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New Way to Make Fire - Actually Very Old Way

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Link to website with photos of firepistonsSometimes when writing for this blog, I come across something that’s totally new yet has been around yonks. Like a way to start a fire with compressed air!

This isn’t a new thing, it’s called a Fire piston - a cylinder with a place for a piece of wood at the end. it was patented in England in 1807 and several native tribes also developed it. Fire pistons can be made of wood, plastic or metal.

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How does it work? Basically it just compress a volume of air and the temperature obeys Boyle’s law and rises to around 400 degrees C, enough to light the wood. There’s a nice animation here.

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Link (To more photos of Firepistons on a different site)

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