Zünd-Fix Diesel Selbstzünder

Before the days of cellulose acetate, cinematic film was made from celluloid. This sometimes ignited spontaneously in storage, and much more so if it became stuck in the projector, with a naked electric arc inside. Projectionists' cabins were fireproofed, often with a "water curtain" across the door to allow the projectionist to escape without instantly setting the theatre on fire.

Our 1950's Baudouin engines had an ingenious emergency starting system. These engines, as is common in ships, were started by compressed air (30 bar) stored in two big receivers. The air acted, through a special timing-valve, on one of the pistons. Each bottle would start the engine once, so it was "two strikes and you're out". Once the engine caught, this same cylinder acted as a compressor to re-fill the bottles, before receiving a fuel supply and taking up duty as the sixth cylinder.

To start these engines on cold mornings, "cigarette holders", threaded rods nearly a foot long, went from the inlet manifold ramp into each cylinder's compression space. Cotton-wool cylinders, looking for all the world like oversized cigarette ends, were fitted into a hollow space in the inner end of the holder. One end of the cotton (coloured red) has been soaked in Potassium Nitrate, and when heated by the first compression-stroke ignites and serves as an ignition "hot-spot". For some reason the "cigarettes", vital for starting these French engines, are only made in Germany. I imagine the company is old, and small - I have one of the tins, which I treasure, as a tobacco-tin. It is red and yellow - "Zünd-Fix - Diesel Selbstzünder", and inside one can see that it has been made from recuperated tin-plate, printed for peppermint jujubes...

So, if the engine wouldn't start after two tries, not unheard of, there was no more air... Embarrassing at quay, dangerous at sea...The emergency starter was a cylinder about the size of a coffee-mug, which also screwed into the first cylinder's cigarette holder. Inside was put a coiled length of "Special film"; no prizes for guessing, the film had cinema perforations along the edges! With the engine barred over to just-after-top-dead-centre, a percussion cap lit the film, and the hot gasses pushed down the piston and threw over the engine.