Re: (ReacTor) Five SF Novels About Rediscovering Ancient Tech

On 5/16/24 11:18, Michael F. Stemper wrote:

On 15/05/2024 14.03, BCFD 36 wrote:

On 5/14/24 10:59, Christian Weisgerber wrote:

 

I was already intrigued by the British TV mini-series _The Last Train_
(1999), where fifty years after the apocalypse our cryo-preserved
protagonists can just start up cars still sitting around in garages.
No flat batteries there.

>
Not only flat batteries, but flat gasoline. For those of us who have gasoline powered power tools (in my case, weed whacker, lawn mower, chainsaw), we have to add Stabil or some other gas preservative if the gas is going to sit in a can more than a month or so. Otherwise the gas goes "bad". If my chainsaw gas is more than a month or two old and has not been treated, it will not start the saw.

 Interesting. I've never added any preservative, yet my chainsaw always started,
even when I went a year or more between uses. Just out of curiosity, did your
saw require a gas-oil mix as mine did? Maybe the oil acted as a preservative
for the gas.
 

My chainsaw and weed wacker (both Stihl) are 2 cycle engines so run on "mix", a 50:1 mixture of gasoline to chainsaw oil. Every saw I have owned, and the saws down at the fire department were all pretty finicky about the gasoline... it had to be somewhat fresh. There is nothing like standing on a roof in the rain at night with the intention of cutting a vent, and the saw won't start. Later someone puts fresh mix in it and it fires right up. ARRRGGGGGH!
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Dave Scruggs
Senior Software Engineer - Lockheed Martin, et. al (mostly Retired)
Captain - Boulder Creek Fire (Retired)
Board of Directors - Boulder Creek Fire Protection District (What was I thinking?)