Were fire pistons known in the Stone Age or are they more recent?
Thanks,
Rob
This site lists some resources that include history of the device (toward the bottom, under “Further information”). The article doesn’t mention anything prior to the 19th century, but does indicate it was found in stone-age cultures of that time.
That is about all I was able to find on the device on my own, but I am just a schlub.
Rob
The origins of the firepiston are just as murky as of other primitive firelighting methods. There are no ancient examples of firepistons anywhere yet their wide geograpical distribution hints at a much longer history than the 200 years or so Europeans have known about them.
Having built fire pistons I’d say it’s extremely unlikely stone age peoples made them. The various firepiston-wielding H-G tribes of SE Asia were iron age folks, using metal tools (and casting) to craft the pistons. The theory of firepistons being derived in the 1500’s from small, muzzle-loading boat cannons (a tightly-fitting ramrod accidentally igniting gunpowder residue) seems plausible to me.
Depends. Was bamboo available? Speculation is that fire pistons were developed accidentally while trying to clean out bamboo for other purposes. I can’t think of any other natural material that provides the combination of naturally occurring hollow tubes and strength. I’ve tried making fire pistons with modern tools and it’s really hard to get it working right – the tolerances are pretty fine.
My completely uninformed guess would be that if fire pistons were known in paleolithic times, the knowledge must have been lost or you would have seen them in fairly wide use during recorded history in places like China where bamboo thrives.
I was under the impression that their use was fairly wide spread in SE Asia. I was mainly asking because I was wondering if anyone produced field expedient fire pistons or if was something that required more advanced tooling.
Thanks,
Rob