Last crusade ? (1 Viewer)

[Tyler Gagnon]

When Indy is in the canals in venice he says they are standing in petroleum and that he should sink a well down here and retire, He lights a torch and ua can clearly see drops of flaming ash fall in the petro...Nothing happens..Then along comes the bad guy lights a match and the thing ignites in a second..And would they also be able to swim in it with there eyes open, Am i missing something? And for that matter would not the fumes ignite? Not an expert on this stuff but the whole thing is hard to except. I am sure this has been discussed here before, I just watched it again with my son and he ask me this same question. Maybe there is an petro expert who has an answer.

 

[Don Solosan]

I always thought the idea was that the petroleum is floating on the surface of water, so they're able to swim with their eyes open. But yes, they do cheat. Flames fall from the torch but don't ignite the petroleum. The fumes don't ignite either. Since this is a movie, the petroleum ignites precisely when the story requires that it ignite!

 

[Jeff Gatie]

Not necessarily cheating. It all depends on the flash point of the liquid and the surface heat of the flame or ash. The show "Mythbusters" had a segment on this a few weeks ago in which they threw lit cigarettes into gasoline to show it is almost impossible to light gasoline with a lit cigarette. The ashy end does not get hot enough to ignite the gas and it goes out as if dropped in water, while open flame ignites it easily. If I recall, the petroleum in IJ:TLC was not even refined gasoline, so it would be even harder to ignite with anything but an open flame.

 

[Shawn_KE]

Another cheat is how Indy's satchel strap get around the blown and splayed end of the tank gun.