72 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol. 73, art. 14 



V. BY COMPRESSION OF AIR 



The fire syringe, as it is called, consists of a piston and plunger. 

 Generally the piston is a smooth circular canal drilled in hardwood 

 or horn. The plunger fits the cavity with exactness. In practice a 

 bit of tinder is placed in a slight cavity at the end of the plunger; the 

 latter is set in the orifice and driven down with a sharp blow. Quickly 

 withdrawing the plunger the tinder is found alight. 



The principle is that in being compressed to a smaller volume air 

 gives up heat. In the case of the fire syringe this is enough to ignite 

 tinder. This is a method which has been employed by many tribes 

 of men in Malaysia, and it appears to be a native invention. Plate 

 1 1 shows three specimens from various parts of the Philippines, Figures 

 1, 3, and 4, Cat. No. 235261, Mindoro, Philippine Commission; 5 inches 

 long (12.5 cm.); Cat. No. 215659, Luzon, Dr. Charles E. Woodruff, 

 United States Army, 33^ inches long (10.75 cm.); Cat. No. 216736, 

 Luzon, Col. F. F. Hilder, 5 inches long (13 cm.). Figure 2 is of horn, 

 Cat. No. 176007, Lower Siam, Dr. W. L. Abbott, 3.5 inches long (9 

 cm.). Figure 5 is of hard palm. Cat. No. 175270, Java, M. F. 

 Savage, 83^ inches long (21 cm.). 



VI. TINDEB 



It is no doubt true that acquaintance with tinderlike substances 

 was forced on man by the behavior of the camp fire in consuming at 

 different rates such material. Tinder is also implied in preparing 

 and arranging the fuel for starting a new fire. 



From these considerations it seems probable that this feature 

 involved in the invention of the fire drill had been prepared in a meas- 

 ure long previously. 



The collection of tinder in the Museum is almost exclusively of 

 vegetal substances, but in many cases these have been improved by 

 the addition of charcoal, gunpowder, and niter. Animal substances 

 are necessarily rare and so far as observed consist of the down of 

 birds and the nest lining spun by an ant {PolyracMs hispinosus), the 

 latter from South America. Vegetal substances used as tinder are 

 classified as follows: (a) Bark, especially the outside spent layers of 

 trees with stringy bark in the first stages of decay; (b) scrapings of 

 inflammable wood; (c) scurf down from leaves and about the flower- 

 ing areas of certains plants; (d) downy catkins or down from seed 

 heads out of bloom ; (e) dry leaves rubbed fine or grass treated in the 

 same manner; (/) rotten wood also used for retaining fire; (g) fungi, 

 either natural as in the sheet fungi or worked into condition for use 

 as by boiling in solution of potassium nitrate or saltpeter; (h) imper- 

 fectly charred cotton or linen cloth or thick, soft cords impregnated 

 with a chemical. The Chinese use soft paper prepared in a similar 

 manner. The Japanese so far as known are unique in using mixed 

 tinder composed of several of the substances mentioned above. 



o 



