Japanese Charcoal Buses

Times of scarcity…

Stanley: I was watching some U.S. films about Japan made in the 30s and 40s. Some of them propaganda. One described Japanese technology. And one of the features was, get this, buses that ran on charcoal.

Hiroshi: Japanese charcoal buses, yeah, there was one featured in a short story by Ibuse Masuji.

Stanley: I remember reading that story. Noriai Jidosha, I think. Ages ago. The bus was so underpowered passengers had to push it up a hill.

Hiroshi: That’s the one. The buses had a gasifier on the back, that converted charcoal, into producer gaswhich was then used to power the engine of the bus.

Stanley: Quite an innovative way to get around petrol shortages.

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Voice-over

Charcoal as a fuel was a temporary solution for running vehicles. Producer gas didn’t yield nearly the same energy as petrol or diesel and the gasifiers needed a lot of maintenance. The buses had lower speeds and limited range. Barely adequate performance. But it was an ingenious fix to a transport problem in resource-scarce times.