 1942. Use of the stove was broadened beyond its original purpose for ski troopers to include several branches of the military. More than one million Pocket Stoves were made and sent to the battlefronts in Europe and the Pacific through the end of the war in ’45. The little olive-drab painted stoves were powerful, hot and featured very little adjustment. Soldiers said they used the stoves to cook food, heat up rations, boil water for safe drinking, make hot coffee or tea, heat a foxhole, and warm water for shaving, bathing and washing socks. Medics also used them to boil water for sterilizing utensils.
[Click to download full-sized TIFF] The famous war correspondent Ernie Pyle regularly commented on the stove, and his survey of soldiers concluded that the Coleman GI Pocket Stove and the Jeep were “the two most useful non-combat pieces of equipment to come out of the war.”
The pocket stove and a civilian version manufactured from 1946 to 49 were used by sportsmen, travelers, hikers and other adventurers following the war. However, backpacking as we know it today had not emerged as a popular pastime in the United States, and the production of the compact single-burners was halted for more than 20 years. Coleman did make a large single-burner that was known as the Sportsman or Sportster during this period. It functioned as a cooker as well as a heater for duck blinds and other outdoor spaces, but it was a descendant of the Model 500 Speedster, not the 520 military stove.
Coleman concentrated primarily on two-burner stoves during the post-war years. That’s where the demand was, although the company did make a little one-burner similar to stoves widely used in Europe by commercial fishermen and shopkeepers. It ran on alcohol or kerosene. A similarly styled two-burner galley stove also came out in 1949. Neither of the aluminum stoves found favor and both were soon discontinued. The company made a single-burner butane stove in the mid-50s, although it was a picnic stove, bigger than a dictionary, heavy because it also held two butane canisters, and it was pink. The first Coleman propane stove, also featuring two burners, was introduced in 1969. Propane, because of the heavy steel cylinder required for high pressure LPG, has never been a serious contender for backpacking application. The fuel cell alone weighs more than a pound, plus there’s another pound of gas inside.
It was 1972 before the company produced its first single-burner, non-military, true backpacking stove. Backpacking’s popularity was increasing tremendously at this time. Coleman’s Canadian division in Toronto developed a miniaturized gasoline pressurized stove, the Model 222, which weighed many ounces less than the GI Pocket Stove and was far more compact. It would become the foundation of Coleman’s entire Peak 1® line of specialized, lightweight, high-performance gear when Coleman launched the line in 1976. It had the familiar integrated fuel tank with fold-out legs for stability situated below a circular single burner, on/off valve with power adjustment built in and a four-bladed pot support with adjoining wind baffle or wind screen. It featured Coleman’s hallmark across-the-burner generator and starting system that precludes the need for priming and preheating. That same stove became the 400 and later the Feather™ 442, production moved to the company’s Wichita, Kan., headquarters’ factory and remains in Coleman’s line to this day, although it has benefited from a series of improvements and evolutions. It is not hard for even the least discerning eye to see the family lineage. The Model 550 Multi-Fuel™ Stove, a first-cousin model that could also burn kerosene but looked similar in design to the others, joined the Peak 1 collection in 1988.
The original Apex® Stove was Coleman’s first detached burner compact backpacking model. It came out in 1992. At 18.6 ounces, it was lighter than the 400 series and Model 550 stoves and had a lower center of gravity, thanks to the detached fuel tank. It was very dependable, featured a nice simmer and full range of temperature adjustment and required virtually no maintenance. It was designed to burn Coleman fuel, although it could run on kerosene when an optional generator was installed. The Apex II Stove followed in 1996 with upgrades that allow it to burn unleaded gasoline as well, plus kerosene when fitted with an optional generator. It remains in the Coleman line under the Exponent® brand today.
Other notable additions or advancements occurred in 1998 when the X Series of three stoves designed to run on Coleman’s proprietary Powermax® Fuel hit the market. Three milestones were attained. One was the introduction of the first ever two-burner backpacking stove, the Xpedition® Stove. It weighs 26 ounces, features 10,000 Btu on each burner and runs on one canister of fuel, providing a breakthrough for hikers or trekkers who wanted two cooking surfaces and only one stove. Secondly, the Powermax fuel brought unprecedented performance in butane/propane blended canister fuel, thanks to new technology that created a liquid-fuel withdrawal system. The stoves and fuel system broke barriers, providing excellent performance in cold weather, at high elevations and throughout the life of the fuel cell. A third pioneering element was the fuel canister’s ability to be easily recycled. Made of aluminum and under low pressure, the Powermax fuel canisters can be punctured easily with a Green Key® tool furnished with each of the three stoves, then recycled conveniently with other household aluminum products such as beverage cans – an industry first.
Coleman brought out its lightest stove ever in 2003. Called the F1 UltraLight™ Stove, the tiny stove weighed in at only 2.7 ounces. It attaches to a standard, threaded butane/propane canister, sports a powerful 16,000 Btu burner and will boil a quart of water in less than three minutes. The same year, the F1 PowerBoost™ Stove – the most powerful stove at the time with 23,000 Btu of firepower – was introduced, also under the Coleman Exponent brand. The two F1 stoves were built in conjunction with a European company Coleman purchased in 1996 – Application des Gaz (ADG), known in the marketplace for its Campingaz® branded products. No stranger to stove making, ADG introduced its first mini burner in 1954, the Bleuet® stove. It went through numerous miniaturizations and improvements in the ensuing 50 years to meet the demands of European and American backpackers. The Bleuet product name survives today as one of the industry standards. ADG also makes a higher performance model, the Turbo 270.
Coleman’s latest edition is a high-tech model that takes the multi-fuel concept another step into the future. Introduced as part of the Exponent brand for spring 2006, the Fyrestorm™ Ti stove is designed to burn liquid fuel – including Coleman camp fuel and unleaded gas – as well as standard butane/propane canisters. Notably, the LPG canister is mounted in an adapter that holds the fuel cell upside-down to accomplish liquid-withdrawal of the blended butane and propane fuel, which provides uncommonly good performance in cold weather and at higher elevations plus consistent performance throughout the life cycle of the canister. It marks the first time a stove manufacturer has created a means for this type of fuel delivery system to address age-old problems previously inherent in canister stoves. Extremely lightweight yet strong titanium is used in the burner and pot supports, while magnesium alloy legs help keep the stove weight at 8 ounces. With 14,000 Btu burner rating for LPG and 10,000 Btu in the liquid fuel mode, the Fyrestorm stove has sub-four-minute boil times for a liter of water. It provides users with versatility and fuel options heretofore unavailable.
Two new liquid fuel stoves – the Gemini™ and Apollo™ stoves – introduced for 2006 bring the Coleman Exponent backpacking and trekking stove portfolio to 11 models. There’s something for everyone and their preferences. And to think, it all started with a big, bright lantern and some entrepreneurial tinkering.
— end —
Contact
Careers
Factory Outlets
Company
Newsroom
Sitemap
Terms of Use
Privacy
© 2011 The Coleman Company, Inc. All rights reserved. A subsidiary of Jarden Corporation (NYSE:JAH)
