[4yearlurker]

I had a old Popular Mechanics magazine from circa 1944 and it had an article “Convert your pick-up truck to run on fire wood!” The same issue also had a “build a fold out couch in one weekend” article too.

[Rurudyne]

That was probably producer gas, which is a viable way to use many fuels. Unlike furnace combustion of wood, coal etc a producer gas system uses smaller amounts of airflow and thus produces less smoke while ash is more easily capured, not going up the flue (which actually runs through the engine for its fuel).

[ProtectOurFreedom]

There was something going on in 1944 that made gasoline hard to get. Wood was plentiful and was a good fuel. They used pyrolysis to gasify the wood so you could feed the gaseous fuel to your internal combustion engine. (it's hard to feed logs, chips or sawdust through your carburetor).

A bus, powered by wood gas generated by a gasifier on a trailer, Leeds, England c.1943