Agreed. And considering that Clarkson lit it by splashing it over a pile of sticks and dropping a match on it, I suspect he wasn't using diesel.
When we had firefighting training in the Swedish Air Force, they used a big vat of diesel that we had to extinguish - they used a blowtorch to light it.
My previous career was an aviation firefighter - kerosene is pretty hard to light as well, we generally had to pour 20 or so litres of petrol over it to get it to reliably light (easily).
For lighting camp fires I've seen petrol in a half coke can used - just light it with a match and it burns like a large candle (ie it doesn't explode or go woof).
If the burning sticks didn't leap up to bite him it wasn't petrol... If you splash a bit of petrol one few sticks and drop a match on they go WOOF and jump up... BTDTGTTS. B-)
Kerosene is lighter (more volatile) than diesel. Both really need a wick and decent heat source to get 'em going, ofcourse once they are the heat of combustion is enough to keep the vapourisation going.
I don't think I'd like to try that, see above... A biscuit tin full of sand with some petrol is quite good. Doesn't matter if it gets knocked over.
Yeah, that's what they did the first time they lit it. After that, of course, it was already fairly warm and relatively easy to light.
That's an idea... I find a jam jar of "napalm" (polystyrene dissolved in petrol) works well; dip a stick in it, and it'll burn for a good five minutes regardless of weather.
I'm told that stuff like C4 will also burn like a candle if lit, which is interesting.
So snipped-for-privacy@washdown.net.nl was, like
Forgive me if I don't try this. :-)
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