I suspect that's the old WWII trick called a gazogene (sp) engine -- they
had a gas generator in the trunk that burned wood or charcoal in an
over-rich atmosphere to form producer gas, which is roughly 1/3 carbon
monoxide and 2/3 nitrogen, with some hydrogen plus whatever hydrocarbons
distill off the wood directly.  Pretty bad fuel with all that nitrogen, not
to mention that it's deadly poisonous.  If you add steam to the producer
you get a much better reaction that yields 50/50 monoxide and hydrogen --
but I'm almost positive that the auto-mobile generators weren't that fancy.
 I have no idea how they buffered btw the generator and the intake -- well,
I have a nasty suspicion that they vented any excess over the side.

If anyone cares I have a cross-section picture of an industrial gas
producer ca. 1925 that I can scan and pmail them.

david

At 15:00 4/1/99 -0500, Seth F Gordon wrote:
>I recall seeing a vw trends with old old bugs in Germany that were actually
>wood burning, that is the vehicle was fueled by wood.

David Beierl - dbeierl@ibm.net