Forgotten Adventuring Gear: the Fire Syringe
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- čas přidán 19. 06. 2024
- The Fire Syringe, also called the fire piston, or the fire cylinder, is an amazing piece of adventuring gear to help you start fires easily, and historically.
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Modern fire pistons were introduced to the west from South Pacific sea trade. In the Phillips and, around the late 1500s to early 1600s the o-ring was woven grass with fish oil added.
Damn auto correct. I meant Philippines.
Cool!
That was my thought, some tough absorbent fiber soaked in oil.
@@williammcalexanderjr1834you can edit your original comment if you want
Fish oil? Bet it smelled bad.
The O-ring seal could be made in the same way bagpipe seals are made, waxed threads wrapped tightly at two or three layers around a half inch of the piston.
Thats exactly how traditional ones are made, you just need to carry a bit of extra string and grease as that kind of seal breaks down a bit after a few dozen cycles
@@emilyrobinson6080 A lump of beeswax would be easier to carry than grease and might hold up better. Although, I don't know if it would seal less effectively in extremely cold weather. But I avoid cold weather at all costs.
@@brucetidwell7715 ive tried beeswax actually, its not really great for lubricating this sort of thing. The stub of a tallow candle, a tin/stick of lip balm or similar grease based ointment, even a bit of saliva works better.
@@brucetidwell7715there is a guy on here that made "fixen wax" that should work in my (currently) cold environment with 4 parts beeswax, 2 part lard, 1 part vegetable oil, and 1 part coconut (I think) oil.
Or oakum
You can never have too many ways of making fire honestly, I remember reading modern survival books that talk about these. Very little to wear out/break on this
Leather as a seal is still sometimes used in bicycle pumps, so I would guess it would work in a firepiston as well.
My Coleman camp stove from the 1940s uses leather seals, and the pneumatic windshield wiper motors use a leather gasket
Many air guns also use cork as a seal
Fire pistons were also the basis for the Diesel engine.
I love how every single video that talks about these things has this comment near the top XD
@@ruolbu Well, it is the same principle.
In a RPG: make a fire seringe for a chemist that uses oil as fuel and Works like a small flamethrower (the action check is physical strength rather than intelligence or constitution)
@@anonimoqualquer5503 See Greek fire siphon.
These are fun. I thought they were so cool when I was younger and learned about them I went to the hardware store guys booth at my local flea market and bought a brass tube and brass rod that fit inside the tube snugly to make my own. It works so good and it still works after 12 or so years.
Back when I was a Boy Scout I had a little gadget that was essentially the striker wheel from a lighter, which could start a campfire if used on a piece of cotton or the like...knowing that there are also flammable gels on the market, in a fantasy setting an artificer could basically make a "fire pistol" that could use a syringe-like item to squirt a concoction onto a campfire, then pull the trigger to ignite it with a striker wheel, sorta like a small flamethrower...
Instructions unclear. I have set myself on fire while attempting to administer the syringe.
Next time administer orally. Glad to be of help
Splendid idea!
I seriously thought that you already knew about these! Ok... what I know and tips: it works very similarly to a diesel engine, which is why certain sizes don't work. Some vaseline on the rubber once in a while will extend the life of the o-ring significantly. It can be stored in the same container as the char cloth without fear of lightning anything on fire (by accident), and (less) worry of a piece breaking (flint getting damaged), unlike flint and steel. It is possible to be made at home (excluding o-rings) with few tools. An excellent and fun firestarter even as an emergency backup. I have _heard_ that they can light cigars, cigarettes and pipes, but haven't seen (or looked for) that online, similar to a rope lighter. Yes rawhide was used before rubber (as with most oldschool leather) or woven plant fibers or thread mixed with oils or fats, as well as other things, and _can_ be used, but not recommended, except in an emergency of course: anything to get safe/stay alive is recommended. Some that you can order online can have a screw vent for storing the piston and tube collapsed together, making it harder to accidentally break, while some also have a place in the piston handle to store char cloth.
Behold the power of compression! Praise be the union of fuel and air in glorious ignition!
using it to light a cigarette or cigar is pretty easy. with a pipe, you're gonna want to put a little char cloth on top of the dottle if you're using a hook-type piston, not sure if you'd need to on a cup-type.
It is the same principle as diesel engines, as you compress air, its temperature rises and if you build it right, the temperature raises enough to cause the "fuel" to combust.
