On Thu, 31 May 2007 11:32:15 +0100, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

Diesel burns remarkably well with any sort of wick.

Aye, think oil lamps etc.

And, if hot enough, will go up in a ball of fire..think 911. Aircraft
fuel is essentially diesel.

Depends on the aircraft fuel some use high octane petrol "Av Gas" but jet
engined craft burn "Jet A1" which is essentially kerosene, parrafin,
pressure jet heating oil, 28sec viscosity. Diesel is gas oil and 35sec
viscousity.

Petrol *vapour* if the concentration is critical, will ignite with
almost anything. As a *liquid* you can drop a lit match in..and it will
douse it.

Assuming you can get the lit match through the vapour without it going up.

As a lad my couple of trials of "camp fire" lighting with petrol showed
this was not a good idea. Even a desert spoonfull produces enough vapour
for a rather large WOOMPH in a *very* short space of time. Also the WOOMPH
tends to lift all the bits of your fire a couple of inches into the air
and drop them, then the fuel burns away to quickly before the fire has
really got going. Parafin is far better, no WOOMPH and a much longer burn
time. B-) Didn't have access to diesel at that time.

--
Cheers
Dave. pam is missing e-mail