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About 12 years ago I rebuilt a 27 foot
steel hulled Dutch sloop. This sailboat was produced for the British
market and designed for use on the Thames estuary, by a Dutch start up company
that was a part of an economy stimulus program to rebuild Holland after WW2. The
vessel used a 10 hp, 2 cylinder Albin engine designed circa 1915 that later
begot the Volvo Penta line of marine engines. In the configuration I acquired
it, it was supposed to operate just as you describe. Start on regular
"petrol" and then switch over to Kerosene/ Paraffin for continuous
operation and switch back to gas after shut down. It was reported to me the
engine would run on just about anything you threw in it. I started on the
rebuild of the engine and then sold the whole project to finance other
objectives so I never saw it run. The photos are not of mine but this is what it
looked like. Condition when I acquired it was about the same as seen in the
photos. In addition to the electric start it had a hand crank option as
well.
specs:
Albin 021
Twin cylinder,
10
horse power petrol
8 horse power paraffin
Ignition system, Magneto Coili
Cooling Raw water. Gear type water pump
Electrics,12 volt Dynamo +
starter motor (enclosed flywheel)
Michael
----- Original Message -----
During W.W.II auto fuel tanks held coal oil, or
kerosene. An add on little tank of gasoline was rigged up on the fire wall
with some plumbing to switch between the two. The car would be started and
warmed up on gasoline and then switched to coal oil for the trip to the
defense plant. When the destination was in sight, the switch was made back to
gasoline so the engine would start for the trip home. Even at 7:1 compression
the engines would knock (detonate) and smoke, and timing changes may have been
involved, but it worked.
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