![DirkvdM tinder box](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/52/DirkvdM_tinder_box.jpg)
Fire making, fire lighting or fire craft is the process of artificially starting a
fire
Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material (the fuel) in the exothermic chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction Product (chemistry), products.
At a certain point in the combustion reaction, called the ignition ...
. It requires completing the
fire triangle
The fire triangle or combustion triangle is a simple model for understanding the necessary ingredients for most fires.
The triangle illustrates the three elements a fire needs to ignite: heat, fuel, and an oxidizing agent (usually oxygen). A fir ...
, usually by heating
tinder
Tinder is easily combustible material used to start a fire. Tinder is a finely divided, open material which will begin to glow under a shower of sparks. Air is gently wafted over the glowing tinder until it bursts into flame. The flaming tinder i ...
above its
autoignition temperature.
Fire is an essential tool for
human
Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, culture, ...
survival and the
use of fire was important in
early human cultural history
Cultural history combines the approaches of anthropology and history to examine popular cultural traditions and cultural interpretations of historical experience. It examines the records and narrative descriptions of past matter, encompassing the ...
since the
Lower Paleolithic
The Lower Paleolithic (or Lower Palaeolithic) is the earliest subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age. It spans the time from around 3 million years ago when the first evidence for stone tool production and use by hominins appears in ...
. Today, it is a key component of
Scouting
Scouting, also known as the Scout Movement, is a worldwide youth movement employing the Scout method, a program of informal education with an emphasis on practical outdoor activities, including camping, woodcraft, aquatics, hiking, backpacking ...
and
bushcraft
Bushcraft is the use and practice of skills, thereby acquiring and developing knowledge and understanding, in order to survive and thrive in a natural environment.
Bushcraft skills provide for the basic physiological necessities for human li ...
.
Archaeology
Evidence for fire making dates to at least the early
Middle Paleolithic, with dozens of
Neanderthal
Neanderthals (, also ''Homo neanderthalensis'' and erroneously ''Homo sapiens neanderthalensis''), also written as Neandertals, are an extinct species or subspecies of archaic humans who lived in Eurasia until about 40,000 years ago. While th ...
hand axe
A hand axe (or handaxe or Acheulean hand axe) is a prehistoric stone tool with two faces that is the longest-used tool in human history, yet there is no academic consensus on what they were used for. It is made from stone, usually flint or che ...
s from
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
exhibiting
use-wear traces suggesting these tools were struck with the mineral
pyrite
The mineral pyrite (), or iron pyrite, also known as fool's gold, is an iron sulfide with the chemical formula Iron, FeSulfur, S2 (iron (II) disulfide). Pyrite is the most abundant sulfide mineral.
Pyrite's metallic Luster (mineralogy), lust ...
to produce sparks around 50,000 years ago. At the
Neolithic
The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...
site of La Draga, researchers have found that
fungi
A fungus ( : fungi or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as a kingdom, separately from ...
were used as tinder.
Hearth
A hearth () is the place in a home where a fire is or was traditionally kept for home heating and for cooking, usually constituted by at least a horizontal hearthstone and often enclosed to varying degrees by any combination of reredos (a lo ...
s are one of the most common features found at archaeological sites.
Ötzi
Ötzi, also called the Iceman, is the natural mummy of a man who lived some time between 3350 and 3105 BC, discovered in September 1991 in the Ötztal Alps (hence the nickname "Ötzi") on the border between Austria and Italy.
Ötzi is believed to ...
, also called the Iceman, a well-preserved
natural mummy of a man who lived between
3400 and
3100 BCE
The 31st century BC was a century that lasted from the year 3100 BC to 3001 BC.
Events
*c. 3100 BC: Polo ( mni, Sagol Kangjei) was first played in Manipur state.
*c. 3100 BC?: The Anu Ziggurat and White Temple are built in Uruk.
*c. 3100 BC?: ...
, found in September 1991 in the
Ötztal Alps
The Ötztal Alps ( it, Alpi Venoste, german: Ötztaler Alpen) are a mountain range in the Central Eastern Alps, in the State of Tyrol in western Austria and the Province of South Tyrol in northern Italy.
Geography
The Ötztal Alps are arrayed ...
