Friday, January 3, 2020

Swedish alcohol burner in the kitbag of the Soviet officer.

January 3, 2020 Recently I cleaned up a garage that for many years belonged to my father-in-law. He took part in the Second World War and then at the rank of Colonel served in the Poltava anti-aircraft missile high military school. He was among those who tested in the late 1960s the first Soviet anti-aircraft missile systems and trained cadets to use them. One such system was the 9K31 Strela-1 (English: Arrow-1), a highly mobile, short-range, low altitude infra-red guided surface-to-air missile system. Mostly all tests and exercises for cadets took place on the training ground near the city of Berdiansk, located on the northern coast of the Sea of Azov. What I’ve found among different military items in my father-in-law’s garage probably was used in the field camp for boiling water. I am talking about an old smoky brass alcohol burner that you can see in the photo below.
I filled the burner with ethanol and in 3 minutes I got a cup of boiling water. In spite of being old, the burner worked perfectly. You can see it in the video below.



But what surprised me most was what I saw when I cleaned the smoked bottom of the spirit lamp with sandpaper. You can see it by yourself in the photo below.
Unfortunately, the father-in-law had passed away many years ago and I can’t ask him how he got this alcohol burner that was made in a country that in those distant years could hardly be considered an ally of the Soviet Union….

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