Mike Hunter wrote:

> Would the pull cord be long enough to start the motor from inside the car?
> LOL
>
> mike

Heh heh! I don't know if the big diesel manufacturers still do this,
but when I was a kid, I remember being told (probably by my dad) that
the Caterpillar scraper engines used small gasoline engines (with their
own electric starter of course) to start the main engine. Not sure if
the starter engines were one lungers or something bigger. I think also,
in some large engines, electric motors spin up a flywheel to start a
larger main engine (some WWII aircraft engines sound as if they use such
a system).

Theoretically you could probably transfer the total energy of a few C-
or D- cells into such a flywheel system (or a large capacitor for that
matter) over a minute or two - use them once, then throw them away. Not
sure if a handful of AA's have the total energy necessary. "Give me a
big enough lever and i can move the earth."

Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
address with the letter 'x')