©AWMoore 2004
Charles Twigg & Co of Perry Bar, Birmingham, were light engineering manufacturers during the 1940s and 50s. They produced and sold only a small number of pressure lamps and stoves under the Buflam and Petroflam brand names. The company went into receivership in 1957. There is little remaining in the way of documentation, but it is known that they manufactured a lantern superficially very similar to the early Petromax design.
Charles Twiggs "Petroflam" lantern (photo courtesy of Diane Thompson)
The Buflam logo used by Charles Twigg & Co on lanterns and stoves
Ironically, Charles Twigg & Co are best known for something that happened after the company was wound up in 1957. This was a landmark legal case concerning passage of property, Carlos Federspiel & Co. vs Charles Twigg & Co. Ltd., (1957). This case centred on how a company in Costa Rica bought from the English company 85 bicycles "Free On Board" British Port and paid the purchase price in advance. The bicycles were packed into cases which were marked with the buyers name and registered for shipment in a named ship that was to load them at Liverpool. The cases containing the bicycles had not yet been sent to the port when Twiggs ceased trading. A receiver and manager was appointed for the sellers, and he claimed that the bicycles were still the property of Twigg, even though they had been paid for and crated ready to send. In court it was held that the "property in the bicycles" had not yet passed to the buyer so in this case the receiver could get them. The buyer did not become the owner until the crates were placed on the ship, since he had purchased them F.O.B.
Any further information about Charles Twigg & Co would be very welcome.
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