Sometimes hundred-year-old advertisements befuddle me. Even though money was worth a lot more in 1922, how can the company afford to send these folding stoves to people who send them 10 cents?
1922 Sterno Canned Heat Folding Stove Advertisement
Sometimes hundred-year-old advertisements befuddle me. Even though money was worth a lot more in 1922, how can the company afford to send these folding stoves to people who send them 10 cents?
A Hundred Years Ago 
Don’t forget that Sterno made the little cannisters of fuel, too. It might have been smart marketing. Send out the stoves as a loss leader, and then make money selling the fuel for the stove.
YUP
Makes sense. I think you are right.
Yes, it’s the 100 years ago equivalent of selling printers for cheap and charging a fortune for the ink.
I love the analogy. It works perfectly.
Perfect analogy!
Yikes, talk about dangerous for indoors!
Maybe it didn’t make much smoke.
I was thinking the same, that they would make money selling more Sterno.
It’s all about the bait!
Clever marketing has been around for a long time. 🙂
We used Sterno back in the 70s during the fondue craze, and of course, it fueled the food pans in buffets. I suppose it even gave the band “Canned Heat” their name. 🙂
The band did take its name from the product. One of the members of the band had a vast knowledge of blues from the 20s and 30s, and he was likely aware that there’s a song called Canned Heat Blues about an alcoholic drinking the alcohol from it. As I think that it’s wood alcohol, that practice would entail a high risk of death or blindness.
Yes, Tommy Johnson’s Canned Heat Blues. I did a bit of research about the songs related to Jamaican Ginger, more commonly known as Jake, which led to the Jake Leg Blues.
I had to look that one up.
Now that you mention it, I think that maybe Sterno is sometimes used to heat chafing pans at buffets.
I’ve seen Sterno used several times, and I know it has to be handled carefully. None of that shows in the ad!!
Maybe houses were draftier back then so people didn’t worry as much about the need for proper ventilation if Sterno was used.
I was always concerned about knocking the Sterno over, too.
Ha! I can only imagine the hand wringing. Ten cents was nearly a weeks worth of groceries… Try the new stove or feed the family!
. . . Though the old ad sure makes the folding stove seem appealing. It’s tempting. 🙂
In the 1950’s my mother used just such a little folding Sterno stove when the power went out. As others have said, they made their money selling the little fuel canisters.
Wow, it’s awesome that you can actually remember your mother having a little stove like this.
I seem, according to my family, to have the memory of an elephant. Not useful for old grudges, but very useful in times like this.