, hence the nickname "Ötzi", carried material to make a fire (
tinder fungus
''Fomes fomentarius'' (commonly known as the tinder fungus, false tinder fungus, hoof fungus, tinder conk, tinder polypore or ice man fungus) is a species of fungal plant pathogen found in Europe, Asia, Africa and North America. The species prod ...
along with
flint
Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and start fir ...
and pyrite for creating sparks).
Material
Fires start from increasing tinder's temperature until it combusts. Tinder is a material that combusts first (as an
ember or
flame
A flame (from Latin ''flamma'') is the visible, gaseous part of a fire. It is caused by a highly exothermic chemical reaction taking place in a thin zone. When flames are hot enough to have ionized gaseous components of sufficient density they ...
) and in doing so heats other material (heavier tinder, twigs, kindling, etc.) until it burns (as a flame). Fine tinder is characterized by its ability to combust from a spark, friction, or other action from the below methods.
Many forms of tinder are available –
charcloth is preferred by many;
tinder fungus
''Fomes fomentarius'' (commonly known as the tinder fungus, false tinder fungus, hoof fungus, tinder conk, tinder polypore or ice man fungus) is a species of fungal plant pathogen found in Europe, Asia, Africa and North America. The species prod ...
and other species such as ''
Phellinus igniarius'' have been used
as firestarter; most friction methods using wood generate their own fine tinder; today a pile of
magnesium
Magnesium is a chemical element with the symbol Mg and atomic number 12. It is a shiny gray metal having a low density, low melting point and high chemical reactivity. Like the other alkaline earth metals (group 2 of the periodic ta ...
or
ferrocerium
Ferrocerium (also known in Europe as Auermetall) is a synthetic pyrophoric alloy of mischmetal (cerium, lanthanum, neodymium, other trace lanthanides and some iron – about 95% lanthanides and 5% iron) hardened by blending in oxides o ...
shavings is common; and a moisture-resistant
DIY
"Do it yourself" ("DIY") is the method of building, modifying, or repairing things by oneself without the direct aid of professionals or certified experts. Academic research has described DIY as behaviors where "individuals use raw and sem ...
tinder features cotton balls impregnated with petroleum jelly.
Autoignition temperatures of common tinder:
Tinder is preserved within a
tinderbox
A tinderbox, or patch box, is a container made of wood or metal containing flint, firesteel, and tinder (typically charcloth, but possibly a small quantity of dry, finely divided fibrous matter such as hemp), used together to help kindle a fire ...
, which today is often a plastic bag.
Tinder, when formed into a tight bundle, can also be used to preserve/carry an ember. Often in the form of a cigar and made of compacted tinder materials held within a tinderbox, a smouldering ember could safely be saved inside.
Methods
Natural occurrences
Fire occurs naturally as a result of
volcanic activity
Volcanism, vulcanism or volcanicity is the phenomenon of eruption of molten rock (magma) onto the surface of the Earth or a solid-surface planet or moon, where lava, pyroclastics, and volcanic gases erupt through a break in the surface called a ...
,
meteorite
A meteorite is a solid piece of debris from an object, such as a comet, asteroid, or meteoroid, that originates in outer space and survives its passage through the atmosphere to reach the surface of a planet or Natural satellite, moon. When the ...
s, and
lightning strike
A lightning strike or lightning bolt is an electric discharge between the atmosphere and the ground. Most originate in a cumulonimbus cloud and terminate on the ground, called cloud-to-ground (CG) lightning. A less common type of strike, ground- ...
s. Many animals are aware of fire and adapt their behavior to it. Plants, too, have adapted to the natural occurrence of fire (see
Fire ecology
Fire ecology is a scientific discipline concerned with natural processes involving fire in an ecosystem and the ecological effects, the interactions between fire and the abiotic and biotic components of an ecosystem, and the role as an ecosystem p ...
). Thus, humans encountered and were aware of fire, and later its beneficial uses, long before they could make fire on demand. The first and easiest way to make a fire would have been to use the hot ashes or burning wood from a forest or grass fire, and then to keep the fire or coals going for as long as possible by adding more combustible material.
Friction
Fire can be created through
friction
Friction is the force resisting the relative motion of solid surfaces, fluid layers, and material elements sliding against each other. There are several types of friction:
*Dry friction is a force that opposes the relative lateral motion of t ...
by rapidly grinding pieces of solid
combustible
A combustible material is something that can burn (i.e., ''combust'') in air. A combustible material is flammable if it ignites easily at ambient temperatures. In other words, a combustible material ignites with some effort and a flammable mat ...
material (such as
wood
Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin th ...
