Web Accessibility - Legacy Page

This page has been identified as older than June 1, 2014. Per MSU's Web Accessibility agreement with the Office for Civil Rights, content that has not been updated since this date is considered "legacy" and does not need accessibility errors remediated.

If you make edits to this page and republish it, you will need to correct any accessibility errors that exist - all MSU web pages created or updated past June 1, 2014 are required to meet our current Web Accessibility standards. Visit our help center article on working with legacy web pages and content for more information.




  • A small fragment of combustible material burns when a piston is quickly compressed in an airtight cylinder.
  • Hold piston down for extended combustion.
  • For best visibility turn room lights off.
  • Cylinder must be thoroughly cleaned after each use, therefore multiple repetitions are time consuming.




        (use a 5 x 5 mm piece of tissue paper or equivalent piece of cotton fiber)
        (if piston rings are dry spread a thin layer of cooking oil on them)
        (thoroughly clean cylinder and store disassembled with o-rings protected)

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