Page 28 - Nov 2020 JOA

Coleman’s

Amazing WWII

Pocket Stove

By Bud Michael,
the international coleman collectors club

orld War II was a far different challenge

compared with the earlier Great War.

WIt was a technological leap forward of
unimagined diversity: machine guns, big bombers,

aircraft carriers, radar, night vision, rocket bombs, on
and on. Although the United States remained essentially

neutral before the bombing of Pearl Harbor in December

of 1941, the buildup preparations began a couple of years
earlier. President Roosevelt was no more in favor of war

than the isolationists, some of whom wanted to avoid any
semblance of support for the Allied forces.

The President and his advisors expected that a tipping

point might soon come to force the U.S. into war.

Hence, in the build-up to and throughout the war, American indus- pan of water or a pot of coffee, and while
try including the Coleman Lamp and Stove Company fulfilled a diverse you’re at it, include instructions on how to
array of military contracts, often totally unrelated to the core products operate it and fix it when it sputtered. Who
which made the companies well known. in their right minds would take on such an
impossible task? If not Coleman, who else
Here Come The Orders could produce such a rugged appliance?
It seemed such a simple procurement request—the military needs a
small reliable portable stove that can both cook and heat. Coleman had Coleman Production Plan:
been in the portable stove business for two decades. The company had Stay Versatile
the expertise, the tooling, and the production capability to knock out Post-Depression, Coleman desperately
300 camp stoves a week without compromising the production of sought increased production to keep employ-
lamps and lanterns. ees working. At the same time, the government
This time, however, the constraints were so rigorous and specific; and the military required provisions, weapons,
Coleman engineers were scratching their heads in wonder whether it and supplies of every imaginable type.
would be possible to deliver such a product. The little stove had to Coleman accepted contracts to make such diverse
produce 5,000 BTUs/hr of performance over an environmental range items as ammunition shipping crates, metal ammo
of minus 30 degrees of Arctic cold to 120 degrees of desert heat, light boxes, First Aid kit boxes, and even the giant stars German Army WWII First Aid Ki
easily, suffer wartime abuse, and burn any available gasoline. And, keep and graphics that proudly adorned the wings and made for the Red Cross and sellin
the weight under three pounds, be stable on uneven ground, support a sides of US warplanes. colemans.com for $99.95

26 Journal of Antiques and Collectibles