We’re now in National Car Donation Month.
Some of today’s vehicle donors are trading out their gas-powered cars and trucks for electric ones.
But EVs aren’t the only alternatives to getting around on gasoline.
For decades, people have been building and driving cars that have been powered by firewood.
It’s probably not a huge surprise to hear this.
Humans use wood to heat our homes, cook food, or even run power plants, so why not also power vehicles with wood too?
These were most common during World War II; people in a number of heavily-forested European countries turned to wood to fuel cars when gas was in short supply for civilians.
There were systems designed in the 1920s that could modify standard combustion engines to work on wood, or, technically, to work on the byproducts of burning wood.
One of the two main differences between these systems and the conventional ones was where the fuel went: instead of filling a tank that’s embedded in the skeleton of the car, a driver would put logs or wood chips into a big external tank that was either installed on the back of the vehicle or on an attached trailer.
That was partly so they didn’t have to re-engineer the cars’ plumbing, and partly to minimize the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning.
The pipes or tubes that ran from those rear tanks eventually connected with the vehicle’s engine to put the energy to use.
There were wood-powered cars, trucks, motorcycles, even buses; when fuel was running low, drivers could stop at wood stations to fill up.
But these countries largely returned to gas-powered driving once gas was available again after the war.
And that brings us to the second big difference: if you’ve ever tried to start a wood fire, you know it often takes time to get it going.
To get one of these generators hot enough to run a car engine could take like ten minutes.
And not a lot of drivers like to wait around when there’s a system that lets them turn their key in the ignition and get going right away.
This Saturday in Milwaukee, it’s the Santa Cycle Rampage!
As rampages go, this one is pretty pleasant: it’s a 12 mile costumed bicycle ride that raises money for charity.
Riders dress as Santa or Mrs. Claus, or maybe one of their reindeer, or elves.
There may even be a Grinch or two.
Wood Gas Vehicles: Cars That Run on Firewood (Amusing Planet)
Santa Cycle Rampage in Milwaukee (Wisconsin Bike Fed)
