Cannon A150 Gas Cooker

[electron1100]

Eye Level Grills

These are my favourite type of cooker Rob, well done on getting this beauty, eye level gas grills are the best as far as i am concerned, great to cook with and yes the toast is much better than with an electric toaster.

Green with envy down ere with the cows an sheep ;-)

 

[whirlcool]

Those are some powerful flames in that cooker on the top level. I imagine most American housewives would just faint at the sight of them. I imagine that would warm up the kitchen quickly.

That is a nice compact cooker. You can see the built in quality to it.

 

[davey7]

So are they are for like toast rather than a roast?

 

[vacbear58]

Broiler

It works just like a conventional broiler only in this case it can be folded away flat. I cannot swear to it but I think the TOL model may gave had a rotisserie as well.

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s eye level broilers were almost always fitted to gas cookers, usually with space to warm plates as well, in this case it can be seen above the broiler. If memory serves there were a couple of models with eye level ovenettes - not temperature controlled (Moffat, Main & Leisure) but mostly it was just a broiler as shown below.

There were a couple of electric models with eye level grills (and a couple with ovenettes too) but mostly electric cookers had the broiler in a separate compartment under the hob/hot plates - later on these had more elements added to make them a second oven - I believe that current US 30" double oven ranges (with a smaller oven above the larger main oven) can trace their origin back to this singurarly British design which was hardly, if at all, used in Europe

 

[davey7]

What is "Honey Mink"? And what other gas than natural did the UK cook with?

A friend of mine in London had one of those high level broilers and, frankly, it creeped me out a bit. I imagine needing safety googles to cook with it.

 

[fido]

Gas used to be made locally by burning coal and was known as "town gas". Every town had big "gas holders" which were very large tanks for storing the gas. North Sea gas is a relatively new development which required changing the burners on appliances all over the country.

 

[davey7]

I kind of figured it was coal gas.... We used to have gasometers too (I remember the big ones in St. Louis).

 

[tomturbomatic]

Ah yes, manufactured gas. Very toxic stuff to plants in a household. The toxic by-products of its manufacturing poison the environment even today.

I am surprised that none of these high level broilers used ceramic burner technology, introduced here in the late 50s which used a ceramic, later stainless steel mesh burner to burn gas to produce intense infra-red heat like a proper electric broiler. Have any of you in the UK or European communities seen this burner technology?

Link to an article about manufactured or illuminating gas.

Data Macau | Live Draw Macau Tercepat | Pengeluaran & Result Toto Macau 4D 2025

Menyediakan Tabel Data Macau yang merupakan pengeluaran dan result live draw Toto Macau 4D hari ini tercepat dan terlengkap 2025 dari situs bandar togel terpercaya - ARIZONA88.

www.hatheway.net

 

[tomturbomatic]

While we are on the topic of gas

There is a process of dripping water on calcium carbide CaC2 to produce acetylene for lighting. While most often seen in small lamps like miners' lamps, I remember reading about a grand house in the middle of nowhere built in the early part of the 20th century that had an acetylene plant behind the house that made gas for the lamps in the house. Such an installation is mentioned in the link.

If anyone remembers the TV show, The Real McCoys, there was an episode where some character from back home in West Virginia was coming out to see them. He was apparently remembered as somewhat of a loser and they joked that they would probably see them from a distance by the smoke from the carbide lamps on their car. The McCoys, if you will remember drove a Model A. This guy pulls up in a current year Ford with all of the trappings of great success. For some reason, the term "carbide lamps" stuck in my memory. Daddy gave us a brief explanation before sending me to the encyclopedia.

http://www.rexophone.com/?p=1372

 

[davey7]

I recall being in Oxford many years ago. My mom and I had a private tour of the University Museum (Natural History) and the guy who was showing us around told us about the gas jets - that the gas lighting would have had a different quality and luminance than modern (I assume natural) gas would have had. They were trying to figure out if it was possible to restore use of the system for decorative purposes - the chandeliers were still intact.

In Chicago a lot of condo conversions in the mid to late 70's did gas lights out front to create "vintage charm". One down the block from me just replaced their gas with fancy custom electric inserts in the old gas fixtures.

File:Oxf-uni-mus-nhi.jpg - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[kb0nes]

Acetylene

Calcium Carbide acetylene generators were also used years ago in larger welding shops. Storage of compressed acetylene has always been dicey as the gas itself is unstable at pressures over about 1 atmosphere. Most people don't realize that a typical acetylene cylinder is filled with a sponge like material saturated in acetone. The acetylene is dissolved into the acetone to keep it stable for storage. Before large cylinders existed the generators would just create acetylene as needed.

