Bunsen heater

Just picked up a small heater that was carryed in your car.(before cars had heaters) It,s unused still in the box.Made by BUNSEN COMPANY of
Denver. called Auto-motor Heater.It also has the operating instructions
sheet,it states use only the best grade WATER WHITE KEROSENE.
Also can be used to warm the motor,must cover radiator and hood with blanket.
Any one seen or used one of these?
I have not heard of Water White KEROSENE.

 

Probably the closest would be Kleen-Heat or Deodorized Kerosene
http://www.wmbarr.com/product.aspx?catid=35&prodid=93

Water White was the highest grade of Kerosene at the time.
Straw was the lowest grade.

 

Water means the color....like the color of water. It being a good grade of Kero.

Never heard the oldsters talk of those heaters. They did use blankets, that's why cars had "robe rails" to hang blankets on, mounted on the back of the front seats.

Hot air heated from exhaust was popular, especially with Ford A's, followed by aftermarket hot water heaters.

 

knew a guy with a vw bus who heated it with a kerosun heater. he would get it going in the morning before breakfast, when he got in it to go to work it was nice and warm. only problem [besides nobody wanting to ride with him] was if he took a corner too fast it would trip off. i would bet they used those heaters in much the same way.

 

I'm betting that it's similar to some of the diesel fuel burning heaters that a few of the Air Force vehicles I worked had in them. They had a tendency to soot and plug up because they got treated just like unplugging a torpedo shop heater instead of properly shutting them down. Hmmm, like shutting of the oxygen first when you turn off an oxy/acetylene torch, the fuel burns back, cruds and plugs the tip.
If the same, they had a problematic thermostat that was based on a quartz rod expanding and contracting while it controlled the fuel allowed to the burner. The quartz rod had a tendency to fracture and break because of improper shutdown.
Sound familiar to anybody older than me? Vehicle cab heaters burning diesel..

 

^ VW bus...that reminded me of the hippy days around here. A local freak had a propane camp heater in his hippy VW bus, but it caused the insides of ALL the windows to frost up bad. Oh..Wow..Man..

geez, I forgot till just now..."freak" that's what they were called around here by most people, not hippies. Oh..Wow..Man..

 

yep! he would be called a hippy freak although his other vehicle was a rust free '34 ford dump truck. wonder what happened to that truck?