how a Roman man in my column two weeks ago made a motor cycle run when it was upside down, 1 am at a loss for an answer. Mark Twain (if I remember rightly) ridiculed the suggestion that a barge could sail as rapidly along a canal in an uphill direction as downhill towards the sea. For, as he pointed out, sailing uphill would be sailing against the current.
I will not venture to suggest any comparison between Mr. Leeming's argument and Mark Twain's, as I believe Mark Twain's was fallacious. But I would point out that at that time in Rome, which was during sanctions, various substitutes or products were used in Italy for, or as well as, petrol. Would it not be possible that this sanction-petrol should have been drawn up from the petrol tank into the engine by capillary attraction?
Perhaps some reader may be able to cast light on this question.