Fred Metters' stove idea fires up company's strong appliance-making presence in Adelaide from 1890s
Part of the Metters top-fire fuel stove range, the No.2 Improved, and the Metters Limited office and showroom (top right) in Rundle Street, Adelaide, in 1923 and the company's headquarters and showroom on North Terrace, Adelaide, from 1927.
Fred Metters patented and made patented the top-fire fuel stove, a radically improved cooker, in Adelaide from 1891.
The son of a Cornish bricklayer who specialized in setting ovens and cooking ranges, Metters also had two brothers in Melbourne making domestic and industrial cooking overs.
But Fred Metters’ success with his top-fire stove idea prompted him to take out his own patent and set up a factory on Victoria Square, Adelaide. In 1893, he opened an office and showroom in Rundle Street, Adelaide.
The top-fire design had a full-width cast-iron hob directly over the fire, with recessed circular inserts which could be removed when the cook wanted the flames directly onto the base of the pan. Once the fire was properly alight, the upper flue would be closed, so heat would be drawn down past the oven and hot-water tank before escaping up the chimney.
The Metters Adelaide foundry made the Beacon Light, New Improved, Barossa, Dover, Bega and Wilga wood stoves. All patternmaking, casting, finishing, machining, enamelling (only the coloy’s second factory after A. Simpson & Son to succeed in this demanding art), sheetmetal work and assembly was done in house.
About 15,000 ovens were sold in South Australia alone. By 1902, 200 Metters employees in Adelaide and Perth were producing 600 ovens each month.
With expansion into Western Australia in 1894, Metters formed a partnership with Henry Spring. Spring bought out Metters* in 1907 and founded Metters Limited in Adelaide in 1908 with himself as managing director, and greatly expanded the product range and manufacturing in Perth, Adelaide and Sydney. In 1911, a new Adelaide Metters factory was built on 20 acres in Henley Beach Road.
In its 20th Century transition from wood stoves, Metters Limited, as a subsidiary of General Industries, became Australia's largest home appliance manufacturer, with plants in four states and one in New Zealand. In 1966, Metters bought a majority holding in Adelaide’s Iplex Plastic Industries, founded by Bill Menzel. Metters/lplex plastic plumbing products held a major share of that industry in Australia in the 1960s.
