METHODS of FIRE MAKING USED by EARLY MAN WARREN N. WATSON R'ashington, D. C.
A
STUDY of the methods of fue making used by primitive man is a subject of unusual interest; one that offers a challenge because these methods are rapidly becoming a lost art and because a definite amount of skill is necessary for their execution. Man differs from all other forms of life in his ability to make, preserve, and use fire. His changing attitude toward fire has been recorded as first, an attitude of fear, followed by worship, and then use, the latter for warmth, cooking, and fabrication. Man's first knowledge of fire came from the volcano and lightning, and, under rare conditions, from the friction of dry branches by the wind. The fust evidence of man's use of fire occurs as charred wood and bones in the deposits of the cave of Pekiu man in the old Stone Age about 500,000 years ago. The preservation of fire enabled man to segregate in groups and was the basis of the community fire, a custom that endured for thousands of years. Ability to make fire a t will gave men freedom to migrate to different parts of the earth. Among primitive tribes, the worship of fire or the sun was widespread. Fire has been intimately associated with the altar and the hearth from the earliest known times, new fire having special religious significance, and today the use of fire has survived in religious ritual. The word "fireside" is synonymous with the home, and the conclusion is inescapable that our love for the open h e springs from early man's association with the camp fire for thousands of years. The camp fire stimulated inventive genius and was the origin of many arts, such as lighting, cooking, offense, defense, metallurgy, and ceramics. The great emphasis given to fue preservation in early times is ample evidence of the skill required to operate the primitive methods of h e making, and only a limited knowledge of these methods is necessary to appreciate the convenience and economic value of the match, which ranks as one of the epoch-making discoveries of man. The different methods of fire-making follow: A. FRICTION OF WOOD 1. Drilling
2. SaPving 3. Planing
(Across the grain)
Fire drill (a) Two-stick drill ( b ) Strap drill, 4 parts ( 6 ) Bow drill, 4 parts (d) Compound or pump drill Friction saw Fire thong (With the grain) Plow
B.
PERCUSSION (Strike-a-Light)
C. PHYSICAL D. CHEMICAL
Pyrites and pyrites Pyrites and flint Steel and flint Bamboo and pottery or flint Fire piston (compressed air) Lenr and reflector Match
FRICTION OF WOOD
Archeological evidence is lacking on the date of the
b t use of the fire drill; i t is, nevertheless, an ancient invention and ethnologists believe that it does not antedate the late Stone Age (Neolithic period). The Assyrian fire god Gebil (reed fire) was represented by the cuneiform character for a fire drill. In the excavations a t Thebes a drill bow and socket were found, and pictures of bow drills occur on the tombs in the Fourth and Fifth dynasties. The Odyssey refers to the making of fire by rotating sticks. According to the Hindu myth on the origin of fire, the wood worker with his drill made the divine fire. It is probable that the experiences of primitive man in piercing boles with bone and flint, with the observation that heat and smoke were evolved under certain conditions, led to the invention of the fire drill. Selectwn of Wood and Tinder.-The prime requisite for successful fire making by wood friction is the choice of the right kind of wood and wood that is in proper condition; that is, thoroughly seasoned and very dry. Primitive man used dead branches, with a preference for pieces that were slightly decomposed or "punky" due to fungus action. Fungus is a friend of the fire maker. If new wood from a lumber yard must be used, it should be dried thoroughly, or better yet, baked for about two hours before an open fire. If i t is browned or slightly charred, results will be obtained with greater ease and speed. Generally speaking, soft, fine-grained woods are preferable, and hard woods should be rejected. Resinous, gummy woods are worthless. The best woods include balsa, yucca, elm, willow, and cottonwood. Other woods are linden, cypress, hemlock, balsam fir, sycamore, poplar, cedar, white pine, buckeye, and soft maple. Yucca wood from the southwestern states, or the yucca flowering stalk from the flower garden, ranks b t among the woods of the United States as a quick, easy fire maker by wood friction. Balsa wood from Central America is a superior wood, although like yucca it wears away rather quickly. Certain Indian
