586 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1907. 
must also allow for the time which must have elapsed before due 
appreciation of the value and potentialities of the new machine 
would have been developed in peoples to whom its principle was 
hitherto absolutely unknown. We must also allow for a still longer 
period during which the difficulties of making imitations of the 
European instrument by native methods were gradually overcome; 
for we must bear in mind that, simple and few as are the essential ele- 
ments which together form the fire piston, it is only when they are 
in perfect adjustment that the instrument will work effectively and 
produce the desired result. To this extent the fire piston is essen- 
tially a delicate instrument; an imperfect bore, faulty packing of 
the piston, or inferior tinder, will at once render the appliance prac- 
tically useless. Native made and effective fire pistons were certainly 
widely distributed in the east before 1865. European travelers who 
observed them expressed great astonishment at this peculiar method 
of fire producing, which was evidently quite new to them. They 
were educated and experienced men, and we may gather from their 
marveling at the method that they were unacquainted with it at 
home, where the domestic use of the fire piston must have long 
since died out. Bastian, who records in 1866 that he had seen the 
fire piston in Burma, was born in 1826, and was therefore about 
forty years old at the time, and although his memory would have 
gone back that far into the early half of the last century, he was 
evidently unfamiliar with the instrument in Europe. It is unlikely, 
therefore, that the instrument was of at all recent introduction from 
Europe at that time. Another important poimt to be remembered 
is the fact that no fire pistons of Kuropean make have, apparently, 
been found in the eastern area of dispersal. 
From the passage in the Mechanics’ Magazine quoted above we 
may gather that in 1842 the fire piston was but lttle known in 
England, though it is said to have been familiar on the Continent. 
It appears on the whole unlkely that this instrument can have been 
taken out as a trade article to the east by English travelers later 
than, say, 1830, since its practical use, never very prevalent in 
England, seems to have been quite on the wane by that time. Nor 
is it hkely that it would have been traded abroad much earlier than, 
say, 1815, since its first introduction to domestic use in England was 
no earlier than 1807. This would allow a probable maximum period 
of fifteen years during which English traders and travelers could 
introduce it to various parts of the east. The predominant Kuropean 
influences in those regions which are comprised within the area of 
dispersal of the fire piston in the east have been the English and 
the Dutch. Of the use made of the instrument by the Dutch, I have 
no record, but at least it would appear that they were not very 
vigorous in pushing this article in the Malay Archipelago, since such 
