THE FIRE PISTON—BALFOUR. 589 
non could have been thought out and elaborated scientifically by 
primitive peoples, and we may remember that in Europe the first 
appreciation of this phenomenon of heat production by air compres- 
sion was due not to research but to observation of an unexpected 
effect. There are three absolute essentials necessary for production 
of heat in this manner: (1) A cylinder with accurate bore, closed at 
one end; (2) a piston accurately fitting the cylinder; (3) tinder which 
is very quickly inflammable. Therefore, in our search for proto- 
types, we are necessarily restricted to objects in which these elements 
may conceivably be associated. 
A form of bellows used in blowing up the fire, which is very 
prevalent in Burma and many parts of the mainland and the Eastern 
Archipelago, and which belongs largely to Malayan culture, is con- 
structed upon the principle of a piston; there is a cylinder and a 
packed piston, whose thrust drives the air out in a forcible manner. 
In this, however, a duct opens from the lower end, and since, there- 
fore, the cylinder is not a closed one, there can be but little compres- 
sion of the air; certainly not sufficient to cause a marked rise in the 
temperature. So that, even if by accident some tinder-like material 
adhered to the piston, it could not be ignited. In breaking through 
the nodes of a bamboo, in order to render the bore continuous and of 
greater holding capacity, a rod may be thrust violently down the 
cylinder, which at first is, of course, closed. Certain simple and 
primitive-looking fire pistons among the Kachins are indeed made 
of natural bamboo cylinders. It is unlikely, however, that the rod 
would fit so tightly as to act like a packed piston, and hence there 
would be next to no air compression. Appliances of the nature of 
toy popguns and water syringes are not unknown in the East, but 
although these exhibit some structural resemblance to the fire piston, 
there seems little likelihood of their having suggested the latter. The 
process of boring and gauging blowguns when these are made of 
solid wood might, conceivably, have led to some unintentional com- 
pression of the air within the bore, which might have caused the 
ignition of some responsive material adhering to the boring or gaug- 
ing rod. While even this is improbable, it is interesting to recall 
that the distribution of the oriental blowgun embraces many of the 
regions where the fire piston is found. I have frequently had it 
suggested to me, that it is obvious that the fire piston must have been 
derived from the pestle and mortar so commonly used throughout 
the Indo-Chinese and Malayan area for crushing the betel nut or 
chavica leaves. In favor of this it may with truth be urged that 
there is often a very strong resemblance between the two appliances; 
indeed some of the small pestle and mortar apparatus in the British 
Museum bear so striking a resemblance to some of the Bornean fire 
pistons, e. g., the type shown in fig, 35, that it is necessary to look 