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tribes of North America preferred roots; these include willow, elm, and cottonwood. A simple test for determining the quality of a wood or vascular flower stalk is to carry out a trial drilling. A good wood yields a fine wood dust or flour, which carbonizes with the formation of a spark which spreads to an ember. If the sample gives a coarse, gritty powder, it should be discarded. Usually, the drill and hearth are of the same wood; some tribes, however, used a harder wood for the drill. The production of fire by wood friction consists of two distinct operations, first, the preparation of a smoldering spark, or ember, and second, the transformation of this ember into a flame with tinder-fine, dry vegetable fibers, bark, grass, or moss. The tinder used varies in each section of the world. One of the
inches to over thirty inches in length (Figure I).' The hearth or base occurs in a wide variety of forms. The common type was flat on top, some were well fashioned like a piece of board, and others were merely broken or split pieces of a dead branch. A concave depression is iirst made in the hearththe initial hole-to receive the drill. A narrow slot is cut into this hole to receive the wood dust or flour resulting from the grinding of the drill against the wood of the hearth (Figure 2). (Some tribes added a minute quantity of sand or earth in the drill hole to increase the grinding action.) The base board is held securely on the ground by the knees or by an assistant. The drill is held upright, with its rounded end placed in the drill hole, and rotated backward and forward between the flattened hands, with a downward pressure; the speed is increased to the maximum as the hands reach the bottom of the stick. The downward pressure causes the hands to work gradually down the drill. When the hands are several inches from the hearth, the driU is grasped between the thumb and a finger of the left hand to hold i t firmly in position and the right hand quickly lifted to the top and the drill gripped between the thumb and finger to hold securely. The left hand
best tinders is made by pounding red cedar bark with FIGURE2.-OPERATION OF A TWO-STICK DRILL a club. It is then rolled until fluffy, and dried and stored in a t i ~ h tcontainer. Other tinders are white cedar bark, Gner chestnut bark, cottonwood bark, rope fibers, fine grass, and vegetable down. The pro- is then quickly lifted up opposite the other hand, the duction of flame is speeded up by placing a small layer fingers extended, and the drill held between the flatof milkweed silk, cattail, or similar seed down on the tened palms, opposite each other, and rotation of the drill is repeated. At no point should the drill be alcedar bark tinder. lowed to leave the drill hole, nor should the drilling The Two-Stick Fire Drill.-This method of 6re be stopped except for the minimum pause necessary to making had practically world-wide distribution, including all of North America and its Indian and Eskimo shift the hands from the bottom to the top. tribes. In Africa, it was used almost exclusively, and Arknowledgmenr is madc to the United States National M u is still used in the interior of Africa and South America x u m fur thew courtesy in permitting the use of the phutoaraphs where steel and f i n t or matches are not available. in this aruclr. The hpst descri~tionof fire-making rqu~~,ment The drill is a straight, thoroughly seasoned rod or will he found in "Fire Making Apparatus in the U . S . National by Walter Hough. No. 2735, from the Proceedings of stalk, commonly between one-fourth of an inch and Museum" the U. S. National Museum, Washington, D. C., 73, Article 14, five-eighths of an inch in diameter and from fourteen (1928). 72 pp., now out of print.
