A Model "A" Anecdote from Many Years Ago

[ericr]

On a lighter note, when I was in the South back in the 1960s and interested in these cars, a farmer told me that when the Model "A" was new, there was a local travelling salesman who would pull this stunt: he would take the gas cap off and to prove the safety of the fuel tank, he would light the fumes, which merely burned like a blue flame on a gas stove; then he would put the cap back on to extinguish it.
Anybody wanna try it today?

[sturgis 39]

I would not try this trick.

[BRENT in 10-uh-C]

Originally Posted by sturgis 39

I would not try this trick.

Me neither!!

.

[30ccpickup]

I’ll supply the match and the video recorder, you supply the car and the person to lite it. It will be fun!

[IrishHills]

Must have had a full tank, I wouldn't try it near empty.

[MrTube]

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Sounds a bit hard to believe. I've never seen gasoline fumes burn smooth and steady, usually they go up very fast.

Also, I don't know if gasoline at any mixture burns hot enough to burn blue and certainly not just some random mixture. I'd expect gasoline when perfectly mixed to produce a whiteish flame.

[H. L. Chauvin]

Dangerous fuel tricks:

I know a gentleman who won quite a bit of money betting by:

1. Taking an empty coffee can, fill it with gasoline, place it on the ground, light a match, & from 3 feet away, throw the lit match into the gasoline, whereby the gasoline would extinguish the match; &,

2. Place about 2 ounces of kerosene in his mouth, light a match, hold the match out at arms length, spit the kerosene at the match, & produce a large "woof" of a flame right in front of his face.

I saw him do this many times. He left & moved to New York years ago & became a self-employed locksmith. Heard from him a few months ago, his name is Dan Wilson.

[roccaas]

Didn't Ford promote the removable screen as a safety measure by waving a lit match over the filler? I think I remember reading about this as a part of the rollout in '27 and '28.

[Sparky]

Those types of screens are common on industrial flammable liquid cans. Supposedly the screen does prevent explosions but I wouldn't want to test it.

[Bruce Lancaster]

Same idea as a Davy lamp...screen prevents a flame from igniting stuff through a screen. Isn't that why the tank screen exists? And look at the part of article on failures due to minor damage of the Davy mesh...maybe that's why Ford used punched sheetmetal instead of a chunk of screen door.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davy_lamp

[[email protected]]

I remember watching my brother-in-law building up a 39 Ford with a Desoto Hemi engine. He would be washing out the greasey parts in a 5 gal bucket of gasoline while smoking a cigarette. When he was finished with the cig he would just dip in to the gas to snuff it out. I was always amazed back then that it didn't snuff him but he said it was something he was taught in the Navy when he was a Machinest Mate.

[mot]

you need three things for a fire
fuel,oxygen,and ignition temperature

the screen prevents the ignition temperature
i have also seen the cigarette and an open container of gas
and the match and open container
i have also seen two roadsters involved in a garage fire that were totally destroyed by fire with a full tank of gas,and neither tank exploded,
and i distinctly remember watching guys wet sand the old cars with gasoline and smoke
i have also watched (from around the corner) the gas company weld shut the feed from a torn down building without turning the gas off
i would not risk trying it myself

[Wick]

Ive seen the coffee can trick with the match.
Ive also seen the Flat Tire inflated by spraying starting fluid in the tire and throwing a lit match to it.

[Doug in NJ]

Go to Youtube and search for "bead seating fail", and you will find amusing stuff like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_clZyu2A0w

Doug

[kp]

I made several automobile fires during my 30 years as a pro.Fire Fighter,watched as fire burned around and down into the gasoline filler pipe, always removed the fuel Cap if possible to prevent build up of pressure. never had one blow as shown in the movies,but scarredest I ever was ,we were fighting a fire on a tanker truck (guy had got out of the truck and stepped on a fuel line unknowingly severed it,the line was from the trucks tank,not the tanker it self ,the fuel ran all over the near level parking lot) had somehow ignited ,we were in the process of fighting the fire and the right front tire on the tractor blew out ,now that made me jump ,since the fire was burning under the tanker.Lot more stories here .

[Wick]

Those you tube people got it all wrong....you spray the stuff Inside the tire. and you have to be stuck out in a field without a airtank. Just wont work right in a Garage.

[James Rogers]

I remember as a child of 12 or 13, we put a pint of gas in a gallon milk jug and lit the top. We would mash the sides to make a woosh and the flame would go 5 feet high.

[LukeDahlinger]

I used to take a cheap adjustable lighter, open the adjustment all the way, let the butane fill up in your mouth, then blow hard and hold a lit lighter by your mouth as you exhale.

Great fun when you're 16, drinking beers and trying to impress the girls.

[modeleh]

Originally Posted by MrTube

Sounds a bit hard to believe. I've never seen gasoline fumes burn smooth and steady, usually they go up very fast.

Also, I don't know if gasoline at any mixture burns hot enough to burn blue and certainly not just some random mixture. I'd expect gasoline when perfectly mixed to produce a whiteish flame.

Coleman campstoves and lanterns burn gasoline.