Field Marshal tractors used a blank shotgun cartridge to start. Turn to near TDC, unscrew holder & insert cartridge & screw down again. Insert lighted taper & hit cartridge with a hammer. Job done.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEurohAwrmA That's amazing - I'd never heard of this before.
The
Coffman engine starter, also used on aero engines. Famously appears in the the 1965 film
The Flight of the Phoenix where air crash survivors rebuild their wrecked pane but have only three available cartridges to get the engine running.
~iw
And again in 2004 version starring Dennis Quaid. Very dramatic when he uses the penultimate catridge just to clear fuel from flooded cylinders.
I suspect even a shotgun cartridge detonating would be a softer blow than that of ether though.
