A combined pilot burner and thermocouple unit comprising a chrome-steel tube element and a shorter nickel-copper rod element arranged coaxially therein and welded together at their outer ends to form a hot junction. The inner ends of the thermocouple tube and rod elements are suitably joined, respectively, end-to-end with a conductive metal tube and a coaxial conductive wire coextending with the tube to a remote gas control valve and to an electromagnet housed therein as gas supply conduit means and as electrical conduction means. A larger diameter burner tube surrounding and coextending with the chrome-steel tube element has a burner port at its outer end adjacent the hot thermocouple junction and is closed at its inner end around the chrome-steel tube element. An aperture in the wall of the chrome-steel tube element near its inner end permits the flow of gas from the conductive metal tube to the burner tube, and a fluid-tight seal in the chrome-steel tube element between the aperture and inner end of the shorter nickel-copper rod element excludes gas from that portion of the tube within which this element extends. Connector means at the remote ends of the conductive tube and wire provide a fluid-tight connection of the tube with a gas passage in the gas body and electrical connection with an electromagnet house therein.