The old Field Marshall tractors used to have a cartridge start, a 12 bore cartridge minus shot inserted in a holder and struck with a mallet. They had one on the farm where my grandad worked. Once started in the morning the engine was never stopped all day.
We used to have and Aveling Barford calf dozer (a mini bulldozer in year sgone by) It had an 800cc single cylinder dorman petrol engine.. Starting procedure was turn on the fuel at the tap under the gravity feed fuel tank, prime the carb (for a cold start also move the choke lever), switch on the ignition, insert the crank handle and make sure it is engaged and then hold down the decompression lever and swing the handle as hard as you can once the engine is turning over at a reasonable speed (so that the magneto can produce a spark) let go of the decompressor and away it would go.
The photo below shows it with the bucket on the front
Peter