[Stoves] MANTLE LAMP PHYSICS

[Crispin Pemberton-Pigott]

Dear Friends

Just for the record, I tested the mantle lamp running on alcohol - the 
Britelyt - at ETHOS and it had a CO/CO2 ratio (COr) of 0.05% indicating an 
extremely clean burn.

The small alcohol burner (made from a tin can) that Paul Anderson 
demonstrated, with carefully sized holes and hole orientation, was equally 
clean.  Both have numerous small flames burning in parallel.

This shows that it is not necessary to have a high temperature to burn 
alcohol cleanly.  It also means that to get light, or significant amounts of 
it, one pretty much has to get a high temperature that accidentally, because 
of the porus mantle, creates small flames that burn cleanly.  Or is it the 
high temperature that makes it clean?

A low cost two-burner alcohol burning stove was tested and found to have 
quite high COr which was reduced by 75% merely by lifting the pot up about 
40 mm.  This gave more space for its much longer flames to complete burning.

The main visible difference between the two burner stove and the can is the 
flame length, nothing else.  If the fuel is trying to burn in a flame 
running alongside a cold pot there is a significant difference in the CO 
produced by that condition alone.

Regards
Crispin