Chronology Current Month Current Thread Current Date
[Year List] [Month List (current year)] [Date Index] [Thread Index] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Prev] [Date Next]

Re: Fire syringe?




Greetings everyone. I was talking to a fellow teacher who had
just returned from his hiking out West. He was telling me of someone who
he had met while on one of his hikes that had a device that he called
either a fire syringe or fire plunger. He couldn't quite remember
exactly how it worked, but he thought the fellow put some bark fibers at
the end of the "plunger". He then placed the "plunger" into a hole where
he quickly forced it down and pulled it back up. The fire tender was
supposedly burning which he quickly transfered to his kindling to get his
camp fire burning.
Can anyone tell me if there is such a device? If so, how does it
work? Can they be made? Is there some flint and steel device inside of
it or piezolectric(sp?) crystal used in some grill lighters. From what
was told to me, there was just the "plunger" and the hole. I know if it
is a tight fit and the pressure is increased enough, the temperature will
increase (as experienced while pumping up a bike tire), but can it be
high enough to cause combustion? If so, I have to see it to believe it.
Any information would be greatly apprecaited.

Thanks,
Dwight Souder
dsouder@juno.com
Ashland, OH



Here in Physics Dept. at Purdue (lecture demonstration) we have
a similar device. The principle is to increase the temperature by
quick (adiabatic) compresstion of the air. When the plunger is pushed
quickly the temperature of the sample in the tube increases to a
very high valule igniting the material. If you do not push the plunger
quickly it does not work and the sample is not ignited.

V. K. saxena