As the operation proceeds, wood dust drops into the slot, and smoke appears, the heat of friction charring the dust which coheres in the slot. By fanning or blowing the mass of smoking wood dust, a glowing ember is produced. This is placed on the tinder of dried grass, or selected fine bark, and blown until i t bursts into flame. This method requires much skill and is the most difficult of the wood friction methods to operate single-handed. Early explorers report that the operation of the two-stick drill was too strenuous for the elderly men, and that the method was not usable by many tribes in wet weather. The two-stick drill was frequently operated by two persons using two pairs of hands, thus insuring continuous rotation of the drill. The method is more readily camed out by the use of a socket held by a second person over the top of the drill with a downward pressure. The socket is
made of a close-grained wood, with an inverted "V" or pivot-shaped hole to receive the pivot-shaped top of the drill. The slot in the hearth for the accumulation of the charred dust is an invention of the greatest importance; this permits the oxygen of the air to contact the hot wood dust. Two-stick drills without the fire slot have been fotmd in Costa Rica and also among the Eskimos. It is regarded as the most primitive type. Another type of hearth used by the Eskimos has a groove between the drill holes, in the hearth, to receive the charred dust (Figure 5). The Strafi or Cord Drill.-This method was used by the Eskimos and also in Asia and Siberia. The drill is placed in the notched depression on the edge of the hearth (Figure 3) and pressed downward by a socket held on top by a second person. The rotation is camed out by a strap or cord with one or two turns
around the drill. A small stick is tied to each end of the strap for convenience in holding and the drill is rapidly rotated by a left and right motion of the strap
or thong with the two hands. 'The socket is pressed down as firmly as possible without retarding the rotation of the drill. The speed is gradually increased as the operation proceeds. The dust from the friction chars, and the glowing coal is transferred to a tinder, such as h e moss or grass. An Eskimo set is illustrated in Figure 4. The hand grips were made of bears' teeth and a stone was inserted in the socket to hold the top of the drill. The hearth had a shelf to prevent the glowing spark from falling into the ice and snow. The Eskimos frequently held the socket in their teeth, thus permitting fire to be made by one person. No other race used this unique method. The Bow Drill.-With the exception of Africa and Japan, the bow or hand drill has wide distribution and was extensively used by the Eskimos and North American Indians. It has wide application for the drilling of wood, bone, and ivory. In this apparatus, a bow or straight stick replaces the arms in the strap drill. It is the easiest of the wood friction methods of fire making.
The bow is thirty inches long, with about a threeinch bend. A leather thong, or a strap one-fourth of an inch wide, is fixed to the bow through a hole in each end. The drill is nine inches long and five-eighths of an inch to three-quarters of an inch in diameter, pivotshaped on top to fit in the socket and rounded on the bottom. The socket, of hard maple (waxed), a pine knot, or a piece of soapstone, has an " A shaped hole to receive the top of the drill. The Eskimo wooden socket had a soapstone or stone inset for the pivot. A glass percolator top will serve as a socket. The hearth is two and one-half inches by ten inches, and five-
eighths of an inch in thickness. The initial hole is made on the hearth near the side, and a " U notch one-eighth of an inch wide is cut to the center of the hole. The drill is pointed only for starting a new hole and should be flat with rounded edges for the fire making. If the drill head wears off center i t must be flattened with a knife, because a wobbly drill will scatter the wood dust.
Among the most interesting fire bow sets are those of the Eskimos. Figure 5 shows a bow of caribou bone
and a socket with a flange for holding in the teeth. Figure 5a shows a bow drill of carved walrus ivory with a pictorial design. The position of the operator is shown in Figure 6. The hearth is held firmly under the foot. The drill is held in a perpendicular position, with left hand braced against the left leg. The thong has one turn around the drill. The first strokes of the bow are made slowly to test the adjustment. The slack of the thong can be taken up by pressing i t in with the thumb. The relation between the 6rm downward pressure on the socket and tension on the thong can be determined by trial. Strokes are long, full, and parallel, not short and jerky. The speed of the strokes and the pressure on the socket are gradually increased to the maximum, until dense smoke rises as the dust chars and a spark develops in the dust (at a temperature of 550 to 650°F.). Gentle blowing or f a n ~ i n gproduces a growing ember, which is transferred to the tinder. For speed, a flat wad of tinder (fine, dry, red cedar bark) is placed under the notch before drilling begins. The tinder is folded round the ember. held above the level of the mouth. and blown until the tinder bursts into flame
