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Re: FW: FW: Synthetic Oil

To: Steve Laifman <SLaifman@SoCal.RR.com>
Subject: Re: FW: FW: Synthetic Oil
From: Marc James Small <msmall@roanoke.infi.net>
Date: Tue, 04 Sep 2001 17:06:52 -0400
At 01:50 PM 9/4/01 -0700, Steve Laifman wrote:
>
>Now I have hear many rationalizations for a bit of imbibing, but THAT
>one tops them all.  I'll bet the RAF actually believed it, and included
>French Brandy in the mess kits.

Almost all WWI aircraft were powered by rotary (NOT radial!) engines -- the
engine spun about, bolted to the propeller, while the crankshaft was bolted
to the airplane, the opposite of what came to be the rule in the 1920's and
afterwards.  These engines used castor oil as their lubricating medium and
spewed forth a fine mist of the stuff.  If you examine pictures of WWI
aviators on return from a mission, they normally have a light glowing coat
of oil everywhere save for their eyes -- the eyes, of course, were covered
by goggles.  (If they had fired their guns, a grey coating of burned
gunpowder would also show on their faces.)

And, yes, the medical literature of the era speaks in detail of
counteracting the purgative effects of the castor oil.  It wasn't only a
perceptual problem:  the various high commands were concerned about it, as
well as were the pilots.

Marc

msmall@roanoke.infi.net  FAX:  +540/343-7315
Cha robh b`s fir gun ghr`s fir!

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