German tinder

Noun

German tinder (uncountable)

1. (dated) amadou
   • When lucifers were struck they only fizzed and sputtered, would not burn. German tinder succeeded better; for the exhausted atmosphere, hungering for oxygen, uniting with the atoms of saltpetre in the process of ignition, the tinder, instead of its usual dull glow, threw out a long bright flame...1862 August 23, Mrs. H. Stanley, “The trials of an inventor”, in Once a Week
   • The inflammation of German tinder in the so-called pneumatic tinder-boxes; which are, as we know, little pump-chambers in which the air is rapidly compressed.1897, Sadi Carnot (original), R. H. Thurston (translator), Reflections on the Motive Power of Heat, Appendix B