The Cmnfiound or Pumfi Dril1.-This device was used for fire making in Asia, and by the Eskimos and Indians in North America. It has had more extensive use for drilling wood, bone, and ivory than for fire making. The drills used by primitive races were of flint and later of metal. There is a substantial variation in the size of these sets, as can be seen by examination of specimens in some of the larger museums. A medium-sized set can be made with a drill two and one-half feet long and three-quarters of an inch in diameter, and a wheel of about seven inches in diameter and one and one-half to two inches thick (Figure 7). The cross bar has a hole in the center to receive the drill and is about fifteen
Indies, and West Africa, and was formerly used in northern Europe. In the Far East a thong of flexible rattan is used (Figure 16). The ends of the thong are held in each hand and sawed vigorously to and fro over a split stick of soft wood. The heated dust resulting from the friction accumulates and soon smoke and a glowing ember appear. In central New Guinea the Pygmies use the fire thong for sawing down trees, which suggests the origin of fire making by this method. The Fire Plow.-This method is largely confined to the Pacific islands, that is, the Polynesian cultural area, where i t is still used in the outlying islands. The two-part apparatus consists of a dull-pointed rubbing stick which is usually of hard wood (Figure 10). The hearth is a light corky wood, such as the Parite tiliaceum found in Tahiti. Yucca or balsa can be used for the hearth. The rubbing stick is held between the interlocked fingers a t a low angle, and a groove is made by
inches in length. A thong from the ends of the cross bar passes through a hole in the top of the drill and the operation is carried out by twisting the thong around the drill and then pressing the cross bar down, which causes the drill to rotate. When the cross bar reaches the downward position a few inches above the wheel, the wheel reverses, winding the thong around the drill and elevating the cross bar to its original position. At this point the cross bar is pressed down and the opera- rubbing backward and forward. The angle of the tion repeated. If the wheel is too light in weight the rubbing stick is then elevated from 40' to 45' and reverse winding action does not occur automatically. the rubbing continued with a strong downward pressure, If, on the other hand, the wheel is too heavy, the pos- gradually increasing in speed. Wood dust accumulates sible speed of the drill is reduced. a t the point of the rubber. With continued rubbing The Friction Saw.-The use of the friction or fire saw the dust chars, smoke appears, and a glowing spark centers in the bamboo area, or the East Indies, Malay arises. Great care must be taken to avoid scattering Archipelago, Philippines, and India. this pile of dust by a stroke of excessive length. ConA section of bamboo is split and a notch cut on the siderable practice is necessary to secure control of the convex side (Figure 8). Another piece of bamboo with length of the stroke. a sharp edge is sawed or rubbed rapidly back and forth in the notch. The heated dust falls through the notch; PERCUSSION (STRIKE-A-LIGHT) smoke and then a glowing ember appear in the pile of Pyrites and Flint.-The o r i ~ i nof the pyrites strikedust (Figure 9). .. The Fire Thong.-This method is closely related to a-light is attributed to ol~scr\;ationof sparks by marl the fire saw and is used in southeastern Asia, the East it1 IIIC early Stone Age in the w~rkinjiof flint a1111stone
This is regarded as the first method of making fire used by man. Nodules of pyrites with well-marked grooves were found in the Magdalenian deposits of the old Stone Age (upper Paleolithic). When a piece of iron pyrites (fool's gold) is struck
with another piece of pyrites, large, dull red sparks fly off. The Eskimos called these "firestones." A similar result is produced when pyrites is struck with flint (a flint scraper) (Figure 11). In North America, explorers found it in use by Eskimos from Alaska to Labrador, and by the Indians of the high north, including the Athapascans, the Algonquins, and the now extinct Beothucs of Newfoundland. Alexander Mackenzie, in his trip of discovery to the mouth of the Mackenzie River in 1789, found that the Slave and Dogrib Indians built fires with pyrites and flint. The Eskimos of western Greenland also used the pyrites strike-a-light. At the other end of the earth, we find pyrites used by the Patagonians, this mineral being of frequent occurrence in Tierra del Fuego. F i are still made with pyrites by the Eskimos in certain isolated sections of Alaska, while in other sections its use has become a completely lost art. On account of the tendency of pyrites to break or crumble when struck with another piece of pyrites, the flint scraper or striker is preferred, as i t enables greater
