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Penguino
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A bombardier beetle creates a toxic spray by mixing two fluids into a single orifice. The fluids are chemically relatively inert when kept separated but produce a lot of heat when mixed. With only a bit of imagination, you could have a human producing a similar pair of chemicals that spontaneously ignite when mixed. Highly modified salivary ducts and a somewhat fire-proof mouth lining could then let them spit fire.

But I can't imagine it would be terribly efficient. Maybe good enough to light a cigarette, or give someone a fright, but hardly suitable for incinerating enemies.

One issue would be volume of fluid. A salivary duct produces only fractions of a ml per second, so in order to produce a significant volume of 'fire' the fire-starter would need some sort of internal bladders to store the stuff until they were ready to spit. Maybe mammary ducts would be more appropriate in that case...

A bombardier beetle creates a toxic spray by mixing two fluids into a single orifice. The fluids are chemically relatively inert when kept separated but produce a lot of heat when mixed. With only a bit of imagination, you could have a human producing a similar pair of chemicals that spontaneously ignite when mixed. Highly modified salivary ducts and a somewhat fire-proof mouth lining could then let them spit fire.

But I can't imagine it would be terribly efficient. Maybe good enough to light a cigarette, or give someone a fright, but hardly suitable for incinerating enemies.

A bombardier beetle creates a toxic spray by mixing two fluids into a single orifice. The fluids are chemically relatively inert when kept separated but produce a lot of heat when mixed. With only a bit of imagination, you could have a human producing a similar pair of chemicals that spontaneously ignite when mixed. Highly modified salivary ducts and a somewhat fire-proof mouth lining could then let them spit fire.

But I can't imagine it would be terribly efficient. Maybe good enough to light a cigarette, or give someone a fright, but hardly suitable for incinerating enemies.

One issue would be volume of fluid. A salivary duct produces only fractions of a ml per second, so in order to produce a significant volume of 'fire' the fire-starter would need some sort of internal bladders to store the stuff until they were ready to spit. Maybe mammary ducts would be more appropriate in that case...

Source Link
Penguino
  • 7.6k
  • 21
  • 31

A bombardier beetle creates a toxic spray by mixing two fluids into a single orifice. The fluids are chemically relatively inert when kept separated but produce a lot of heat when mixed. With only a bit of imagination, you could have a human producing a similar pair of chemicals that spontaneously ignite when mixed. Highly modified salivary ducts and a somewhat fire-proof mouth lining could then let them spit fire.

But I can't imagine it would be terribly efficient. Maybe good enough to light a cigarette, or give someone a fright, but hardly suitable for incinerating enemies.