On Fri, 21 Nov 2008 14:10:07 -0600, Jon Elson
wrote:

Pete Snell wrote:
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.

I know there were a variety of tractors that used a 'shotgun' like
shell as a starting mechanism. Not sure how common it was.
That's a Kauffmann starter, also used in a lot of aircraft up to the
F-4, at least. it was a pretty big shell (at least for an F-4) with a
SLOW-burning powder. it would give about 15 seconds of continuous gas
production.

Jon

There was also a "shotgun" starter that used a blank shell of some
sort. I never saw one but I remember in tech school a reference to one
being used by the Navy in some of their early recip engines.
Apparenttly it went off with a bang as opposed to the Kaufman.
Cheers,

Bruce
(bruceinbangkokatgmaildotcom)