Matches: The manufacture of fire

Abstract

Frazer’s book Myths of the Origin of Fire gives a fascinating description of the legends about the origin of fire in different regions of the world. From the entry Fire in the encyclopedias we learn that fire is one of the human’s race essential tools, control of which helped start it on the path toward civilization. The original source of fire undoubtedly was lightning, a chance event which remained the only source of fire for many years. The use of fire is one of man’s earliest habits, so when an obvious fireplace with ashes and charcoal is found near such a skull, it is pronounced human. Only after the Neolithic times there is evidence that human beings actually knew how to produce fire. Archeological evidence suggests that the controlled use of fire may date from more than 500,000 years ago. The step from the control of fire to its manufacture required hundreds of thousands of years. According to Singer et al. the discovery of how to make fire was man’s greatest step forward in gaining freedom from the dominance of the environment. The first human beings to control fire gradually learned its many uses. Fire not only kept them warm and cooked their food; they also learned to use it in fire drives in hunting and warfare. The possibility of heating the dwelling enabled people to survive hard winters and to spread to more extreme climates, and to keep off predators. Man’s movement into the cold northern areas was probably a direct consequence of his control of fire. Thus the making of fire and maintaining it became vital tasks, without which many early societies would have perished. The discovery of fire also made possible the production of glass, pottery, metals, etc., as well as providing light when required. We do not know if the chance spark from striking flint against pyrites or a spark made by friction while drilling a hole in wood gave human beings the idea for producing fire, but interestingly enough, making of fire by friction was discovered by people in widely separated parts of the world. The most widespread method for igniting fire was through the conversion of muscular energy into heat through friction. The fire drill, a wooden rod placed in a pit in a fireboard adjacent to tinder, was the commonly used implement. The initial fire was initiated by a rapid rotatory motion imparted by spinning the drill between the palms of the hands by means of a thong, alone or in combination with a bow, or by the up and down action of a pump drill. Other frictional methods, like the fire saw, the fire thong, and the fire plow, were also used. The Eskimos, ancient Egyptians, Asian people, and a few American natives developed mechanical fire drills. A fire piston that produced heat and fire by the compression of air in a small tube of bamboo was a complex device invented and used in Asia. Percussion methods of fire production were also invented at an early time. Pyrite when struck produces a slow burning spark. Once steel was invented, it was used in a like manner, with flint, to produce fire. The spark was caught in tinder (dry, powdery, and easily combustible matter), which caused it to make a small glowing ember. Every traveler carried a tinderbox, containing a piece of steel, a piece of flint, and a supply of reliable tinder. Flint and steel are represented at present by the steel wheel and flint (today a metallic alloy) of the cigarette lighter.

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