Puffing billy/American burner

[stotRE]

Does any ex-squaddie/serving squaddie remember the puffing billys.(I think that on the G1098 schedules they were called American burners)

They were the oil burners that fitted into a metal dustbin so that you could boil water.

I'm after one or plans to build my own or if anybody still has access to one a couple of photos to jog my memory.

As i remember the bottom was like a pipe donut that had a chimney stack coming out of it and i think that the stack looked like the letter 'j'.

Is this right?

I have searched the net but to no avail.

 

[Goose]

They burn petrol not oil!
Used them a few times,here is the stuff I remember.
The bottom bit is a through pipe, it goes down around and back up to a chimney.
There is a fuel reservoir at the top which drips petrol to the chamber at the bottom, the heat causes a draught which drags in the air and the petrol burns with a roar(venturi effect?)exhausting through the chimney.
at the base of the chimney is a gap that a preheater, a dish with a wick, moves into.
You filled the preheater with the dripping petrol then lit the preheater and moved it into the chimney.
Allow the petrol to drip into the bottom of the pipe where it catches light and the draught causes it to catch light from the preheater(sometimes!) from the preheater, usually with a bit of a bang!Or usually drop a match in!
The roaring petrol air mix around the bottom of the pipe heats it up which acts as an element heating your dustbin full of water, pretty effectively!
The fuel tank was pretty substantial the flow was controlled by a valve on the top which allowed air in.

THE PROPER ONES ARE PRETTY SCARY TO USE
I WOULDN'T GO WITHIN ABOUT 500M OF A HOMEMADE ONE!!!!!!!

 

[11binf]

hey stotRE : in the U.S. ARMY they are called ( heaters, immersion) liquid fuel.....back in the day they were used to clean messkits of troops after eating chow in the field....now indays messkits are not used anymore by the active army, they use disposable paper plates and plastic flatwear...the heaters now only being used by the (spoons)ie...cooks to clean thier kitchen equipment....in all my years in the INFANTRY i can'nt remember a time we used or carried the messkit in the field or otherwise,but they were issued along with your other ta-50 items.....vince g.11b inf....

 

[stotRE]

They burn petrol not oil!
Used them a few times,here is the stuff I remember.
The bottom bit is a through pipe, it goes down around and back up to a chimney.
There is a fuel reservoir at the top which drips petrol to the chamber at the bottom, the heat causes a draught which drags in the air and the petrol burns with a roar(venturi effect?)exhausting through the chimney.
at the base of the chimney is a gap that a preheater, a dish with a wick, moves into.
You filled the preheater with the dripping petrol then lit the preheater and moved it into the chimney.
Allow the petrol to drip into the bottom of the pipe where it catches light and the draught causes it to catch light from the preheater(sometimes!) from the preheater, usually with a bit of a bang!Or usually drop a match in!
The roaring petrol air mix around the bottom of the pipe heats it up which acts as an element heating your dustbin full of water, pretty effectively!
The fuel tank was pretty substantial the flow was controlled by a valve on the top which allowed air in.

THE PROPER ONES ARE PRETTY SCARY TO USE
I WOULDN'T GO WITHIN ABOUT 500M OF A HOMEMADE ONE!!!!!!!

Yeah thats the one mate.
They ran on kero didn't they.

I remember when i was in Kosovo and we were based at Pristina airport with the RAF(remf's).
They use to laugh at us sappers but they soon changed their tune when we had hot showers and they were doing the 'samurai challenge'.

The pre heater is something that i completly forgot about.

Looks like i'll have to trawl the net or get out my drawing board

Cheers!

P:S: hurrah for the CRE!

 

[stotRE]

hey stotRE : in the U.S. ARMY they are called ( heaters, immersion) liquid fuel.....back in the day they were used to clean messkits of troops after eating chow in the field....now indays messkits are not used anymore by the active army, they use disposable paper plates and plastic flatwear...the heaters now only being used by the (spoons)ie...cooks to clean thier kitchen equipment....in all my years in the INFANTRY i can'nt remember a time we used or carried the messkit in the field or otherwise,but they were issued along with your other ta-50 items.....vince g.11b inf....

Get them up and running mate as they are the dogs nuts when your on exercise
Looks like i'll have to do a google for any surplus ones in the states.

cheers mate and are you still serving?
If you are be careful mate in Iraq and louisiana.

 

[Goose]

They definitiely ran on petrol, 100% sure on that one.
The were brilliant, just a bit of a bugger to light first thing when you were half asleep! Everyone used to retire to a safe distance till they settled down

 

[stotRE]

They definitiely ran on petrol, 100% sure on that one.
The were brilliant, just a bit of a bugger to light first thing when you were half asleep! Everyone used to retire to a safe distance till they settled down

Hence the name.
It was a billys job to light them!

I remember hauling them out of the G10 everytime we went on exercise/deployment as this was the only time they where used.
Such a simple idea,first time i saw one being used i was well impressed.

Oil keeps popping into my head because we probably used two stroke fuel (probably because it was there at the time for the cobra breaker).

 

[den]

Ha forgot about the puffin billy. Had many a laugh watching people light them with a bang. Good though for how simple they were. I'm 100% sure to that they run on petrol.

 

[leon-1]

We used them on the health and hygiene courses in Ash Vale (as well as on exercise when they tended to make appearances at HQ's). If I can ever find my notes (from 1987) there was a picture in one of the handbooks and a reasonable explanation as to how they work. If I can't then it may be worth getting in touch with the RAMC or the local TA unit.

