[Richard Farrant]

Originally Posted by Chris Suslowicz

Hmm... I wonder if that was also the 'swarf' that my grandfather used to light his incinerator with in the 1960s? (Silvery metal chips that burned white-hot and would get a fire going with even wet garden waste. I suspect he got them from T.A.Savery in Bracebridge St where he worked - they made equipment for the aircraft industry, etc.)

Many years ago my neighbour told me how he worked as a machinist at Dunlop during WW2 making aircraft wheels from magnesium (elektron) and he said you only took a large cut on the lathe once as the swarf would then catch alight and the only way to put it out was a bucket of sand ...... then you have to clean the lathe.

I remember at school they had magnesium tape and set it alight in a jar, made a brilliant light.