Acetylene is scary stuff, there is a lot of energy in it. I can't imagine having a large generator in or near a home! See the attached video to witness what happens if its mixed with oxygen!

For even more useless acetylene trivia, the original Prest-O-Lite cylinder sizes were named "B" and "MC" for Bus and Motor Car respectively. Of course this dates to the days when acetylene was used for motor vehicle headlamps!

 

[tomturbomatic]

I was expecting the leaves to be blown off the bush behind the bag.

Davey, gas lights have become very expensive to operate. Even in the 60s, our gas lantern, which came off the pipe before the meter was billed at several dollars a month. The last I heard they were more than a dollar a day. In the 70s, there was a firm that would wire gas yard lights for electricity because of the cost increase of natural gas and even supply bulbs that looked like gas mantles.

 

[vacbear58]

Did someone say "Honey Mink"

This was an unusual colour for the time.

From the middle to late 1950s, whilst most applainces were white or cream, it was not that unusual to find appliances in bright colours - witness some of the photos where have been posted on here of Servis Supertwins etc. From about the turn of the 1960s the trend was very much for all white appliances so this was very advanced for the time - 1968. I can only think of one manufacturer, Tricity (President and Contressa De Luxe cookers), who did anything other than white. A few more in the 1970s (again mainly cookers with black or S/S doors) but it was, bt and large, not until the turn of the 1980s that coloured appliances began to appear.

Al

 

[davey7]

Definitely minky! Rather a distinctive color.

Yeah, a lot of condo converters didn't get permission from Peoples Gas to put in the lights and had to rip them out. Gas is comparatively cheap in Chicago, but certainly not free.

 

[combo52]

Interesting Gas Range

I sure it would work but I could not imagine using that thing today, the cleaning of a gas cook-top is bad enough but that grille and a non-self cleaning oven to add insult to injury.

 

Gas lighting is the only thing that makes incandescent lighting look efficient and a compact fluorescent or LED light is probably 30-50 times more efficient. Even back in the day when electricity was coming into use it was cheaper to use than inefficient gas lighting, which is one of many reasons that gas lights disappeared so fast, they only made a revival because of gas company marketing.

 

[chestermikeuk]

John - How very dare You...Lol

You make it sound like a dinosaur!!, I`ve actually used it and its a great cooker, spilages and grime are the results of a bad cook, cleaning a hot surface after spillages are easy, same with the oven - but time also permits...

The salamander like grill is very hot and the wire baffle at the front actually wraps the flame and air currents around and back on itself and throws it back into the middle which expands and raises the heat source!!

The spillage trays should be on cookers of today even rangemaster cookers dont produce anything like this, its far easier to clean than a GE or Wolf!!

Rob, congrats on getting this beauty working and producing great food, although its helps you are a great baker and enjoy cooking, on a small note my mum used one of these at her job as housekeeper to a large parish kitchen for 30 years and the cooker is still going strong today!!

My Great Aunt Bessie who is 97 still cooks on a gas cooker and has just produced her 12 Christmas cakes for all the family recently,

keep using them I say!!

 

[ricky5050]

Great cooker

Hi Rob that's a great cooker, I use a 1961 new world as my only cooker and its my first full gas one I love it, growing up with fan ovens which main benefit are even temperature top and bottom, I love the older gas ovens for the fact they're hotter at top and cooler at bottom , ideal for roast potatoes or Yorkshire puddings at top, meat in middle and stuffing etc at bottom , I bought some dial oven thermometers to check which shelf is what temperature. These ovens are also very quick heating I very rarely PRE heat.

Cleaning is okay I cover removable roof panel in foil and lay a piece in oven bottom.

A question to those who are reading this if I may ? My door seal is fraying, it's probably toxic asbestos , and I concerned that every time I open the door I may get a waft of lethal fibres !

Any idea where new ones can be sourced ?

Cheers Richard

 

[ricky5050]

Door seal

Door seal

 

[fido]

You really need to see how the door seal is attached to know what to use as a replacement. If it is just a simple rope that is clamped in some way you could buy the glass fibre rope used for sealing the parts of woodburning stoves, AGAs etc.

 

[hoovermatic]

I rented a flat in Luton years ago and it had that same cooker, not is such fabulous condition but such a pleasure to use. It is only when you use a great stove that you realise what rubbish you have put up with in the past!! Always loved those grills and the spill bowl things that just lift right out and as you say, straight into the DW. What a great find!