propelling charge was lowered down the pipe and tamped down with dry soil before being connected to a firing point about away. Firing required the current delivered by a 120 V battery. Private Harold Wimshurst later recalled: A non-safety fougasse could be built by simply burying the propelling charge behind the fuel drum and running leads through the soil. Instructions for several variants of this design were published but this construction increases the hazard because the leads would have to be left exposed on the surface and any electrical current applied could, theoretically, ignite the charge. Also, underground moisture could also easily ruin the charge over an extended period of time. The safety fougasse design had the advantage that without the propelling charge the fougasse was sufficiently safe that it did not require a guard. Banks records that installing the charge only when there was clear danger relatively close at hand was a safety feature required to protect the public from accidents. The ammonal used for the main propellant charge is a cheap industrial explosive that is notoriously hygroscopic, becoming less effective when it absorbs moisture. Even though the charge was packed into a rubber bag in a tin and sealed with insulating tape, it would not have been a good idea to store it for long in the damp conditions of a flame fougasse installation. Flame fougasses were camouflaged with a covering of light material such as netting – anything heavier would significantly affect the range. They could easily be merged into hedgerows or the banks of a sunken lane within view of a well-hidden firing point. They were placed where a vehicle would be obliged to stop, or at least slow down. The flame fougasse would offer instant and horrific wounds to any unprotected men caught in its fiery maw and would cause a vehicle engine to stop within seven seconds simply because it was deprived of oxygen (although it would easily start again once the fireball subsided, provided nothing was damaged). British soldier Fred Lord Hilton MM later recalled: Demigasse The demigasse was a simpler variant of the flame fougasse. It was a barrel of petroleum mixture laid on its side with a cocoa tin charge in a shallow pit just below one of the barrel's ridges. On detonation, the barrel would rupture and flip over spilling its contents over an area of about . Left on