Re: Fire syringe?

[James Riley <jriley@lib.drury.edu>]

There not only is such a device but it has been around a very long time.
I understand the australian aborigines used such a device long before
europeans arrived at the continent.  The plunger was activated by placing
the cylinder vertically on a hard surface and then striking the plunger
with a heavy rock to compress the air inside rapidly and therefore
(almost) adiabatically.  The work done on the gas increases the
temperature sufficiently to ignite the tinder inside.

Jim Riley, Department of Physics
Drury College, Springfield MO 65802
e-mail:  jriley@lib.drury.edu
(417) 873-7233

On Thu, 14 Aug 1997 dsouder@juno.com wrote:

> 	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