John Shaw & Sons 
(Wolverhampton) Ltd.

Fourth Avenue, Bushbury

A report in the "Ironmonger" for 26th September 1914 says that "John Shaw and Sons of Wolverhampton are placing on the market a full range of wickless blow lamps, all of which are of English manufacture".  They go on to provide details of the range, which includes the "Anglo-Swedish".  All of this suggests that the British market had been dominated by Swedish made blow lamps and Shaws were trying to grab back some of that market.  The report also gives us an approximate date for the the first manufacture of these lamps - 1914.  But a Shaw advert in the "Ironmonger" for 17th October 1914 says that "our 'Governor' lamps are not an experiment; we have been supplying them to the complete satisfaction of large and experienced buyers, therefore there is positively no need to import".  In another Shaw advert in the same magazine for 21st June 1919, they say "we have been making them for over six years".  So it seems that Shaws may have started in this line in 1913, selling direct to large users and then marketing them generally in 1914.  

This advert from the "Ironmonger" of 1914 shows "a few only of the lamps we have ready for delivery".  It asks ironmongers whether they are "having any difficulty in obtaining supplies of continental blow lamps".  If they were having difficulty in October 1914, they would soon be having even greater difficulty.  It seems likely that Shaw's had struck lucky with the timing of their introduction of their British made blow lamps - though it is still advisable to mention that they are of "continental patterns".  The lamp bottom left is marked "Anglo-Swedish". The date at which Shaws bought out the Lamb Lamp Co. is not known but two of these lamps are marked "Lamb Lamp", suggesting that the company had been acquired by 1914.  It may just be that Shaws acquired Lamb for the purpose of getting their range of lamps and their expertise.

This advert from 1921 boasts about their design being adopted generally during WW1; but it also has to acknowledge that Swedish made torches and stoves had a well established market which Shaw's were chasing.

This advert comes from 1922.  What we think of as camping stoves were used - or at least Shaw's hoped they would be - far more widely, as a cheap general purpose cooking apparatus.

This advert comes from 1923.  Since it seems that Shaws had acquired the Lamb Lamp Co. by 1914 at the latest, it is interesting to note that they continued the use of the Lamb name certainly as far as the 1939 catalogue.

The Governor Oil Oven shows again the use of these stoves in a domestic or other non-camping context. The Lamb version was smaller and cheaper - and needed a separate Governor stove to go underneath it.

The Bijou is a collapsible version of the Governor stove.

This and the following exhibits come to us through the courtesy and generosity of Mick Emms and Ross Mellows who, between them, provided us with a copy of Shaw's catalogue which is undated but seems to date from the late 1920s or possibly 1930-31.   This is the Anglo Swedish lamp for petrol, benzoline or naptha.  The caption boats that "The flame tube is in one peice, not two - as in Continental lamps"

This sturdy beast is the Governor Brazing Blow Lamp.  Its length of flame is 12 to 14 inches, the flame having a diameter, at the mouth, of 1 5/8ths inches.  Not surprisingly "one inch of solid copper can be melted in about five minutes".   The caption also says:  "The above Lamp resembles in many respects a well-known Lamp of Continental manufacture but has certain important advantages.  The Body of the Continental Lamp is made from seamed tubing with soldered top and bottom - more like a stove pipe than a blow lamp".  But the Governor is drawn from a solid piece and is brazed - which means that you do not have to follow the advice of the Continental manufacturer and keep the lamp away from heat.

Of course soldering was cheaper and easier and still almost universally used in all those cases where nowadays we would opt for welding.  This soldering outfit includes a combined torch and soldering iron and everything else you need and comes in a metallic box.

But the amateur wireless enthusiast - much commoner then than now - only gets a plain soldering iron, a bar of solder and a tin of flux - and only a cardboard box, which does at least have "full directions for use " printed on it.

The following are from the 1939 catalogue.

The exhibit here is the Governor petrol Blow Lamp with the pump incorporated in the handle.  It produces "intensely powerful concentrated heat" and is therefore suitable for "use outdoors in the roughest weather".  There are also two combination soldering irons and blow lamps, both petrol driven, and one said to be "a very handy tool for Wireless Work".

This is the Governor Wickless Stove, which came in two types: the Roarer and the Silent.  This is the Roarer.  The only difference appears to be in the design of the burner - the silent having many more apertures.  Presumably it was quieter but less efficient. The catalogue also shows some Villiers Petrol Stoves.

This is the Lamb Laboratory Lamp, from the 1939 catalogue.  The catalogue says it has been specially designed for all work in the laboratory and that it is specially designed for County Area Schools - where, presumably, a gas supply is less likely to be found. A review of the lamp in the Ironmonger for 1926 (kindly supplied by Spiritburner), accompanied by an identical drawing, suggests that this was new at the time.  The three burners are a circular roarer, a bunsen burner and a fish tail burner.

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