Mountain Gas

DIY         This is just the g'damdist thing I ever seed!   I just stumbled upon Mountain Men—this episode.  The whole thing is so compelling that I'm recording the series, and watched 5 yesterday. But here's what blew my mind.  The gasifier.  Here's what blows my mind more: Wood gasifiers can power either spark ignition engines, where 100% of the normal fuel can be replaced with little change to the carburation, or in a diesel engine, feeding the gas into the air inlet that is modified to have a throttle valve, if it didn't have it already. On diesel engines the diesel fuel is still needed to ignite the gas mixture, so a mechanically regulated diesel engine's "stop" linkage and probably "throttle" linkage must be modified to always give the engine a little bit of injected fuel (Often under the standard idle per-injection volume). Wood can be used to power cars with ordinary internal combustion engines if a wood gasifier is attached. This was quite popular during World War II in several European, African and Asian countries because the war prevented easy and cost-effective access to oil. In more recent times, wood gas has been suggested as a clean and efficient method to heat and cook in developing countries, or even to produce electricity when combined with an internal combustion engine. (Wikipedia) How the hell did I live this long without even hearing about this?  Or, even worse, what if it turns out that I once built one myself?  Ahem. I'll guess that a goodly number of you were way ahead of me on the gasifier, and on Mountain Men too.  All the characters are something else, but Tom is the one who fills me with the most wonderment about his skill and determination.  And he lives with a good woman, too.  I think RAK could qualify for inclusion in this series.