Fire-making Apparatus in the U. S. National Museum.
By Walter Hough.
Man in his originals seems to be a thing unarmed and naked, and unable to helpitself, as needing the aid of many things; therefore Prometheus makes haste to findout fire, which suppediates and yields comfort and help in a manner to all humanwants and necessities; so that if the soul be the form of forms, and the hand be theinstrument of instruments, fire deserves well to be called the succor of succors, orthe help of helps, that infinite ways afford aid and assistance to all labors and themechanical arts, and to the sciences themselves.Bacon.—Wisdom of the ancients, Prometheus, Works, vol. iii. Lond., 1825, p. 72.
There is a prevalent belief that to make fire by rubbing two piecesof wood is very difficult. It is not so; the writer has repeatedly madefire in thirty seconds by the twirling sticks and in five seconds with thebow drill.
Many travelers relate that they have seen various peoples make firewith sticks of wood. The most common way, by twirling one stick uponanother is well described by Pere Lafitau with reference to the Huronsand Iroquois.
They take two pieces of cedar wood, dry and light; they hold one piece firmly downwith the knee and in a cavity which they have made with a beaver-tooth or withthe point of a knife on the edge of one of these pieces of wood which is flat and alittle larger, they insert the other piece which is round and pointed and turn andpress down with so much rapidity and violence that the material of the wood agitatedwith vehemence falls off in a rain of fire by means of a crack or little canal whichleaps from the cavity over a match [slow match]. This match receives the sparkswhich fall, and preserves them for a long time and from which they can make a largefire by touching it to other dry materials.[1]
All these descriptions omit details that are essential to the comprehensionof the reader. There is a great knack in twirling the verticalstick. It is taken between the palms of the outstretched hands, whichare drawn backwards and forwards past each other almost to the fingertips, thus giving the drill a reciprocating motion. At the same time astrong downward pressure, is given which may be called a rotatingpressure. The hands move down the drill; when they nearly reach thelower end they are brought back to the top with a quick, deft motion.This is repeated as rapidly as possible. If the lower part of the drill isobserved when the motion begins it will be seen that powder is ground532off and is collecting in the canal cut into the cavity from the side of thelower piece of wood. Soon, as the motion progresses, the powder beginsto increase and to get darker, the odor of burning wood is noticedand the smoke is seen. Probably when the next motion ceases therewill be a little curl of peculiarly colored smoke, which shows that activecombustion has begun. The pellet of ground-off wood may now beshaken out of the slot or canal. At first it is dark; a thin line of smokecomes from it; gradually the fire spreads through it until it glows.In this semi-charred dust the heat is held until it increases to about450°, or higher. Everything depends on keeping the dust in a heap;it is impossible to make fire without doing this. This is true in allkinds of wooden fire-making t