On Sat, 13 Jul 2013 12:22:54 +0200, Timothy Murphy
wrote:

But one that I've never seen repeated
was that cars could easily be made to start with torch batteries
in place of accumulators.
Again, there was a plot by accumulator manufacturers -
I think they had bought up the patent of the torch-battery method.

I've forgotten the details of how this was supposed to work,
but I'm sure it would have been plausible.
I wonder if anyone has come across this idea,
and knows how it works or is supposed to work?

Not exactly a secret, but unreliable as feck.
Get a piston just over compression with a fuel charge in the chamber
and fire the plug using a torch battery spark pack [1] - the engine
will cough and run - if the wind's right, the horse you backed wins
and the fairies don't **** on you.

[1] Back then, that was essentially a diy device that was more or less
a one-lead contact breaker.