Heh, I still have an Optimus paraffin stove that looks much like that, and it still gets used on the rare occasions I go camping!
All my friends had fancy petrol burners.
But I reckon I could out-boil then on a pan of water once I got the thing up to speed.
The flame-spreader would glow bright red, and the thing would roar like a 747 on take-off.
There is a great pleasure to be had in priming a paraffin stove and knowing how to 'read' it so you know when it's vapourised enough to start pumping it up.
( I do have to admit to a serious fail about 25 years ago. I'd left the pressure bleed-off screw loose, and packed it away. On the walk-in to Knoydart from Kinloch Hourn to the bothy at Barrisdale, I managed to fall over in a stream-crossing. The paraffin leaked out, and impregnated *all* my kit with the stink of paraffin, which never fully vanished. )
F.
