Sodium Nitrite

On the topic of Sodium Nitrite if you know someone with an early 1950's Field Marshal tractor they use a 'saltpetre' paper wick to start the single cylinder 5.5litre 2 stroke diesel engine. Nowadays they have to make a box of wicks up as they are not available any longer from Mattersons! Hard work cranking that engine over if you haven't got a 12 bore blank cartridge handy!

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Thanks for that

With an 0161 number, they can’t be a million miles from me.

MichaelG.

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Intriguing !! ... 

Unfortunately though [unless, of course, you know better] Sodium Nitrite is one of the few variants on the theme which is not known as saltpetre.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saltpeter_(disambiguation)

The exothermic reaction with Tungsten seems to be very specific.

Do please correct me if I am wrong ... I am a tinkerer, not a chemist !

MichaelG.

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 18/06/2020 20:56:48

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 18/06/2020 20:58:04

Micheal, you are absolutely correct, my mistake - getting my -ites and -ates mixed up! It is interesting to read how many compounds of alkali salts are listed as 'saltpetre' - Sodium, Calcium and Potassium. All very confusing, especially the reference to food processing. Which is where the connection with cured bacon, butchers, and farmers comes from!

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Very easily done

... but many thanks for the interesting note about engine starting

MichaelG.

The Field Marshall comments bring back happy memories of when we had a couple of those tractors.

We always used to start ours on the handle, they have a very simple de-compressor mechanism to allow you to crank it easier, there is a threaded groove on the outside of the flywheel into which a roller lever engages to pull a cable that opens the de-compressor valve. you have to be carefull to note which groove you put it in, because that dictates how many turns you crank it before it drops off the edge of the flywheel and hits full compression. We used to do three turns and then Bang, Bang, BAng............

12 bore blank cartridge starting was reserved for showing off to friends, my dad did this once and forgot to remove the plastic bucket that kept rain water out of the exhaust chimmney. It flew about 20 feet in the air and came back down and landed perfectly over his head, I wished I had a camera handy that day !!

It was quite easy to accidentally start the two stroke engine backwards if it kicked back, you then had one forward and three reverse gears. Our Fowler VF crawler was almost the same, but that did run the opposite way to the Field Marshall engine.

Phil

Edited By Phil P on 19/06/2020 10:18:46