The Fire Piston
If any of you are like me, interested in survival & preparedness and constantly looking for new ways of fulfilling the essentials of life (Water, Fire & Shelter), this fire making item will undoubtedly be of interest to you. As many of us know, making fire in a survival/emergency situation can be challenging. It is always a good idea to have and master multiple means for making fire when you really need it. So without further ado, I present the fire piston.
A fire piston consists of a hollow cylinder ranging in length from about 3 to 6 inches, having a bore about 0.25 inch in diameter, sealed at one end and open at the other. A piston with an airtight circular seal is fitted into the cylinder. The piston has a handle on the end to allow a firm grip to be applied to it, or a large enough surface area to strike it sharply without causing pain while the cylinder is braced against a hard surface, and it can be completely withdrawn from the cylinder. The piston generally has a notch or recess on or in its face, into which a piece of tinder is placed.
The compression of the air when the piston is quickly rammed into the cylinder causes the interior temperature to rise sharply to somewhere near 500°F. This is hot enough for the tinder on or in the piston face to ignite with a visible flash that can be seen if the cylinder is made of translucent or transparent material. The piston is then quickly withdrawn, before the now-burning tinder depletes the available oxygen inside the cylinder. The smoldering tinder can then be removed from the face of the piston and transferred to a larger nest of fine kindling material. The ember is then fanned or blown upon vigorously to create a flame, at which time various stages of larger kindling can be added until built into a proper fire.
The fire piston works by on the principle of compression. As the pressure of a any gas increases, its temperature increases at the same time. If this compression is done too slowly the heat will dissipate to the surroundings as the gas returns to equilibrium with them. If the compression is done quickly enough then there is no time for equilibrium to be achieved and the temperature of the gas can suddenly become several times that of its surroundings, increasing the original room temperature of the gas to a temperature hot enough to set tinder alight. The air in the cylinder acts both as a source of heat and an oxidizer for the tinder fuel.
This is the same principle that is used in the diesel engine to ignite the fuel in the cylinder rather than the spark plug used in the gasoline engine. The piston of the fire piston is made deliberately narrow so that the force on the piston is not so great as to make it impossible for unaided human strength to compress the air in the cylinder to its fullest extent. To achieve the proper compression ratio, the final compressed volume of the tinder and air must be small relative to that of the length of the piston tube. These two factors together mean that only a tiny amount of tinder can be lit by a fire piston, but this is sufficient to light other tinder, and then to light a larger fire. Material that easily combusts at low temperatures, such as char cloth, work well as tinder in the fire piston. For example, cotton fibers, such as those in char cloth combust at 455 °F and will light in fire pistons.
Fire pistons are nothing new, in fact fire pistons have been used in South East Asia and the Pacific Islands as a means of kindling fire for years. They are found in cultures where the blow pipe is used as a weapon and this suggests they may have developed out of blow pipe construction. Their use has also been reported in Burma, the Malay Peninsula, Indo-China, Borneo, Sumatra, Java, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, the Philippines, Madagascar and South India.
The fire piston became more commonplace after it made its debut in front of scientists in 1802 and then patented in 1807 in both England and France. Fire pistons, or fire syringes as they were called then, were popular household tools throughout Europe during the early nineteenth century until the safety match was invented in 1844. It is rumored that the fire piston may have even inspired Rudolf Diesel in his creation of the diesel engine around 1892. Ancient and modern versions of fire pistons have been made from wood, animal horns, antlers, bamboo, or lead. Other metals, such as aluminum or steel are more common in modern versions of fire pistons.
Here is a great demonstration video on how to use the fire piston:
So there you have it, another unique and fascinating means to produce fire. I really must get one of these fire pistons soon to play with.
Instructor William Green
ECCE·EGO·MITTE·ME
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Elite Training Center
1601 Pacific Coast Highway, Suite 170
Hermosa Beach, CA 90254
(310) 376-0500
www.elitetrainingcenter.net
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The Fire Piston
The Fire Piston
