New Way to Make Fire – Actually Very Old Way
Sometimes 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.
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.
Link (To more photos of Firepistons on a different site)
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Posted: August 31st, 2006 under science, technology.
Tags: boyles law, fire piston, physics, technology
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