) against each other (or a hard surface) which are heated and create an ember. Successfully creating fire by friction involves skill, fitness, knowledge, and acceptable environmental conditions. Some techniques involve crafting a system of interlocking pieces that give the practitioner an improved mechanical advantage; these techniques require more skill and knowledge but less fitness, and work in less ideal conditions. Once hot enough, the ember is introduced to the tinder, more oxygen is added by blowing and the result is ignition.
The
hand drill
A hand drill is the simplest primitive method to produce rapid rotary motion of a rod. It consists in holding the rod vertically between both hands and moving these back and forth, in opposite directions, as in rubbing them. The rod typically ...
is the most widespread among indigenous cultures, characterized by the use of a thin, straightened wooden shaft or reed to be spun with the hands, grinding within a notch against the soft wooden base of a fire board (a wooden board with a carved notch in which to catch heated wood fibers created by friction). This repeated spinning and downward pressure causes black dust to form in the notch of the fireboard, eventually creating a hot, glowing coal. The coal is then carefully placed among dense, fine tinder, which is pressed against it as one blows directly onto the coal until the tinder begins burning and eventually catches into flame. The advantage of the hand drill technique is that it requires no rope.
The
bow drill
A bow drill is a simple hand-operated type of tool, consisting of a rod (the ''spindle'' or ''drill shaft'') that is set in rapid rotary motion by means of a cord wrapped around it, kept taut by a bow which is pushed back and forth with one han ...
uses the same principle as the hand drill (friction by rotation of wood on wood) but the spindle is shorter, wider (about the size of a human thumb) and driven by a bow, which allows longer, easier strokes and protects the palms. Additional downward pressure is generated by the handhold.
A
pump drill
A pump drill is a simple hand-powered device used to impart a rapid rotating motion to a rod (the ''spindle'' or ''drill shaft''). It can be used for fire making or as a drill to make holes in various materials. It consists of: the drill shaft, ...
is a variant of the bow drill that uses a coiled rope around a cross-section of wooden stake spin the shaft by pumping up and down a cross-member.
![PSM V10 D029 Ancient fire making methods](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8f/PSM_V10_D029_Ancient_fire_making_methods.jpg)
The
fire plough
A fire plough (or fire plow) is a firelighting tool. In its simplest form, it is two sticks rubbed together. Rubbing produces friction and heat, and eventually an ember
An ember, also called a hot coal, is a hot lump of smouldering solid ...
or fireplow consists of a stick cut to a dull point, and a long piece of wood with a groove cut down its length. The stake is pressed down hard and rubbed quickly against the groove of the second piece in a "plowing" motion, to produce hot dust which creates an ember. A split is often made down the length of the grooved piece, so that oxygen can flow freely to the coal/ember.
A
fire-saw
A fire-saw is a firelighting tool. It is typically an object "sawed" against a piece of wood, using friction to create an ember. It is divided into two components: a "saw" and a " hearth" ( fireboard).
History
Two forms of the fire-saw have been ...
is a method by which a piece of wood is sawed through a notch in a second piece or pieces to generate friction. The tinder may be placed between two slats of wood with the third piece or "saw" drawn over them above the tinder so as to catch a coal, but there is more than one configuration.
A
fire-thong uses a non-melting cord,
ratan, or flexible strip of wood to 'saw' the wood creating friction. On the board, opposite side the cord, is a well with a hole through the board to gathered the charred, soon-to-smoke, wood dust.
The ''Rudiger roll friction fire method'', also known as the "fire roll" method, is believed to have been invented by World War 2
POW
A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610.
Belligerents hold prisoners of war ...
s. A German survival expert named Rüdiger Nehberg wrote about this method in one of his books. A small amount of wood ash is rolled up in a piece of cotton like a cigar. The cotton is then placed between two boards and rolled back and forth. Pressure and speed are both gradually increased. With proper technique ignition can occur in seconds.
Percussion
![Eldslagning - Nordiska museet - NMA](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ea/Eldslagning_-_Nordiska_museet_-_NMA.0051717.jpg)
A
fire striker
A fire striker is a piece of carbon steel from which sparks are struck by the sharp edge of flint, chert or similar rock. It is a specific tool used in fire making.
