Comments on: Gas Bag on Roof Holds Bus Fuel

By: Bill Raisn

Bill Raisn — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 11:15:03 +0000

It certainly was ‘town gas’, manufactured from coal. Private cars and lorries also used this system. Some busses, esspecially double-deckers, towed a small trailer.

By: Henry Gibson

Henry Gibson — Wed, 07 May 2008 04:23:10 +0000

Probably filled with coal gas; that is what you get when you heat
up coal and filter out all of the tars and solids from the off gases.

The GrafZepplin was a hydrogen filled dirigible that spent ten years
cross the oceans and round the world. If you want to be afraid of a gas
container, the most dangerous one is a tanker of chlorine or propane….

By: Orv

Orv — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 01:21:41 +0000

“Producer gas,” I think, is the term. It was used for lighting and cooking in cities for a long time, before natural gas pipelines became common. I’d worry more about a leak into the passenger cabin than an explosion — people used to commit suicide by sticking their head in the oven, because they’d be overcome fairly quickly by the carbon monoxide.

By: mrchurchill109

mrchurchill109 — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 16:24:23 +0000

Not methane – if I remember correctly this was manufactured fuel gas from coal gasification – much carbon monoxide and some hydrogen. This stuff was nasty and rough on the engines it was used in – lots of corrosion from the acids created as combustion by-products.

CO is marginally lighter than air and hydrogen is much lighter. The boom would tend to go up, though I wouldn’t want to be anywhere near it.

Alan

By: jayessell

jayessell — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 16:13:02 +0000

Methane?
Lighter than air.
The flames would go up, away from the bus.

I wonder if they set fire to one of the fuel bladders as a test.

By: Thundercat

Thundercat — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 02:33:53 +0000

This type of thinking worked out well for the Hindenberg.

By: Stannous

Stannous — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 00:58:39 +0000

Oh yeah, sign me up. I can’t wait to be riding around UNDERNEATH the combustible fuel during the Blitz 5 months later…