Take a hollow cylinder, in fact, a syringe or pop-gun, of some bad
conductor of heat—wood or thick glass—with this difference, that one end
must be perfectly closed; it must have a piston like the syringe, also a
bad conductor of heat, and which must be made to move in the cylinder
perfectly air-tight. Place a bit of tinder or amadou, steeped in a
solution of saltpetre in water and then dried, in the cylinder; then
place the piston at the cylinder’s mouth, and with a sudden and powerful
thrust condense the air in the cylinder: the tinder will ignite.
Phosphorus wrapped in paper, and struck with a hammer on an anvil, will
likewise enflame.