Today On The Billy Ho Show

Just a few minutes ago, I saw Bill Hohepa talk to a man with a tractor 
he’d had for 30 years (though I think it was older). It had a single-
cylinder diesel engine, and a rather unusual starting procedure.

First you had to put a couple of squirts of fuel into the cylinder, by 
manually turning the crankshaft to trigger the fuel injector. Then you had 
to reposition the crankshaft to the start position. Next, you lit a little 
piece of paper (soaked in saltpetre) into a nice, smouldering state, and 
inserted that into a cavity where it would heat the glowplug.

Finally, there was a cartridge containing gunpowder (or was it cordite) -- 
like a blank cartridge you would use in a gun -- that you had previously 
inserted and locked in place into its own cavity, with a firing pin 
protruding through the cap; hit this smartly with a hammer, and it would 
explode the cartridge (with a bang and a puff of smoke) and get the piston 
moving, and the engine would start running.

I wonder how many of those cartridges you needed in a typical working 
day ...