Fire Pistons?

[dyemaker]

I was looking at some of these made of exotic woods online and thought they might be easy to make. I read they were patented in both France and England in 1807 but their use goe's back much much further. I think one of these along with wooden animal calls and maybe powder measures similarly made would be a nice set of matched accoutrements. My question is what period and place would they be appropriate? Surely they would fit in somewhere. Any thoughts on this?

 

[paulvallandigham]

They were a fad in Europe for a very brief period, because " safety matches" were invented about the same time. They saw no widespread use in the USA.

I suppose you could have someone dressed in post Lewis & Clark- West using one, as a novelty, as I am sure that just about everything invented or made in Europe made it to this country at one time or another.

Remember your historic time frames: Percussion guns came on the scene in the 1820s, and officially in the 1830s. Interest in anything that required finding dry tinder to start a fire faded pretty fast after the Fire Piston was invented. 1836 is when Colt got his patent on his Patterson, 5-shot, .36 caliber revolver. There were Pepperbox pistols with revolving barrels that were percussion ignition handguns made in New England in the 1820s. A lot of flintlock muskets and rifles were being converted during those two decades. You even have the Hall rifle invented during this early period. So, people were looking for, and expecting to find, "water proof", survival items. The Fire piston really had no chance to catch on in this country.