Fire Piston

It’s cold outside, so I’m playing around inside with a FIRE PISTON I got from Dave Danger @ Blackthorn-USA, LLC.   (Please excuse the background noise as I figure this medium out.)  A fire piston is a devise used to to kindle fire.  It uses the principle of heated gas, by rapid compression, to ignite a piece of charred cotton cloth, which would be added to combustible tinder and blown to flame.  Pistons were used in South East Asia since the mid-1800’s, and perhaps much longer.  They were constructed of bamboo, wood, bone, ivory, or horn.  Fire pistons made an appearance in the early 1800’s in Europe as a fire starting method, until they were replaced by the match.  It is unclear if the fire piston was introduced by Europe, or Asia, or discovered independently.