4 MAY 1996, Page 24

Infernal combustion

The plan for cow-powered electricity, which I reported here last week, seems to have been anticipated by the French inventor Alphonse Allais. His self-propelled Necro- mobile, so I am told, combined the func- tions of a crematorium and a hearse. In this way the dear departed would provide suffi- cient fuel to drive the vehicle forward at a suitably funereal pace. I dare say this would work with cows, too.