Steve Jackson Games Forums - View Single Post - 1980s American Cars, Guns, Gadgets and Consumer Goods [Atmosphere, look, minutiae]

Curmudgeon · 04-02-2016, 11:52 AM

While the dangers of CO poisoning inside a tent or other enclosed area may be somewhat over-stated, there are very real, very probable, dangers that civilians may run into [the military generally has SOPs on these points].

First, the enclosed area needs to be well-ventilated while the stove (or lantern) is on and that doesn't mean rolling the window down a crack, it means rolling the window all the way down.

Second, while CO build-up is a potential problem if you keep the stove or lantern going, especially if you go to sleep, so is the flame going out, which will fill the area with fuel fumes. [Keep a stove/lantern watch and turn them off if there isn't anyone to watch them. You'll wake up if it gets really cold and can then relight the stove/lantern.]

Third, NEVER, NEVER, EVER light the stove/lantern inside. Do your lighting outside. If the stove flares up [lantern flares are less likely] and there's usually a better than 50% of an initial flare-up in cold weather, you can easily set fire to your area, starting with the roof. In a tent [the canvas, floorless type that the military used], the rule of thumb was that you had ten seconds to escape the tent from the time it caught fire before being burned to death was inevitable. Most soldiers slept with a sheath knife that was unsnapped, so they could grasp it, reach out of their sleeping bag, cut a slit in the tent wall and slide out against just that possibility.

Cooking inside a tent was normally restricted to floorless tents. People with any experience of winter camping usually carried a piece of plywood along as well, either one just an inch or two larger than the stove and a similar one for the lantern or sometimes a single board for both. It's secondary use was to provide a stable base when pressed down in the snow for the stove and lantern to rest on. Coleman stoves have a large (about an inch or 25mm) hole in the bottom for drainage and the primary use of the board is to keep meltwater from the snow under the stove from getting in.

Perhaps surprisingly, the recommended emergency heating system for cars stranded in a blizzard in Canada wasn't a stove at all but a dozen or two dozen candles, each about an inch in diameter and about six inches high with a 1" high metal candle cup. Each candle was expected to last about six hours before being consumed and two candles, one for the backseat and one up front were enough to keep the entire car at a cozy temperature, even with one or two leeside windows opened a crack.

04-02-2016, 11:52 AM	#205
Curmudgeon Join Date: Sep 2011	Re: 1980s American Cars, Guns, Gadgets and Consumer Goods [Atmosphere, look, minutiae While the dangers of CO poisoning inside a tent or other enclosed area may be somewhat over-stated, there are very real, very probable, dangers that civilians may run into [the military generally has SOPs on these points]. First, the enclosed area needs to be well-ventilated while the stove (or lantern) is on and that doesn't mean rolling the window down a crack, it means rolling the window all the way down. Second, while CO build-up is a potential problem if you keep the stove or lantern going, especially if you go to sleep, so is the flame going out, which will fill the area with fuel fumes. [Keep a stove/lantern watch and turn them off if there isn't anyone to watch them. You'll wake up if it gets really cold and can then relight the stove/lantern.] Third, NEVER, NEVER, EVER light the stove/lantern inside. Do your lighting outside. If the stove flares up [lantern flares are less likely] and there's usually a better than 50% of an initial flare-up in cold weather, you can easily set fire to your area, starting with the roof. In a tent [the canvas, floorless type that the military used], the rule of thumb was that you had ten seconds to escape the tent from the time it caught fire before being burned to death was inevitable. Most soldiers slept with a sheath knife that was unsnapped, so they could grasp it, reach out of their sleeping bag, cut a slit in the tent wall and slide out against just that possibility. Cooking inside a tent was normally restricted to floorless tents. People with any experience of winter camping usually carried a piece of plywood along as well, either one just an inch or two larger than the stove and a similar one for the lantern or sometimes a single board for both. It's secondary use was to provide a stable base when pressed down in the snow for the stove and lantern to rest on. Coleman stoves have a large (about an inch or 25mm) hole in the bottom for drainage and the primary use of the board is to keep meltwater from the snow under the stove from getting in. Perhaps surprisingly, the recommended emergency heating system for cars stranded in a blizzard in Canada wasn't a stove at all but a dozen or two dozen candles, each about an inch in diameter and about six inches high with a 1" high metal candle cup. Each candle was expected to last about six hours before being consumed and two candles, one for the backseat and one up front were enough to keep the entire car at a cozy temperature, even with one or two leeside windows opened a crack.