OT: 17th Century Biodiesel?

I suspect it would work great. Burns very hot and clean. The problem is the timeline. Onboard tryworks (the cutting, boiling and barreling equipment to turn blubber into oil) wasn't used until the 1750's.

Rendered animal fat, possibly mixed with distilled spirits.

Coal oil?

-- Bob (Chief Pilot, White Knuckle Airways)

Any liquid oil will do, but it may need to be heated up prior to going into the oil pump. alt.energy.homepower has all the knowledge you need for it.

Glenn Ashmore wrote: (clip) What else could you use for diesel fuel that existed in the 17th century?(clip) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ I recall reading that if I ever ran out of diesel fuel for my pickup truck, I should try to find someone with a tank of heating oil. I would think lamp oil would also work. Try to think of things that resemble kerosene. I believe a diesel engine will run on a wide range of fuels, once it is warmed up. The trick is getting it started. So, I suggest as part of the story line, she include some strategy for conserving the original fuel supply for starting, and a way of switching to lower grade fuel after warmup. How about some inventive person in the crew wrapping the muffler with copper tubing to act as a fuel preheater?

it is the same as diesel #2, only dyed.

Which is precisely the issue.

That's being done, google for "wvo diesel".

Damn near any flammable liquid that flows and won't clog a filter to death. The trick is getting it to start on it in the first place. Some of the "thicker" fluids may need some preheating before they're fed to the engine.

According to my understanding, during the first exhibition of a diesel engine, it was run on peanut oil. Not real surprising, since the original intent was a "runs on practically anything that'll burn" engine.

Well, will a diesel run on ATF? ISTR ATF used to be whale oil before the stuff died in the 1940s or so, to be replaced by synthetics.

Huh, I wonder what whale oil is chemically? Couldn't be a monoglyceride, because if it were, watchmakers and automatic transmissions would just use processed vegetable oils...

Tim

-- "California is the breakfast state: fruits, nuts and flakes." Website:

The Romans used olive oil in lamps.

Popeye used to dip his wick in Olive Oyl.

That would be "17th Century Soft Copper Tubing" ?

I would think even that would be a rare item, Copper tubing...... Sure they made things out of copper.... But likely only the king of the land may have had a roll laying around as a "spare". If it were a vehicle, there might be some other metallic lines to steal, but a boat ?

H'mmm.... I see a cast iron pot with a literal fire brewing under it on deck !

I can't wait to hear how she intends to protect her "ship" (the likes of something no one had seen at the time), from the Lex Luther types that existed back then.

I sure hope we all get to see the final copy of this story !!

Chris L

wrote: That would be "17th Century Soft Copper Tubing" ? (clip) I sure hope we all get to see the final copy of this story !! ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Hey! This is fiction. The author can create anything that is needed to move the plot forward. Let's imagine that there happens to be a coil of tubing under one of the bunks that was used to fill the drinking water tanks before departure. (For example.)

I have a little plaque that says, "Don't ask questions about fairy tales."

I agree that the final version of the story needs to be posted here.

Could be some of the ship's spares? Or part of an item already on board. Some sort of heat exchanger?

Rex Burkheimer WM Automotive Fort Worth TX

Any modern ocean going sailboat could run rings around a vessel of that era. She could easily take out a pirate's ship by overtaking from the stern and setting them ablaze with a flare gun.

fred

. Thanks. You just prevented a serious anacronism that would not have been good for her grade. Even worse it seems that commercial whaling was limited to the North Atlantic until the 1800's so passing a whaling ship in the Caribbean would have been highly unusual. However, the Danes were big in the whale oil biz back then and settled St. Thomas in 1666 so we will buy refined oil from one of their supply ships. Probably have to pay more than one used aluminum Bama jelly glass though. I wonder what a digital Timex would be worth to a 17th century navigator?

The skipper sounds a lot like me so the boat will probably be loaded with all sorts of extranious stuff. Just like my shop. :-)

As far as defence goes I have to give her credit for research. She has already escaped some unsavory characters off Port Royal, Jamaica by sailing up wind and warded off a boarding at anchor on the south coast of Hispanola with a stainless Mossberg 12 gauge loaded with incindiary and flachette shells. I had no idea such things existed.

Well, Harrison first proposed building an accurate clock for determining longitude in 1737. He was pretty much written off as a crackpot at the time. I doubt that a ship's navigator would appreciate the watch as much as an astronomer would. The navigator would love to have a pocket calculator though.

I'd think that stainless cutlery would be valuable, and I think that aluminum was more valuable than gold.

A flashlite would be magic and a pair of walkie-talkies would be deep magic. Same with a polaroid camera.

An old spinniker or jib, made from synthetic would certainly be worth something.

Hmm.... a shipload of 17th century men who've been at sea for a few months, and you need to talk them into trading some of their cargo. Do your time travelers have a Sports Illustrated Swim Suit Issue on board?

Wayne

Digital? Worthless except as a timepiece, which they had plenty of (though not as nifty as our modern ones) back then. As a curiousity, it might fetch a decent price for its strangeness, but it's functionality would be no different than what was available in those days. Never mind the fact that it's nothing more than an interesting looking piece of garbage when the battery eventually goes flat... (or more likely, in the religious/political climate and parlance of the 1600s, "When the bound demon making it work escapes"...)

Now an *ANALOG* wristwatch is another story... Even the simplest hour-/minute-hand equippped watch is, in and of itself, a crude but effective navigational instrument if set reasonably accurately. And not just because it tells you what time to take a sextant reading - If you know (or can figure out) the "trick", a "handed" watch will give you north at any time of the daylight hours you can tell where the sun is, from any latitude, under any conditions other than total lack of visibility. There are supposed to be a couple other navigational tricks that can be done with it as well, although I never personally learned anything beyond the "which way is north?" one. (But I can't say for sure that right this instant, I'd be able to step outside and use even the "north" trick - It's been so long since I've used it that I'm foggy about the process anymore)

Give her a self-winding analog Timex with day, date, and second hand, and she's got a *SERIOUSLY* desirable trade item that should fetch a VERY tidy trade of some sort - Perhaps even a whole freakin' ship, should she handle things right...

Whatr? You've never heard of the round calld "Dragon's breath"?

Seriously impressive stuff to see, though I'm not sure I'd want to run it through any gun of mine!