After finishing the video, I'm glad that it wasn't just me expecting it to work that way 😂 However, for a D&D version, consider: an actual syringe with a needle, coupled with a small jar of alchemist's fire. You puncture the seal on the jar with the needle exactly like a modern physician administering medicine, but then you squeeze the plunger out in a direction to make a small cone of fire. Instant campfire without requiring any sort of Survival check, and could potentially be used like a one-time use of Burning Hands without expending a spell slot.
The fist time I saw one of these was actually in a survivor man episode. He’s surviving in Alaska, and watching him use it for the first time is both fascinating and entertaining.
That's funny. It's where my mind went as well. Les is pretty awesome.
imagining now someone infiltrating a fortress and creating a fire just with that
Awesome video. I have never heard of a fire syringe before...and at my age, that is saying something.
Leather seal covered with grease (oil, lard, etc.). P.S. I recommend a small amount of silicone grease for O-rings - it does not degrade rubber and has a high flash point (>300 C).
It "just strikes" you as alchemical 😀
You. I like you.
A leather plug on the end that is lubbed with oil or something. Lard, Ideally something with a high flashpoint/smoke point.
However, one of the other reasons that it didn't show up in Europe is that you need a natural material that has tight tolerences. Like bamboo. It IS possible to make it out of other material, but again, the friction pumps that are made out of material like bone or ivery, or fancy wood, would have been a statement piece, a "look at me, I'm rich because I can afford this".
So they show uo in Europe right before the industrial era, because it is now possible to manufacture materials easily with those tolerences. And disapear basically right away, because with the industrial era, they can make chemical matches which are even easier to use.
Kramer: Let's talk about a simple low tech tool to start a fire that isn't a huge pain in the back to use
Everyone: I'm buying the whole stock
i always thought of these as modern, i didnt realize how old they were
seen air pumps from 1400s that used oiled leather for seals, woks great.
You can still get leather o-rings for the plunger of camp lanterns, so leather is a viable choice historically.
Still?! When I was looking for them (7-10 years ago) I could not find them. Then again I couldn't find dip pens 12 years ago online either, only fountain pens. It is good that times have changed.
Wow! I have had noticed that piston was getting hot when I pumped the tyres of my bike, but this kind of usage of this principle blows my mind. (Ah, and by the way, meteors burn in our atmosphere on this reason, not because of friction)
This is how a diesel engine works. There is no spark, it is just air mixed with fuel, compressed until it self ignites.
This is great to know about! It's a cool thing in itself, but it's also something I can use in my writing. In the fantasy setting I'm working on, I'm always looking for ways to demonstrate that one civilization is more technologically or magically advanced than others without saying it outright, and having someone whip out one of these bad boys (and their companions being puzzled by it) is another little thing that I could use to that end.
The King of Random channel has a video about making a clear fire piston. It's super cool seeing it actually catching fire.
I needed this! Im going on a Rangers Apprentice vs. Path of the Ranger treck with a friend! This is excactly what i needed! I'll hopefully do a video on the treck!
Behold the power of compression! Praise be the union of fuel and air in glorious ignition!
Never heard it called anything other than fire piston. I bet calling it a syringe will make some people squeamish. 🤔
As for the seal, I bet in addition to leather you could use wax or oil, or even natural latex or maleable metals. If the tolerances are tight enough, it would probably work fine without a seal, though a little slower.
A copper version with runes engraved on it would be perfect for an alchemist or artificer.
btw, have you ever tried a rope lighter?
Thanks for the upload, Kramer! Happy adventures to all
The most common seal material was Buffalo horn, that was also used in the first air rifles.
Wow this is too cool. Relying solely on the energy created by rapidly compressing the air in they cylinder. That is some next level fire making stuff!
I think it's not the energy added by the movement, but preexisting heat in the air getting concentrated.
That is just really cool, never heard of it before so i was amazed on how it worked.
