An underrated invention

I just threw out this portable gas cooker after what I think was probably close to 30 years of good and faithful, if very intermittent, service:

I am inordinately fond of these devises: they're just a lovely bit of industrial design, aren't they?  Simple, efficient and neat. 

I wonder who first came up with this style of tabletop, butane cartridge, design?  I've just spent about 20 minutes unsuccessfully Googling an answer to that.  They get a mention in a Wikipedia post about portable stoves generically, but nothing about the history of this particular design.   (It does tell us, though, that most butane cartridges come from South Korea, although an American company also makes them.   And apparently the American Coleman company did a lot with smaller gas cartridge cookers in the mid 20th century.)     

 

I don't think they were as popular as they are now when I bought this one.   It was, due to its age, probably not meeting current safety standards, but we did use it for a dining table hot pot one last time this week.  That's my version of living on the edge.

 

Update:   my research skills led me to search just "history of butane cartridges" and it shows up an article from the New York Times in 1983 praising:

....a remarkable new portable burner called the Cassette Feu (model A-7), made by a Japanese company, Iwatani. This powerful, cleverly designed device virtually simulates range-top cooking; it may keep me out of the kitchen much of this summer.

and there is a photo showing it is indeed this design of cooker.  

I did notice that company is still prominent in selling these.   

The Japanese website does not explain more, although it does mention that 2019 was the 50th anniversary of the Cassette Feu.   So, we're back to 1969? 

 

More Googling needed:   here, from the Los Angeles Times, 1986:

 

But for those who want more flavors than barbecuing could offer, the portable gas cooker provides an easy answer.

Fueled by a disposable butane canister, this little stove unit came to America from Japan, where it originated. “It was developed almost 15 years ago for on-the-table cooking for sukiyakis and shabu-shabus, " said Ken Semba, western region sales manager for Iwatani and Co., the distributor of Cassette Feu portable gas stove. He explained, “Since the gas hose was dangerous and the electric cookers didn’t give us enough heat for this type of cooking, the Cassette Feu, which stands for small flamer evolved.”

And someone's blog about Japanese food says:

While this product always seems to be around at my friends' homes, the first model came out only in 1969, from Iwatani. No wonder the company is still the biggest name in portable gas stoves.

So, it would seem a good chance that there is an unknown Japanese designer responsible for the basic idea.   He (for it surely would be) should be better known!