precision. The hard, fine-grained pyrites is best. The smooth crystals are not used for spark making until roughened with a Aint edge or file. The use of pyrites and flint by the Eskimo is shown in Fieure 12. The flint with a sham bottom edee is held Yn the right hand and struck ;ownward wi& a quick chopping blow on the side of the pyrites, which is held in the left hand on a piece of hide to protect the hand. The sparks drop into the tinder of dry catkins of the dwarf arctic willow or arctic cotton, which rest on a lump of fine dry moss or grass. After a spark has caught in the tinder, the glowing speck is gently and repeatedly blown until a large glowing coal results, which will ignite a thin splint, or blown until the tinder bursts into flame. The Beothuc Indians used the dry underdown of the Canada jay or eagle for tinder, and the Aleutian Island-
ers used seabird down sprinkled with sulfur. Fire can be produced from pyrites only with the aid of a quick tinder. Finely powdered charcoal was added to the tinder. The first use of gunpowder by the Eskimos was for the purpose of soaking tinder in "gunpowder water," followed by drying. The potassium nitratean oxidizing agent-in the powder gave a "quick" tinder, further aided by the fine sulfur and charcoal. Steel and Flint.-Pyrites is the ancestor of the steel and Aint, and was used to ignite powder in the musket pan before their introduction. When pyrites is struck
with steel (such as a piece of file), the sparks from the steel are white, fine, and fast moving, with many points, while the sparks from the pyrites are large and bf a dull red color.The use of steel for lire making. was a develonment in the late Iron Age. The limitezand costly output of steel in the early Iron Age was necessarily used for weapons and tools-the chisel and the 6le. The first record of its application for fire making was made by Lucretius, 95-51 B.C. A steel strike-a-light was found ~
being a file, which contains over one per cent. carbon. Steel of a lower carbon content, about 1-2 per cent. gives a short spark, less readily. Steel with a carbon
content of 0.8 per cent. and a manganese content of 0.3 per cent. yields large sparks with relative ease. An examination of steel strike-a-lights, collected
in the remains of the pile dwellings of the Ueberlinger See and dates from the late Iron Age. The Chinese have used flint and steel for many centuries. The spread of the use of steel and flint over the world was due to the extension of commerce from centers of civilization to pioneer sections (Figure 13). Africa is a notable exception, where the use of steel and flint was restricted to the Mediterranean fringe. The explorers, traders, and settlers in North America introduced steel and flint, where i t replaced the friction fire drill used by the native Indians. In the Pueblo area, however, the Indians were slow to utilize new methods, and never adopted the steel and flint, shifting only recently from fire sticks to matches. England led as a supplier of flints, owing to the fine quality of English flint and the expert work of the flint knappers a t Brandon, where the industry still survives. The English tinder flints resemble the Neolithic scrapers. This is said to be one of the world's oldest industries Frouns ~~.-ESKIMOFLINT AND PYRITES STRIKE-A-LIGHT operating continuously in one locality. Qwzlity of Steel.-Iron does not produce sparks when stntck with a hand a n t . Likewise, soft steel is of no value for a steel and flint strike-a-light. A hardened, from world-wide localities, shows that the file has been high carbon steel with carbon content of 3 4 per cent. a prominent source of steel for this purpose. Several or more gives bright, thin, forked sparks, an example types of steels were used in North America: the
English type called a "flourish," a straight bar with a curved handle; a curved bar with finger loops, of Spanish and French origin; the Holland " 0 type; and the Russian design, a straight bar with ends bent back and meeting in the middle in the form of incurved hooks. Most of these were made from old files. The sharp edge of the moving flint cuts off small particles of steel which are heated to incandescence by
F ~ c u n13.-FLlNT ~
place, beside the fireplace; this type originated in England where i t had been in use for generations. The steel or "flourish" had a handle for holding i t over the tinder box; the flint held in the right hand was struck a scraping downward blow against the steel and the sparks fell into tinder (charred linen). After the spark had "caught" in the tinder, i t was spread by blowing, and a sulfur-tipped splint or "spunk" ignited in the glowing tinder. The latter was then extinguished by replacing the cover of the box to exclude the air. The cover had a candle holder in the top, a fact which resulted in its use as a candlestick long after the introduction of the match. The tinder-wheel box represented one of the attempts to improve on the hand flint and steel strike-a-light. A steel wheel, held by wires around the shaft a t the head of a small open metal box containing tinder, was rotated by quickly unwinding a string wound on the axle By pressing the edge of a flint against the wheel, a shower of sparks fell on the tinder. The tinder pistol was extensively used in Europe and later brought to America. I t occurred in a variety of patterns, the later models being ornamented and of artistic design. One type was marketed in a pocket size. The tinder pistol was similar to the flint pistol, except that a large tinder box was provided to catch the sparks instead of a smaller powder pan, and sulfurtipped splints were stored in the barrel or in the handle.
