Yeah, I imagine it predates just about all of them! This design dates from the "late 19th century" according to Wikipedia, but I'm not certain what form the key took in the early days.I'm going to do a video soon of me cooking someone with this little stove. So far all I've cooked on it was water for re-hydrating a Mountain House meal.Def
That looks pretty neat, but I think at this point if I was to by a wood stove it would be one of those fancy BioLite ones:http://www.biolitestove.com/campstove/camp-overview/features/I like the idea of having a wood powered battery charger. I used the My Tracks app on my phone during our kayak trip the other day and the battery was fully charged when we started (it was even plugged in on the way over) and when we finished it was at 5%. Assuming I was out in the woods for a period of time and then needed help/rescue/pickup, my phone would be an invaluable tool- or completely useless if it was dead. I could see a stove like that not only being functional for cooking, but also beneficial for keeping a phone (or light or other electrical doodad) going when you need it.Def