If I recall correctly, it was a big tube attached to the side of a galvanised/metal dustbin, The top half was a chimney, the centre was a fuel reservoir that had a drip feed that you could control and the bottom was a flash pan.

You lit the flash pan with a small amount of fuel in it and then regulated the fuel reservoir to drip at regular intervals (hence the puffing) giving a flash at regular intervals, thus heating the metal wall and the water.

If you got it wrong you ran because there was a chance that they could blow (so the puffing could well of been the guy that messed up when he lit it).

Yep I can't recall using them with anything other than petrol, I may be wrong as it is a long time since I used one, but as I say I can only remember using them with petrol.

 

[Goose]

Have googled them and no mention any where, apart from a description, "A TOW tube in a dustbin"! Very apt especially when they go out and have to be relit!
STAND CLEAR FIRING THE HOLE!

 

[george]

I've made a numbe of stoves that sound as if they run the same as this one. But they definately run on oil - not petrol!

Easiest is to dig a trench about 50cm deep by 50cm wide by about a metre long. Get an old hubcap and place it in the middle stuffed full of rags. Two lengths of angle iron run from the ends of the trench (one from each end) and meet in the middle above the hubcap about 20cm.

One jerry can at either end - the type with a tap on the bottom one filled with old heating oil or even vegetable oil. The other filled with water. Run some oil onto the rags in the hubcap by opening up the tap and letting it run along the angle iron channel until it runs off the end and fills the hubcap.

Set fire to the rags in the hubcap and let it heat up till its almost red hot. Open the taps on the jerry cans until there is a constant drip of fuel coming down from the angle iron into the hubcap and flashing into vapour do the same with the can of water though you need to get the mix right (as I recall it is about one drip of water for two of oil.)

If the rags are still burning when you start the flow then the fuel will light immediately, if not you will have to light it - be careful. Play about wih the flow of fuel and water and soon you will have a roaring flame that flashes up as the fuel hits the hubcap. IIRC the vapourising water helps the oil burn more fully and you get less smoke than with pure oil.

Put a piece of steel plate over the centre 70cm of the pit leaving a gap at either end for air flow or cut the top off an old oil drum (one that hasn't had any nasties in it) put the drum on top of the trench and fill it with water. You'll soon boil an oil drum full of water or get the steel plate glowing red hot.

Remember they DO NOT USE PETROL!

George

 

[Goose]

I remember seeing a design for a similar one as yuo describe george, I think the water boils and makes the oil/diesel bubble so it burns hotter, like why you don't tip water on a chip pan fire.
Another one is a sand box soaked in petrol,a bengahzi burner.

 

[Phil562]

They are still used, the nickname we have for them is "lazy-man"

If you google that you get a couple of references.

If you want digi phots of various parts give me a PM and I will chat to my SQMS to drag one out of the G10.

 

[stotRE]

I remember seeing a design for a similar one as yuo describe george, I think the water boils and makes the oil/diesel bubble so it burns hotter, like why you don't tip water on a chip pan fire.
Another one is a sand box soaked in petrol,a bengahzi burner.

I have used a bengahzi burner before,using an RCK box(rapid cratering kit)filled with sand and petrol and they are quite a good idea.
My grandad use to do the same when he was fighting the hun in libya.

 

[BlueTrain]

Goodness, does this take me back. But I am dismayed that the army no longer uses mess kits in the field. What do you fry your bacon in? Are there still mess sergeants and army cooks?

I've never seen one of them in any surplus store but none of the ones I frequent (in the U.S.) every carry anything like that. Very unusual things now and then but nothing like that.

I first thought you were referring to a space heater, which also burned gasoline. You used them to heat larger tents. The fuel was fed from a 5-gallon jerrycan, which stayed outside the tent. They probably weren't suitable for cooking and I have no idea what the official nomenclature was (or is).

Another point is, exactly what kind of fuel were these (both the immersion heater and the space heater) intended to use. What I am wondering is what kind of gasoline does the army use in most of the vehicles, besides diesel, and would diesel work? (I never quite understood what "mogas" was.)

 

[Goose]

Petrol is english for Gasoline

 

[spamel]

Puffing Billys are still in G10's, ours is in good nick, but the chimney sections always get squashed. We used them to heat our water in Titov Veles, Macedonia, around the same time you were at Petrovac. Some bugger used to go around at night and turn the fuel taps on so that the unlucky guy in the morning would take his face off when he tried lighting them

I was at Ploce camp in Croatia around '95, before moving up to Mount Igman overlooking Sarajevo. Our puffing Billy and the Water carriage pack APE kit provided us with the only hot shower in the camp, and it was powered by the semi rotary pump from the APE kit. I bet you remember that now aswell eh Stotty!!

I have seen them run on pre mixed petrol for the Rigid Raider, but it kicked out loads of smoke, so we had to put neat petrol in, 'cos the QM went ballistic about the enviornment, blah, blah, blah!!

 

[stotRE]

You probably met my twin brother Stoddy who was up mount igman at the time doing the old laser target designating with the scallie backs.

 

[stoddy]

aaarrgh flashbacks!!!

Ploce Death Camp!!

Were you the guys who made the showers in the cattle shed!! we nick named them "Schindlers!!"

I was attached to the legion up Igman, doing the Laser Target Marking for the Crabs.

were you with 51 engineers?

did you know the SSM who wore his ranger badge?
he looked a right hard nut .

he ripped a shred off one of our rodneys.

 

[Goose]

Translations by request...........