Today On The Billy Ho Show

[Lawrence D'Oliveiro]

Just a few minutes ago, I saw Bill Hohepa talk to a man with a tractor
he’d had for 30 years (though I think it was older). It had a single-
cylinder diesel engine, and a rather unusual starting procedure.

First you had to put a couple of squirts of fuel into the cylinder, by
manually turning the crankshaft to trigger the fuel injector. Then you had
to reposition the crankshaft to the start position. Next, you lit a little
piece of paper (soaked in saltpetre) into a nice, smouldering state, and
inserted that into a cavity where it would heat the glowplug.

Finally, there was a cartridge containing gunpowder (or was it cordite) --
like a blank cartridge you would use in a gun -- that you had previously
inserted and locked in place into its own cavity, with a firing pin
protruding through the cap; hit this smartly with a hammer, and it would
explode the cartridge (with a bang and a puff of smoke) and get the piston
moving, and the engine would start running.

I wonder how many of those cartridges you needed in a typical working
day ...

[Lawrence D'Oliveiro]

Post by Lawrence D'Oliveiro
Just a few minutes ago, I saw Bill Hohepa talk to a man with a tractor
he’d had for 30 years (though I think it was older). It had a single-
cylinder diesel engine, and a rather unusual starting procedure.

Looks like it was one of these
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Field_Marshall>. That article says the
tractors dated from the 1950s. It also says the shotgun starting
system tended to put more strain on the engine than crank-handle-style
starting.