steamer wrote:

--Remember the time they tried to make an I.C. engine run on
gunpowder? A bunch of us were talking about this the other day and we seemed
to have vague memories of this actually working once, maybe in the 1800s.
Anyone got a reference? Also looking for anything on engines running on
acetylene. Fear not! Not going to put one in my car; just thinking of the
pyrotechnic spinoff for a *very* remote location, heh.

My dad tells of his remembrance of his grandfather trying to get Model T
engines to run on nitroglycerin. This was on a very large ranch back in
the 30's, when and where having explosives around was not considered a
big deal. He was just a pup and doesn't recall much more than his
grandfather got an engine to idle, but any attempt to run above idle
would blow the engines. He said there was a pile of engines outside the
barn with a variety of failures you would not expect to see in an
engine. Would give about anything to have a good picture of that pile...


Jon