My birth dad enjoyed traditional camping when he was a bit younger...hiking into the woods with our gear and pitching a tent, all that....as he's gotten older he's a bit more...relaxed about certain things, like having a cot or something besides JUST a sleeping bag so he's not on the ground. My dad is 6'7 by the way so getting in and out of the tent is a problem itself if it's a small one. Anyway one thing I learned from him, and my time in the cub scouts way back in elementary school was to always have at least 3 ways of starting a fire...some matches and a lighter are fine but a more old school method that you are able to work with was also recommended in case your matches get wet and are not waterproof (along with the striker pad), then there's the lighter running out of fuel to worry about as well so something like a good ferro rod, a fire piston/syringe or flint and steel are also good to have in the kit. Me? I got storm matches, ferro rod, flint and steel, and a spark wheel...it's basically the wheel and flint of a zippo on a stick to just send out sparks on demand to whatever you want to catch, thing will catch a basic cotton ball on fire real dang easy even without extra prep other than a little fluffing to get more fibers and area to burn.
Interesting alternative fire techniques always interesting.....
I came here expecting a video about an obscure D&D magic item and found a video about a cool IDL method of fire-starting which I’ve actually seen someone use in-person once.
while plant fibers or leather are all viable replacements to the modern "O" ring the best alternative is sinew
also some oil/fat or a bit of saliva is recommended
Really enjoy your channel, I've already added the miners hook to my list of gear available in my ttrpg because of you! This one seems like a better quality tinderbox, I bet its much easier to use than some flint & steel. Hope your doing well, and continue making stellar content like this.
Whatever one chooses to carry they should always have a bic lighter as a backup in case of emergencies. They float, can be dried out quickly & easily as well as being guaranteed fire in case ones life ends up in actual danger out there.
Unless it gets busted. But yes, in case of an emergency a few easy, reliable and simple backups are a must while in and situation that could become dangerous, like camping.
Passing through CT right now. Hi Kramer!
I could see some alchemist coming up with a fluid compound that went into a syringe that when squirted out into an environment with air and possibly some humidity created an exothermic reaction hot enough to light a fire off of. something like the sodium/water reaction. Either that or a 2 part compound, 2 plungers that squirt different substances that get energetic when mixed but are otherwise safe.
“A syringe is a simple reciprocating pump consisting of a plunger (though in modern syringes, it is actually a piston) that fits tightly within a cylindrical tube called a barrel. The plunger can be linearly pulled and pushed along the inside of the tube, allowing the syringe to take in and expel liquid or gas through a discharge orifice at the front (open) end of the tube. The open end of the syringe may be fitted with a hypodermic needle, a nozzle or tubing to direct the flow into and out of the barrel. Syringes are frequently used in clinical medicine to administer injections, infuse intravenous therapy into the bloodstream, apply compounds such as glue or lubricant, and draw/measure liquids. There are also prefilled syringes (disposable syringes marketed with liquid inside).
The word "syringe" is derived from the Greek σύριγξ (syrinx, meaning "Pan flute", "tube").”
- los wikis
I think most of us think of “syringe” as a thing with an opening at one end, not closed. There were syringe fire extinguishers in the renaissance, big brass tubes to squirt water up into windows. Plastic versions are available in our era as squirt guns.
Plunger, piston, or tube would be more accurate/less confusing use of current English language for the fire starter.
I also like using a shepherd/sailor lighter. Dave Canterbury has a good video about those.
That is really amazing! I've never heard of it. In a sense it is "magic." Just imagine how impressed early uneducated impressionable people would be that you could just slam your fire syringe on a flat surface, even better the palm of your hand if you are that robust, and create an ember from nowhere. If you hadn't explained it first, even I would be sitting here saying, :Damn! How the heck did he do that?!"
this thing will impress most modern people too
7:30 - Yes, you said that on the internet...
I have new ideas now for my neobarbarian short story. Thank-you.
I learned about these long ago but completely forgot about them. Thanks for the reminder.
You know, it makes perfect sense for different characters to have different default fire making methods depending not just on their job description so to speak but also on their home culture and what’s easily available where they grew up. If your people are from somewhere that flint is rare or nonexistent you’re more likely to use a fire syringe or bow or whatever. Great character design tip.
I knew about fire pistons as an object, but I didn't know anything about their history. Thanks for filling in that gap in my knowledge.
I know in France they used leather and pig lard for the seal. They seem to use pig lard for a lot of lubrication in France at that time.
As for fantasy fire starting, I am sure an alchemist will have an easy time with it. If you take a mix of potassium chloride and sugar, class smoke bomb mix, and add a drop of a strong acid, the mixture will combust. I have heard description of alchemists using smoke screens in fantasy settings before, so it seems an easy leap to say they could figure out how to make such a combustible mixture as well.
