Very much reminds me of the stories of my dad how they'd have to start really big bulldozers back in the day of draining german marshes. You'd first hand-crank

Very much reminds me of the stories of my dad how they'd have to start really big bulldozers back in the day of draining german marshes. You'd first hand-crank a small generator to fill up a small battery for the electric starter motor. Once the battery is sufficiently full, you'd engage the starter motor, which in turn spins up a flywheel at higher torque than the crank could. Once that flywheel was up to a certain amount of speed and momentum, you'd engage that with the main crankshaft of the big old engine and hope it had enough power to push the big engine through one or two strokes. That's what it needed to start running on its own. Otherwise you'd have to start over. Big machines and complex startup machines are surprisingly fascinating.