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blowin · Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2009 10:34 pm Post subject: Lighting fires with diesel

Apparently diesel has a high flash-point so you need to get a fair bit of heat under it before it will ignite . This makes a nonsense of the tip that you can get a turf fire burning by soaking a few sticks of it in a bucket of old oil , then just light with a match .
Tested it myself when I couldn’t remember whether the fuel can contained diesel or petrol . It turned out to be diesel and that would not catch even after prolonged attempts with a cigarette lighter . Perhaps it was a silly experiment and a very good job that it wasn’t petrol !

squirrel01 · Joined: 14 Dec 2006 Posts: 90 Location: co. roscommon

diesel on a rag works a treat...

blowin · Posted: Fri Jan 23, 2009 11:23 pm Post subject:

That is true .
Presumably because the rag allows the fuel to spread thinly so a small but localised area of flame from match or lighter will bring the heat up sufficiently .
I wish I had paid more attention to physics lessons in my youth Laughing