History
In early times, percussion fire making was often used to start fire ...
or firesteel when hit by a hard, glassy stone such as
quartz
Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon-oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical form ...
,
jasper
Jasper, an aggregate of microgranular quartz and/or cryptocrystalline chalcedony and other mineral phases,Kostov, R. I. 2010. Review on the mineralogical systematics of jasper and related rocks. – Archaeometry Workshop, 7, 3, 209-213PDF/ref> ...
,
agate
Agate () is a common rock formation, consisting of chalcedony and quartz as its primary components, with a wide variety of colors. Agates are primarily formed within volcanic and metamorphic rocks. The ornamental use of agate was common in Anci ...
or
flint
Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and start fir ...
cleaves small, hot, oxidizing metal particles that can ignite tinder. The steel should be high carbon, non-alloyed, and hardened. Similarly, two pieces of
iron pyrite
The mineral pyrite (), or iron pyrite, also known as fool's gold, is an iron sulfide with the chemical formula Fe S2 (iron (II) disulfide). Pyrite is the most abundant sulfide mineral.
Pyrite's metallic luster and pale brass-yellow hue giv ...
or
marcasite
The mineral marcasite, sometimes called “white iron pyrite”, is iron sulfide (FeS2) with orthorhombic crystal structure. It is physically and crystallographically distinct from pyrite, which is iron sulfide with cubic crystal structure. Both ...
when struck together can create sparks.
The use of flint in particular became the most common method of producing flames in
pre-industrial
Pre-industrial society refers to social attributes and forums of political and cultural organization that were prevalent before the advent of the Industrial Revolution, which occurred from 1750 to 1850. ''Pre-industrial'' refers to a time before ...
societies (see also
fire striker
A fire striker is a piece of carbon steel from which sparks are struck by the sharp edge of flint, chert or similar rock. It is a specific tool used in fire making.
History
In early times, percussion fire making was often used to start fire ...
). Travelers up to the late 19th century would often use self-contained kits known as
tinderbox
A tinderbox, or patch box, is a container made of wood or metal containing flint, firesteel, and tinder (typically charcloth, but possibly a small quantity of dry, finely divided fibrous matter such as hemp), used together to help kindle a fire ...
es to start fires.
![Mora Knife with Ferrorod](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/01/Mora_Knife_with_Ferrorod.jpg)
Some fire-starting systems use a
ferrocerium
Ferrocerium (also known in Europe as Auermetall) is a synthetic pyrophoric alloy of mischmetal (cerium, lanthanum, neodymium, other trace lanthanides and some iron – about 95% lanthanides and 5% iron) hardened by blending in oxides o ...
rod and a hard scraper to create hot sparks by manually scratching the ferro rod with a knife or sharp object to ignite man-made or natural tinder. Fire starters based upon ferrocerium are popular with
bushcraft
Bushcraft is the use and practice of skills, thereby acquiring and developing knowledge and understanding, in order to survive and thrive in a natural environment.
Bushcraft skills provide for the basic physiological necessities for human li ...
hobbyists and
survivalists. Similar sparking devices have a built-in striking blade which provides an easy method for sparking with one hand. Another common type has the ferro rod attached to a
magnesium
Magnesium is a chemical element with the symbol Mg and atomic number 12. It is a shiny gray metal having a low density, low melting point and high chemical reactivity. Like the other alkaline earth metals (group 2 of the periodic ta ...
bar that can be scraped with a knife to make a powdered tinder that will burn for a few seconds.
Hiking stores sell both magnesium starters,
firelighter
A firelighter is a small, solid fuel tablet for fire making. Firelighters marketed as consumer products may be used to start a wood or coal fire in a fireplace, wood-burning stove, or solid-fuel portable stove.
As a hazardous material, firelig ...
blocks, and other specialist
tinder
Tinder is easily combustible material used to start a fire. Tinder is a finely divided, open material which will begin to glow under a shower of sparks. Air is gently wafted over the glowing tinder until it bursts into flame. The flaming tinder i ...
.
