B. A. Hjorth & Co. AB
Stockholm, Sweden

This small Primus 801 is used for ski waxing. The blow lamp is so small that it can be stored in the pocket by the user.

B. A. Hjorth was born 1862 outside Åbo, Finland. He worked during a few years in different factories as technician and salesman.

In 1889 he started a small sales company with the name B. A. Hjorth & Co. in Stockolm together with a partner, F. H. Getzmann. They started in a small scale by selling tools and machinery. Contacts with a couple of German manufacturers lead to contracts to import their products.

They also established contact with Enköpings Mekaniska Verkstad, which was founded in 1886 by J. P. Johansson. This was in the beginning a repair workshop but J. P. Johansson soon started to manufacture those inventions he had made - from 1888 the adjustable pipe wrench and from 1891 the adjustable nut and bolt wrenches (monkey wrench).

B. A. Hjorth & Co. received the global sales and marketing rights to the inventions made by J. P. Johansson and these products were marketed under the brand name Bahco.

Furthermore, in 1892, B. A. Hjorth & Co. also received the global sales and marketing rights of another important Swedish invention, the kerosene pressure stove invented by F. W. Lindqvist in 1891 and produced by J. V. Svenssons Fotogenköksfabrik. This kerosene stove was sold under the brand name of Primus. The Primus stove became an enormous success and quite soon the name Primus was spread over the world.

The adjustable wrench by Bahco.

Also blow lamps, furnaces and other heating apparatus were added to the Primus range of products.

In 1898 the factory J. V. Svenssons Fotogenköksfabrik changed name to AB Primus and this company was in 1918 taken over by B. A. Hjorth to become a part of the Bahco group of companies.

New company logo.

The increased use of propane gas for cooking and heating purpose lead to that AB Optimus, in Upplands-Väsby outside Stockholm, took over the kerosene products from AB Primus in 1962. In 1966 AB Sievert Apparater took over Primus from Bahco and a new company, Primus-Sievert AB, was formed with headquarter in Solna outside Stocholm.

For more information about the Primus range of blow lamps, please go to the AB Primus page.