Group: alt.2eggs.sausage.beans.tomatoes.2toast.largetea.cheerslove · Group Profile
Author: Larry GreenLarry Green Date: Sep 10, 2008 10:42
Bear wrote:
>> Ben newsam gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>> Wire wool burns too. I once lit our Nov 5th bonfire with a car
>>> battery, a piece of wire wool, and a pint or two of petrol. Highly
>>> effective.
>> A PINT or TWO? Wow!
>>
>> Last time I used petrol to light a very soggy Nov 5 bonfire I used a
>> half full coke can and lit it from a considerable distance by firing a
>> roman candle at it. It's just as well I did get well away because the
>> bonfire went WHOOMPH! and half dismantled itself in a great cloud
>> of beech leaves and sticks.
>
> Yeah, for starting fires you want diesel ... I learned this lesson early
> in life, as we used to burn flammable rubbish (like cardboard) in old 50
> gallon oil drums, on the farm ... usually, my dad would add half a pint
> or so of diesel, let it soak in, throw in a match, and away the fire
> would go.
>
> One day I couldn't find any diesel, so figured petrol would do as well.
>
> My technique ran thusly: add petrol, let it soak in, lob match into
> drum, loud bang, find self on own arse about 6 feet away from drum, as
> cardboard confetti rains down :)
LOL....reminds me of an old neighbour of mine when I lived in the UK. He had a
small corner of his garden that had gone 'wild', full of tall grass, weeds and
even a couple of thin saplings. He decided that it was going to be too much work
to cut all the growth down and he was too tight to hire one of those flame
thrower type weed burners so he decided to use petrol.
He sloshed the petrol around out of a five gallon can and made a lighter out of
a rolled up newspaper taped to a broom handle figuring that would get him far
enough away to light it safely. All might have been well if he hadn't forgotten
about the slight slope to the ground and the fact that liquid tends to find the
lowest level! He picked up his 'taper', lit the newspaper and walked halfway up
the slope before touching the flame to the petrol soaked growth. There was a
huge WHOOMPHHH and a big yellow and red fireball with him standing in the middle
of it! Thankfully he got away with missing eyebrows, a distinctly frizzled
mustache and a somewhat increased heart rate for a while! I was standing further
down the garden with both our wives and we were all doubled over in pain from
laughing so hard. ;-)
--
Larry the Limey
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