Author Topic: Show us interesting alternative gas engined cars (wood gas generators etc...)  (Read 294674 times)

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Offline Bill Murray

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A very interesting subject, Burkhard and I share your interest.  In fact, I think we share a couple of source bookmarks.
Here are some additional photos for your thread.
Please note that I use the German term "holzgas" as a sort of generic descriptive term and not all photos show a true wood burning apparat but are a mixture of 3-4 alternative fuel systems.
Bill
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Bill

Offline Bill Murray

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For some reason, I cannot post any more photos.
It says there is already a file with that name in use, rename the file.
What does that mean??

Bill
« Last Edit: January 04, 2014, 08:33:21 AM by Bill Murray »
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Bill

Offline Bill Murray

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Trying again
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Offline grobmotorix

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An marvellous artistīs impression of a 1936 wood gas truck:

Offline grobmotorix

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A nice Peugeot conversion:

Offline Wendax

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Re: Show us interesting alternative gas engined cars (wood gas generators etc...)
« Reply #80 on: September 30, 2014, 06:47:23 AM »
This one is up for sale right now:

Offline grobmotorix

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Re: Show us interesting alternative gas engined cars (wood gas generators etc...)
« Reply #81 on: September 30, 2014, 11:39:57 AM »
 :o

Offline Wendax

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Re: Show us interesting alternative gas engined cars (wood gas generators etc...)
« Reply #82 on: September 30, 2014, 03:58:11 PM »
A better designed Peugeot Gazogene:

Offline grobmotorix

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Re: Show us interesting alternative gas engined cars (wood gas generators etc...)
« Reply #83 on: September 30, 2014, 04:14:36 PM »
A converted Dodge truck in Japan, 1934:

Offline Bill Murray

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Re: Show us interesting alternative gas engined cars (wood gas generators etc...)
« Reply #84 on: September 30, 2014, 04:18:58 PM »
Nice find and Thank You!!

Bill
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Offline Bill Murray

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Re: Show us interesting alternative gas engined cars (wood gas generators etc...)
« Reply #85 on: September 30, 2014, 07:37:59 PM »
A few more from my archives..........

Bill
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Offline Bill Murray

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Re: Show us interesting alternative gas engined cars (wood gas generators etc...)
« Reply #86 on: September 30, 2014, 07:40:06 PM »
Some more.........
Bill
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Offline Bill Murray

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Re: Show us interesting alternative gas engined cars (wood gas generators etc...)
« Reply #87 on: September 30, 2014, 07:42:22 PM »
A few more.........
Bill
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Offline Bill Murray

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Re: Show us interesting alternative gas engined cars (wood gas generators etc...)
« Reply #88 on: September 30, 2014, 07:44:48 PM »
And enough for tonight................
Bill
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Offline grobmotorix

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 :thumbsup:

Offline Bill Murray

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You Likeee..............

Some more.

Bill
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Offline Bill Murray

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More............
Edit:  The Ford is a 1937 I think now.
Bill
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Offline Bill Murray

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Some more..........
Bill
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Offline Bill Murray

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And the last for now...........
Bill
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Offline grobmotorix

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A 1935 demonstration run to promote alternative fuels in Berlin, 1935.
And an ad for wood, readily portioned to use it in wood gas generators, also from 1935:

Offline Wendax

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A halftrack truck converted to Holzgas used after the WW2 for agriculture:

Offline grobmotorix

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Those were hard times indeed...

Offline Bill Murray

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Yes indeed, hard times for sure.

No one else has mentioned much about the actual history of alternative fuels on this thread, so I will throw in a few lines.
Please bear in mind, I have done no serious research, merely a few Google inquiries.

Basically, alternative fuels other than oil based products have been around about as long as the internal combustion engine itself.

Generally speaking, it seems that oil based products were found early on to be many times more efficient than other types of fuels so they became dominant almost from the beginning.  But, for various reasons, there was a steady market for many types of alternative fuels in many geographic areas.

The earliest oil fields seem to have been found in the former Soviet Union based on what I have read.  Baku in the 1860's and Azerbaijan in the 1890's.

By the early 1900's, fields had been discovered in such widely diverse areas as Canada, Sumatra and other former Dutch East Indies countries, Iran, Peru, Mexico, Venezuela, Romania and of course some fields in the US.  This allowed oil based products to be the dominant fuel in most countries.

WWI, of course, disturbed the distribution patterns and many countries that were cut off from oil were forced to use wood, coal, natural gas and any other similar product (peat perhaps?) as a substitute.

Once the recovery from that war was under way, the traditional oil suppliers were able to serve their former markets again and oil based products to once again become dominant.

Sadly, The Great Depression caused a different kind of problem for countries with no direct oil supplies from within their own borders or from their colonies.  Balance of Payment difficulties and a lack of Foreign Exchange issues caused many countries even in peace time to make use of alternative fuels.  This even when major new oil fields were being discovered in the US, The Middle East and large reserves in Venezuela.  In many countries, WWII was just a continuation of the problem although now on a much larger scale.  Here, entire geographic areas were almost totally cut off from receiving oil products.

From what I have read, the fuel of choice was probably determined mainly by what was available locally.

In Scandinavia, where there were huge forested areas, wood and wood by products provided the fuel.  In countries where coal was readily available, middle Europe, that was used and in countries with a good Natural Gas supply and distribution network they used that medium.  France, Belgium and Holland would fit that model.

It is for the above reasons that we will see on this thread a variety of solutions to the lack of oil products and why we will see a given geographic area seem to use one specific solution and another a different solution.

Photographic evidence would indicate that by about 1948/1949 the absolute need for alternative fuels was pretty much over and most vehicles once again ran on oil based products.

Today, the Poster Child alternative to oil based fuels is the Electric motor but that is a story for another day.

Here is a photo of a restored Citroen that I picked up today while researching a puzzle question.

Bill

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Offline Bill Murray

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Further to my remarks in the last post, here is an interesting anomaly.

In my research on US cars sold to, produced or assembled in countries outside the US, I have many, many images stored.

South America, up until the 1960's, was a US manufacturer's "playground".  Probably 90% of all cars and trucks in use there were from the US.  So, many images from that geographic area.

In looking for materiel for this thread, I discovered that it seems that of the photos I have collected, only Brazil/Brasil had vehicles running on alternative fuels.  I have not discovered why and if any of you have a thought, please share it.
My only thought is that Brazil/Brasil was a former Portuguese colony as opposed to almost the entire rest of South American countries being former Spanish colonies and perhaps that country was blocked from purchasing oil based products for that reason.

Anyway, a couple of posts on alternative fuel vehicles from Brazil/Brasil.

Bill
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Offline Bill Murray

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Some more:
Bill
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