Lighters
Lighter
A lighter is a portable device which creates a flame, and can be used to ignite a variety of items, such as cigarettes, gas lighter, fireworks, candles or campfires. It consists of a metal or plastic container filled with a flammable liquid or ...
s typically use a percussion-type sparking device to ignite gas/liquid fuels such as
butane
Butane () or ''n''-butane is an alkane with the formula C4H10. Butane is a gas at room temperature and atmospheric pressure. Butane is a highly flammable, colorless, easily liquefied gas that quickly vaporizes at room temperature. The name but ...
or naphtha/gasoline. These are simple to light, often using a wheel mechanism that when spun with the thumb creates friction on the internal rod of ferrocerium "flint" and throws a shower of white-hot sparks into the gas or wick. Alternately, an electric spark ignites the fuel. With almost 2 billion lighters sold each year, this is the most popular means to light fires today.
Compression of air
A
fire piston
A fire piston, sometimes called a fire syringe or a slam rod fire starter, is a device of ancient Southeast Asian origin which is used to kindle fire. It uses the principle of the heating of a gas (in this case air) by rapid and adiabatic compress ...
ignites a combustible substance that holds an ember (e.g.
charcloth) by rapid compression of air. Similar to how a
Diesel engine
The diesel engine, named after Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which ignition of the fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to mechanical compression; thus, the diesel engine is a so-call ...
works, rapid compression of air heats the interior to 400–700 °F, well above the tinder's
autoignition temperature.
Solar
Sunlight can be concentrated using a
lens
A lens is a transmissive optical device which focuses or disperses a light beam by means of refraction. A simple lens consists of a single piece of transparent material, while a compound lens consists of several simple lenses (''elements''), ...
(such as a
burning glass) to focus the energy from the sun onto tinder. A
concave mirror can also concentrate the sun's rays onto tinder.
Chemical
An exothermic chemical reaction can generate enough heat as to catch itself or tinder on fire.
Match
A match is a tool for starting a fire. Typically, matches are made of small wooden sticks or stiff paper. One end is coated with a material that can be ignited by friction generated by striking the match against a suitable surface. Wooden matc ...
es are small sticks of wood or stiff paper with a coating that undergoes an exothermic reaction when triggered by friction.
Other reactions that can be used to start fires include:
* calcium hypochlorite and automotive brake fluid
* potassium permanganate and glycerin
* potassium permanganate, acetone, and sulfuric acid
* sodium chlorate, sugar, and sulfuric acid
* ammonium nitrate powder, finely ground zinc powder, and hydrochloric acid
* sulfuric acid, zinc, and platinum (as in
Döbereiner's lamp
Döbereiner's lamp, also called a "tinderbox" ("Feuerzeug"), is a lighter invented in 1823 by the German chemist Johann Wolfgang Döbereiner. The lighter is based on the Fürstenberger lighter (invented in Basel in 1780; in which hydrogen gas is ...
)
*
Percussion cap
The percussion cap or percussion primer, introduced in the early 1820s, is a type of single-use percussion ignition device for muzzle loader firearm locks enabling them to fire reliably in any weather condition. This crucial invention gave rise t ...
s, as used in
muzzleloader firearms, and
primer
Primer may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Films
* ''Primer'' (film), a 2004 feature film written and directed by Shane Carruth
* ''Primer'' (video), a documentary about the funk band Living Colour
Literature
* Primer (textbook), a t ...
s used in rifle and shotgun shells create a stream of sparks when rapidly struck.
Electrical
Electrical firemaking involves the contact of an
electrically heated object to tinder. A current is run through the object until it is red hot, like the burners on an
electric stove
An electric stove or electric range is a stove with an integrated electrical heating device to cook and bake. Electric stoves became popular as replacements for solid-fuel (wood or coal) stoves which required more labor to operate and maintain. ...
, and it is brought into contact with the tinder, lighting it. For example, a foil-paper chewing gum wrapper will heat-up and ignite; or a flashlight battery coming into contact with a thin wire mesh (such as steel wool) may produce enough heat to ignite
charcloth or other tinder. Larger batteries can generate sparks when its leads touch.
See also
*
Bushcraft
Bushcraft is the use and practice of skills, thereby acquiring and developing knowledge and understanding, in order to survive and thrive in a natural environment.
Bushcraft skills provide for the basic physiological necessities for human li ...
*
Firestarter (disambiguation)
*
Glossary of firelighting
*
''Quest for Fire'' (film)
*
Survival skills
References
External links
"Home in the Wilderness: Fire"''Mother Earth'' (January/February 1982)
Pitt Rivers Museum
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