I received one of my favorite birthday presents ever this year. It's a blue Coleman gas powered iron! It has no year marked on it, but I think it's from the 1930s. W.C. Coleman founded the Coleman company in the early 1900s. On the band in the middle top it says the company name and the model #41. It was made in the United States, and also lists Canada on their patent information. Blue was the most popular color of these irons; the only other color I've seen was a grass green one.
A you-tube video showed someone lighting one of these, and I jumped back from the monitor as it lit--blasting a puff and flaming up inches higher than the handle. (No, I haven't tried to light mine, ha.) I definitely could see why the handle is singed underneath.
I first thought it was kerosene powered. When I took the top little cover off the fuel tank, I couldn't smell anything, but from the little research I've found, it used gasoline. However, gas back in those days was different--ours has many more additives--and they recommend using Coleman fuel now. No problem which to use for me--I'm not brave enough to light it.
If you did want to fire it up, you would turn the fuel-regulator knob on the left of the fuel tank, and put a lit match through the U-shaped hole (by the black dot) on the top of the blue metal iron base. All I can say is that I'd definitely use a potholder to grab the handle. And I'm thankful for my electric iron.
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