Gordon and all,

You'd have to hear "Car Talk" before coming to any conclusions.  The program has
posted the original call and set up a discussion of the "woodchip-mobile" with
lots of postings at:
http://cartalk.cars.com/Radio/call/index7.html
They take this stuff seriously.  Or as seriously as they take anything on "Car
Talk" anyway.
Cheers,
Ross

Gordon wrote:

> Sounds to me like this might be a role for a bit of applied archaeology to
> get these guys more aware of historical aspects of motor vehicles.  I'd be
> pretty p....d off if I 'phoned in with info and got a clowning response
> (although I am not familiar with the program).
>
> There's some good info at
> http://highforest.tripod.com/woodgas/woodgas.html
> and photos at
> http://highforest.tripod.com/charcoal/1944.html
>
> Gordon Grimwade
>
> Gordon Grimwade & Associates,
> Heritage Consultants,
> PO Box 9
> Yungaburra,
> Queensland, Australia 4872.
> Phone 07 4095 3737
> Fax 07 4095 2117
> Mobile 0419 677 022
> Office email <[log in to unmask]>
> Web site <gga.com.au>
>
> A person who smiles in the face of adversity probably has a scapegoat.
> (Anon)
>
> > From: Carl Barna <[log in to unmask]>
> > Reply-To: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY <[log in to unmask]>
> > Date: Wed, 29 Jan 2003 16:09:23 -0700
> > To: [log in to unmask]
> > Subject: Re: CHARCOAL BURNING ENGINES circa WWII
> >
> > By sheer coincidence,  NPR's "Car Talk" guys had a caller of German descent
> > on last weekend who, during WW II, was fleeing the Russians in a car that
> > ran on wood chips.  Every so often, they would stop at a lumber yard and
> > fill up the car with wood chips to run the engine on.  Of course, Tom and
> > Ray made much light of this, and I thought it was their usual clowning
> > around.  They couldn't quite figure out how this would work.  Now I see
> > that stanger things do happen.
> >
> > Carl Barna
> > Regional Historian
> > BLM Colorado State Office

--
Ross W. Jamieson
Assistant Professor, Department of Archaeology
Simon Fraser University, Burnaby,
British Columbia, Canada V5A 1S6
tel. (604) 291-3087;  fax (604) 291-5666
[log in to unmask]
http://www.sfu.ca/person/rossjami