France—On December 29, 1802, M. Mollet, professor of physics in the Central School at Lyons, announced to the Institute of France that he had noticed that tinder could be ignited by placing a small piece of it in a narrow channel into which air is condensed by means of a tight fitting “pump.” On the strength of this announcement, Mollet was credited as the discoverer of the Tachypyrion (an instrument for producing fire by compression of air).

As often happens, the actual discovery was not made by Mollet at all, but rather by an unnamed workman in a small gun factory near Lyons when he observed a “luminous appearance” caused by the discharge from an air gun in the dark. He also found that tinder could be ignited from the great amount of heat generated by charging an air gun with an ordinary compression pump. The workman is said to have communicated this discovery to Mollet, who in turn reported it.

So the actual “discoverer” of the principle in France was a workman, and not a scientist. In fact, the details of the discovery were not understood by the French scientists, who were inclined to discredit them. Nevertheless, very soon after Mollet’s report, the experiment with the air-compression pump was repeated by others and became a common one in laboratories where fire pistons were specially made for that purpose. They were usually made from brass cylinders, closed at the lower end and very accurately bored or gauged. Some were made of glass so the experiment could be easily seen. The glowing tinder was then used to light a sulphured match.

Not only was this principle adapted for scientific illustration, but it was also applied to domestic use not long after scientific interest had been aroused, although it is not known who developed the fire piston for practical purposes.

On January 1, 1803 the editors of the French Bibliotheque Britannique wrote to a Mr. Tilloch in England who was associated with the Philosophical Magazine, to announce Mollet’s “discovery” and stating that the phenomenon had never been noticed before. But sources in the scientific community affirmed that the flash from an air gun had, in fact, been known for some time in England and was mentioned nearly a year and a half previously by a Mr. Fletcher at a meeting for philosophical experiments as a “curious phenomenon which deserved investigation.” At the time no one could explain the cause of the phenomenon, which had been accidentally noticed and had not been arrived at by scientific experiment. Thus the first observation of the physical effect was credited to an Englishman sometime around the middle of 1801.

England—In England physicists knew that heat and cold could be produced by the mechanical condensation and rarefaction of gases because a paper on the subject was read by John Dalton in the year 1800, giving the results of experiments.

And in the year 1807, Richard Lorentz patented “an instrument for producing instantaneous fire” in England. His drawings and the specifications he listed are as follows:

The illustration shows the construction of my machine or instrument for producing instantaneous fire. A represents the cap or head of a staff or stick, having therein a cavity or space for containing the prepared fungus known by the name of German tinder, or for containing common tinder of rags, or any other very combustible substance. C is the outer end of the rod of a syringe, which works by a piston in the upper part of the staff and by a stroke of about twelve inches forces the common air with great velocity and in an highly condensed state through a small aperture against the combustible matter included in the head B,A, which is well screwed on against a shoulder or face armed with a collar of leather. B is the hole for admitting common air when the piston is drawn quite back. The manner of working consists simply in pressing the end of the rod of the charged syringe strongly against the ground so as to drive the air suddenly on the tinder, and the cap A being without loss of time unscrewed, the tinder is found to be on fire.

Lorentz’ patented fire piston is different from those used in laboratories in one important aspect. In the lab models, the air is merely compressed in the bottom of the cylinder, whereas in Lorentz’s machine the air is not only compressed by the drive of the piston rod, but it is also forced under high pressure through a minute duct. Thus, the term fire “syringe” seems to be more suitable. It is possible that the air, already heated by compression, gains additional heat from the friction caused as it passes through the small duct.

However, “duct-less” fire pistons seemed to have been more popular during the early 1800s. In the Mechanics Magazine, (Vol. XVII,1832, p. 328) the following passage submitted by E J. Mitchell occurs: (fig. 2, pl. I.)

The following is a sketch of a simple instrument for obtaining a light. A,B is a brass cylinder, similar in appearance to a small brass cannon, having the hole rather better than three-eights of an inch in diameter, drilled true. C,D is the form of a piston to work in the cylinder, but unpacked. E,F is the same ready packed with thick leather and fitted up for use.H is a circular brass nut, working against the screw to keep the packing tight. K is a small hook, fastened in a hole drilled through the nut. H. C is the handle to the piston and is made of wood.

The method of use is described as follows: “prepare some thin cotton rag (the older and thinner the better) by steeping it in a solution of saltpeter and drying it in a warm oven: tear a small piece off and place it on the hook K introduce the piston ef into the cylinder A,B a short distance only, then take the cylinder in the right hand. Place it perpendicular upon the floor or a table and strike the handle E with the ball of the right hand so that the piston may rapidly descent to the bottom of ab and being suddenly withdrawn, the tinder will be found on fire, and will light a common brimstone match or tinder which may be obtained at any of the principal druggists, but I prefer the rag steeped in saltpeter. -E J.M.

The magazine’s editor added that “the invention, though not new, is very well known on the Continent by the name of the ‘instantaneous light-giving syringe’.”

Although a number of simple fire pistons can be found in museums and private collections, according to Dr. Henry Balfour, curator of the Pitt-Rivers Museum in Oxford, none of the screw-type syringe models have been preserved.

In 1893, Rudolph Diesel used these same principles to develop the diesel engine.

Asian—Surmising that the oriental fire piston was invented independently by the relatively primitive peoples in some parts of Asia, we can only speculate as to how they might have discovered this highly specialized method of producing fire.

One theory is that the fire piston could have been derived from the pestle and mortar commonly used throughout Indo-China and the Malayan areas for crushing the betel nut or chavica leaves. Apparently there is a very strong resemblance between the fire piston and some of the small mortar and pestle specimens. In fact, according to some sources, examples in the British Museum are so similar to some of the Bornean fire pistons that it is hard to tell the difference.

Two English explorers in Indonesia around 1900, W.W. Skeat and Nelson Annandale, saw a fire piston in regular use in the most northerly of what was then the Siamese-Malay states. They reported the Siamese name of the fire piston was “lek phai tok” while the Malayan name was “gobi api.” The word “gobek” is usually applied to the piston (pestle and mortar) used for crushing betel leaves; “api” in Malayan means “fire.” The tinder was called “rabok” which is usually obtained from the leaf bases of the tykas palm (Caryota griffithii), and was also known to come from rattan. According to Mr. Annandale “it (the fire piston) was mainly used for lighting cigarettes in the jungle, as the spark was not easily extinguished by high winds.”