Greetings.

I'm in the process of brushing up some survival methods for fires and cooking. While I was looking at my old survival books, I noticed a couple of things that I've never tried personally.

1) The Bengazi Stove
The basic idea is to put some sand into a container, and then pour in some gasoline (petrol). I'm guessing that you only want to add enough gasoline to keep it immersed below the sand level. Then light the gasoline. I've never tried this type of stove - and am naturally a bit cautious about putting a match to a container with gasoline in it. But maybe the sand really does prevent an explosion. Has anybody actually tried out this kind of stove ... got any practical tips?

2) The Oil-Water Fire
Really a brilliant concept because it's so simple. Just drip a combination of water and oil onto a very hot metal plate and the mixture burns with great heat. Or at least that's what the books say. I guess the only drawback is that you need a starter fire to get the metal plate hot at the beginning of the operation. Anybody got any advice on this method? Again, I'v never tried it. It's one of those seems-almost-too-good-to-be-true ideas.

This weekend I'll try to give both of these ideas a practical test in my backyard. Any feedback would be welcome!

Pete, California