In 2006 the brand name Optimus won the Scandinavian Outdoor Award for its kitchen Optimus Stella+. The criteria were innovation, design, quality and functionality.
However, the story about Optimus began long before this...
The young, innovative Carl Rickard Nyberg was recommended to work in Johan Erik Erikson's mechanical workshop in Stockholm. The year was 1880 and the portable lamps, mediocre machines and Calor gas-stoves were awkward to use. In his spare time Nyberg built his own tool making lathe and created the blowtorch.
Nyberg's blowtorch was significantly different from other heating devices of that time. With his invention he had created a powerful heat source with a concentrated, upward pointing flame, controlled through an adjustable valve.
The idea was as brilliant as it was simple. By pumping in air into the container Nyberg created a pressure chamber where the oil/paraffin was pre-heated, then a tube led up to the burner and at the ignition the fuel was set alight. The torch was now burning with a pure, concentrated and very hot flame.
In 1881 Nyberg patented his blowtorch which soon became popular among plumbers and other tradesmen. Soon after he started his own manufacturing in a basement, just a stones throw away from Erikson's workshop.
In an intensive and innovative development market Nyberg added a paraffin kitchen to his productions. Contemporary inventors, like Frans Lindqvist and Johan Svensson with the invention Primus, were constantly either chasing Nyberg or were just ahead of him. After a less successful construction Nyberg built in the middle of the 1890's the kitchen Svea which held strong among the competitors.
Today the Optimus brand manufactures kitchens, wind protections and accessories in a genuine Swedish tradition. The products are designed for the great outdoors and are suitable for all explorers whether it be regular camping or trekking the Antarctic.