That is ingenious, honestly. I think I'll get myself one, it would certainly help such a fumble-finger like me. Also, quick question: did you make the vest you're wearing yourself or did you buy it somewhere? 'Cause it looks great. I'm jelly.
A string packing lubricated with water or rubber gasket lubricated with grease is used to create an air-tight but slippery seal. According to the wiki. I looked for the UK patent, but did not find it.
I have a really beautifully made fire piston I got from a seller in the UK over a decade ago, as a present for myself. Its made of buffalo horn with brass decoration and an orange glass bead around the middle, the cylinder is metal lined, the piston is brass and it unscrews to reveal tweezers to place tinder with a tiny spoon at the back for spreading grease onto the piston. The pommel has a small brass pot that unscrews with two chambers, one holds grease and one holds char cloth, and a few spare o-rings. The cylinder has a brass ring at the bottom that unscrews slightly to allow the piston to bottom out, then screwing it back down seals a vacuum inside so it can be hung off the belt without risk of the piston falling out.
Is it the best form of matchless fire lighting? Not by a long shot.
Is it perhaps the coolest when you can produce a glowing ember simply by compressing the air around it to the astonishment of your friends? Absolutely.
Safe bet would be using cork to make the seal. Since that would be how bottles and such were sealed. Some people these days use cork for wood smoking pipes if they aren't good enough to make a wooden pipe stem which can fit snuggly into the pipe bowl but still be easily removed.
Love all the pieces of real history I get to learn watching this channel! It's never heard of these. It's incredible! Thank you!
Ah, so good! This was really cool. I must aquire one of these. Good for story ideas as well.
Excellent video as usual. Thank you for the education. I look forward to the next video.
Pretty good video, so glad I found your channel last year and always happy to see one new video coming up from your channel.
Keep up the good work 😁!
I've never heard of a fire piston/syringe before. This video is a fascinating watch.
I get what you mean.
Blew my mind first time hearing about it too.
Really enjoyed this!
Great idea. I'm going to pick one of these up
You had me at Fire Syringe
Thanks for the video.
Hey thanks for the cool video man. I wrote fantasy and I love learning about stuff like this that can give my stories depth and flavor.
Adding this to my actual bug-out bag/camping kit. Looks way easier than flint and steel or a bow drill.
Hi. Thanks for sharing this item with us. When you started talking about D&D I was like if I had access to the right Cantrip I would first pick one that can just start a fire, that seems so much easier and its a cantrip so I can be burned out from the quest and still start the fire, so obviously that would be my choice.
I had a bike pump that had an oiled leather seal to seal the plunger. That was in the 70s.
The clickbait got me so excited- but honestly this is just as cool!
Ooh, cool! Are we gonna get an episode about permanent matches next?
There are see-through fire pistons (as I've generally heard them called) you can buy, so you can see the action happen.
The fantasy fire syringe that you suggest at the end has me thinking about a syringe with to tubes, each with a different liquid, that react very strongly to each other, but only mix near the tip of the syringe. I could see a fantasy alchemist (or possibly even a medaeval one who discovered the right fluids) building that. Not safe if it breaks, but very impressive when it works right.
animal fat & string was commonly used for the "o-ring"
I would say other than plant fibers mentioned below cork or more likely lather. Leather washers have been around for ages. Old style water pumps used them as well as Coleman white gas products.
Fire syringe works just like a diesel. (compression)
Also what you should do though is bring extra O-rings with you because they can tear or get messed up when you're trying to compress or not seal as well over time
the Fire Syringe/Pistol and it's history means that you could have a simpler way to starting fires of your camp or fireplace, plus flint and steel as well as early versions of matches and lighters.
the Fire piston also means that a Greek Fire Thrower of the Byzantine Empire was probably made with the Fire Piston as part of it.
Wow, that's a cool technology. If you think about it, it's basically a traditional culture version of the diesel engine. It's practical physics from real experience. Thank you so much for showing that. I was raised part hunter-gatherer and have seen and used a lot of cool ancient technologies, but I had never seen that one. Maybe it doesn't work as well at -40° :)
Very interesting, strangely I have never heard of it. But now I would consider trying to build one just for fun. Thanks for sharing.
