Saving Old Seagulls

So what exactly was it back in say 1963?

I have had zero joy in finding out anything (remotely relevant) so perhaps the answers for me will be below replies?

1963 BSA Power Unit (had it for years) dragged out and full service. Runs kinda perfect.

It has both petrol and paraffin jet specs.

I do not plan to use this fuel but would be thankful for any info here'


B

I think the use of paraffin as a fuel was driven by the different tax regimes for heating vs motor fuel. I recall as a small child in the 1960's that we had an old "Valor" portable paraffin stove which was moved from room to room as needed (before central heating). I remember it being an essential in heating up our cold bathroom before bath time in winter! I also recall paraffin lamps for when we had power cuts. I have a vague memory of a small vehicle visiting our street weekly, dispensing paraffin from a bowser for all the heaters and lamps. I also remember the special container we used to collect it in - like this one https://classiccampstoves.com/threads/v ... ner.20074/

The gold standard was of course Esso Blue paraffin advertised with the jingles "They asked me how I knew, it was Esso Blue, I of course replied, with other grades one finds, smoke gets in your eyes", and "boom boom boom boom, Esso Blue", which my father used to sing at the drop of a hat.

When we moved to a bigger house in 1971 we found an old Lister or Petter single cylinder stationary engine at the bottom of the garden which was belt-coupled to a large circular saw for log cutting. My father, who worked for Mirrlees Blackstone, a marine diesel engine manufacturer which was part of Hawker Siddeley which also owned Lister and Petter at that time, restored it, got it running and eventually sold it. It was a dual fuel engine - it had to be started on (expensive) petrol, and then when warmed up you would switch to the cheaper paraffin.

A quick look at wikipedia brings up "power kerosene" as an Australian English term for "tractor vaporising oil", a form of paraffin where its octane rating was boosted by additives so it was more directly substitutable for petrol. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tractor_vaporising_oil

There was a Kingfisher paraffin model that was designed for the Asian market, but I've never seen one & I can't remember where I read about it.

Just to add to the discussion;
In the 1960s my father and I re-purposed a Villiers two stroke power unit, from an Atco motor mower, to drive a home made gocart. When pocket money was running low I would walk to the local petrol station and fill a can with paraffin from a fantastic pump that had a 1 gallon glass vessel on top. You pumped the handle until this vessel was full then drained it into your can.
To use the paraffin in the gocart I would put just a tiny amount of petrol/oil mixture in the tank, get the thing started and once it was warmed up I filled the tank with paraffin/oil mixture for an hours worth of cheap carting!
At the time I believe petrol (2*) was about 7 shillings (35p) a gallon but the paraffin was about half the price.
Happy days .

Cheers, Mark

I found the kingfisher paraffin reference in the QB service manual “Lit13” available from sheridans.

Note the twin tank arrangement and the mention of a dual float chamber carburettor in the “normal operation” section.