Don Foreman wrote in
news
On Fri, 21 Jan 2005 16:07:06 -0800, Frank J Warner
wrote:

I see that most fire pistons are made from wood, horn, bone or plastic.
I did not, in my travels on the web, see any made of metal. Is there a
reason for that?

I'm guessing it's because the metal would chill the air heated by
compression. If it were big enough and compressed fast enough it'd
probably work OK. Diesel engines are fire pistons!


In a way yes they are, but don't they need a battery to work, as in 'glow
plugs'?
A fire piston on the other hand uses compression alone to ignite the tender
which is for instance a bit of charred cotton cloth, or something of that
nature.
IMHO it is because these are examples of primitive fire making tools that
they aren't normally made out of metal, not that it wouldn't work.

granpaw