AND STEEL
the heat of friction. During the contact of the hot particles of steel with the oxygen of the air, the carbon in the steel is burned to carbon dioxide. The sparks of high carbon steel show a characteristic forking and bursting effect not found in the line sparks of low carbon steel. Excluding the match, the last step in the evolution of strike-a-lights is the use of cerium iron alloys, which produce with remarkable ease white sparks of high temperature when iirmly rubbed with a sharpedged flint or a piece of hard steel or the tip of a knife. This "sparking metal" alloy has familiar application in cigar lighters for igniting the vapor of a volatile liquid, such as a refined gasoline. Strike-a-light Sets.-Steel and tinder containers were of widely differing designs and sizes, depending upon the country of origin and use; that is, for the household, traveler, or hunter. Great advance in design occurred in Asia, particularly in Mongolia and China, where the steel was fastened to the leather pouch which held the tinder and flint. These "chuckmncks" were frequently decorated with gold, silver, and turquoise, and practically always with brass. Complete pocket sets, or briquets, were used in many countries. The tinder box used in our Colonial households is shown in Figure 14. The box was hung in a warm, dry
FIGURE
14.-STEEL
AND
FLIWT,TINDER BOX AND
SPUNKS
The North American Indians soon adopted the steel and flint for !ire maEng as a substitute for the fire drill. They used a leather pouch to hold the tinder, flint, and steel (Figure 15). The pouch was carried from the belt, and the steels included a piece of old file or a steel with ends bent back for a handle. A common tinder was dried fungus, supplemented with dry rotten wood. There are many variations of the aboveselected examples of tinder sets which today can-be seen only in museums or private collections.
A satisfactory flint and steel set can be made from a flat file, one inch wide by one-eighth of an inch thick, flint arrowheads, and charred linen. The file is smoothed on the edge with an emery wheel. Only the sharp edge of the flint yields sparks readily. After the sparks have caught on the charred linen, the latter is placed on the secondary tinder (finely divided red cedar bark or jute fiber from "newspaper twine") and blown until i t bursts into flame. The Bamboo Strike-a-light.-This fire-making curiosity is a striking demonstration of the ingenuity of the early inhabitants of Malaysia. Its use was confined to the bamboo area of the Eastern Hemisphere. The bamboo strike-a-light was used in the Malay Archipelago, the Philippines, Cochin China, and on Waigon Island northwest of New Guinea (Figure 16). By striking the hard, flinty surface of the bamboo with a fragment of pottery, sparks are produced which are caught in a quick tinder for fire making. Smooth bamboos are not usable. A variety with a hard, rough, silica coating and an appearance and feel like fine sand-
FIGURE15.-INDIAN TINDER POUCA. FLINTAND STEEL
paper, known in the Philippines as "bamboo buyo" (Schieostechyum lima), is used for this strike-a-light. The scurf down of a species of the Caryota palm serves as a tinder, which is carried inside a section of bamboo to preserve i t in a dry condition. Tinder for Strike-a-1ipht.-Fire making. bv a strikea-light requires a special tinder to catch the spark.
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