My character is going to be very surprised coming across someone else with this later. Thanks 😊
I got how this works but I didn't quite pick up like... _how_ it works, like what part about this is creating the embers exactly? Is it that thing where you use a piston to compress something so hard and fast that it converts all that kinetic energy into thermal energy, but because all that thermal energy is focused and confined to a finite point, whatever material is located at that finite point absorbs that thermal energy and... combusts? Because if so that's really freaking cool
I think it concentrates the thermal energy that's already in the air.
LA: You need to depress the plunger as quickly as possible.
Me: Nobody likes you and you will never amount to anything.
Plunger: 😢
Brutal. Well done. You create a bonfire.
It is surprising how many gadgets like these have disappeared to history.
always a good show. too short this time.
It's a shame. You produce such amazing content, and you constantly show us amazing things. But these things are never sponsored. Come on sponsors wake up to this amazing channel.
Super cool.
Somehow, I knew you were talking about the fire piston. those things are cool.
Flint and steel can be bound with a cord, but those two parts are completely separate. What if one part get lost? You can't just use a knife or try find another piece of flint to replace the missing part, you need a whole new set. But it might look sooo cool and designed to match other pieces of equipment your character has... What a choice.
In a real scenario, a knife works perfectly fine and any sufficiently sharp piece of quartzite/flint/chert off the ground is perfectly useful but youd be marring the spine of your knife and if you loose your existing flint and steel, chances are your tinderbox of prepared charcloth and tow went with it so getting a spark to take to something is an extra challenge
I don't see why you couldn't bind them with a cord.
There is literally nothing stopping someone from tethering the parts together with cord.
Perhaps a section of gelatinous cube for the O-ring? 😉😏
Good idea!
It'd eat away at the copper. About as much use as a getting a rust monster to guard your junkyard.
@@RichWoods23 A section cut off of a living gelatinous cube probably would not do so. They are known for holding suspended bone, metal, treasure, and coin inside of them, and for depositing such undigested refuse in their wake.
One of R.A. Salvatore's drow warriors, Uthegental del'Armgo, used gelatinous cubes for hair gel. No record of the creature's digestive acids dissolving him!
@@texasbeast239 Magic acid. I should have guessed.
I agree with your take on medieval fantasy, I actually wish the term historical fantasy would take off. I mean there were ivy league colleges when the Native Americans were being discovered, in the beginning of WW1 there were soldiers thinking it was gonna to be like the old wars with slow guns and horses and swords. Also in a "fantasy" world were tech wouldnt need to evolve as fast or as much, I feel like there would be a bit of variety in options.
I thought it was going to be a video about byzantine flamethrowers
Or something like the lenk alcohol blowtorch
They probably use hemp or linen/flax , maybe other plant fiber, they are used as seals in old plumbing. Leather might also be used, but its harder to deal with deformation on leather, so my best bet is rolled up flux fiber.
try mixing potassium permanganate and glucose together, you'll definitely look like some kind of crazy alchemist 😁👍
interesting device. nice one.
Unlike matches, a fire syringe isn't ruined by water
I would imagine that the European ones used lewther as the seal and i base that off the fact that the Giridonni air rifle (i probably spelt that wrong) is from a similar era and uses leather rings for the seal
That's super cool, I can't believe I never heard of tehse before. I kind of wonder what drawbacks it has compared to flint and steel, it just seems straight up superior.
the late Grant Thompson from King of Random made one using acrylic tubes and rubber ring,.
Rawhide gets very hard, and would not create a particularly good seal. I imagine a softer leather seal would be more suitable, perhaps with some kind of lubricant like goose grease.
Greetings from Croatia !!!
This video is very tricky!! lol
With your description of an actual syringe that dispenses fire from the end, like in the thumbnail, my mind goes to a pressure sensitive seal. After enough pressure is surpassed to ignite the char, the end opens to allow the ember to be exposed to the rest of the material. I don't know if it could be made to work reliably in the real world, but there is enough of an idea for a fantasy tool.
This. Is. So. Cool.
tire pumps used to use leather washers, should work.
i have always heard it called a Fire Piston
I just read the comments and this pops up all over the place
I've seen one of these which had a secondary compartment which you could keep the char materials.
I imagine that you could make one that could remove thr compartment and use it to make char.
So basically this is a "pocket mage/wizard" versed in 🔥 magic 🧙♂️
😉
Correct