[SEL] SEL Digest, Vol 59, Issue 5

[Jerry Evans]

At 07:00 PM 05/02/2009, you wrote:
>Message: 12
>Date: Thu, 5 Feb 2009 09:58:39 +0000
>From: john palmer <ottoslidevalve at hotmail.com>
>Subject: Re: [SEL] question about oil engines
>
>The oil that the early engines used here in England,such as 
>Hornsby,Crossley,Campbell,Petter,etc,etc,All used without exception what 
>we called 'lamp oil'.What you guys call kerosene,we also called it paraffin.

<big snip>

Thanks John for the explanation.
         For Jim,
         Regarding the confusion of names "lamp 
oil"/"paraffin"/"kerosene"/"illuminating paraffin". There was also (later) 
what the Brits called "tractor vapourising oil" (Shortened to "TVO"), in 
South Africa it was called "power paraffin", I think the yanks referred to 
it as "kerosene" (shortened to "kero"). I think this is probably what was 
used in your friends tractor that "ran on "gas" or "kerosene". "Gas" was 
used to start it with and once the engine had warmed up it was switched 
over to (cheaper) kerosene. This was TVO (Britain) or what we in South 
Africa called Power Paraffin. The carburettor/manifold of engines designed 
for this usually incorporated some kind of "hot box" to warm the paraffin 
vapour prior to it entering the combustion chamber.
         Many stationary engines (such as Lister and Wolseley) and also 
tractors were available in either Petrol only (Gas to you Yanks) or 
Petrol/Paraffin (Gas/Kero to you guys) models. The main difference was the 
addition of the "hotbox" and a 2 compartment fuel tank with a "switchable" 
3 way tap to switch between the different fuels. The compression ratio also 
differed slightly as the Paraffin models used a slightly lower compression 
ratio but I'm not sure if all manufacturers worried about this. I know that 
some engine manufacturers just used a thicker cylinder head gasket to 
achieve this so the difference was probably minimal. Maybe the "Gurus" on 
this list can set me right there.

         There is a lot more but that is it "in a nutshell".

Keep the revs up (or down)
Jerry Evans
Near Johannesburg in Sunny South Africa.
Etched Brass Engine Plates made to order:
<www.oldengine.org/members/evans/plates/index.htm>