The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1878-10-16
Primitive Modes Of STRIKING Fire

In early ages, "when wild in woods
the noble savage ran, :" compliance with
the request, "Will you give me Hobt.
please involved, il the carap fires had
gone ont, a spell of unremittiue hard
work, considerable manual deSter;tv
ana an nnstinted application of "elbow
Bresse' The primitive mode of strik-
ing ire was by rubbing one piece of dry
WOOD upon another until incandescence
was induced. A tribe of South Ameri-
can savages improved upon the dry
WOOD friction process. They discovered
that they could generate showers of
sparks by The sharp abrasive contact of
certain kind of pyrites upon siliceous
or hinty stones. The sparks directed
upon a quantity of dry, rea6ily-infam-
mable tibrous material obtained fame,
with comparatively little trouble beyond
procuring and preparing materials. In
the matter OF " striking a light" the
human family remained in state of
comparative barbarism till a period
almost within the recollection of many
juniors OF the oldest inhabitant. Onr
grsndmothers kept the kitchen fire
allght all night by placing block of
coal upon it, and packing it with small
coal or ashes, so as to allow it to smold-
or only till the morning. The first
triumph of "applied science" in
" striking a light lay in the discovery
OF the combined capabilities of burned |
linen, or tinder, flint and steel, and |
br1mstope.ti tipped wood matches. or |
"spunks," as they were sometimes |
called. The tinder was usually domes. |
tic production, the tinder- boxes and |
steels, or " frizzies," were made at Bir- |
mlngham and Wolverhampton, England. !
where a considerable business was done |
in these articles. The hint was had
from where it could be picked up, and
the manufacturers and vendors of the
matches were chiefly poor old women.
Inc steel was of the form of the letter
U elongated and reversed, the narrower
stalk being the handle the broader.
which had serrated outer edge. was
used for striking the piece of flint, and
producing the sparks that ignited the
finder, which in turn lighted the brim-
stone-tipped match. The lighted tin
der, when it had served it's purpose. was
extlnguished by a close fitting inner
cover that was pressed down upon il.
The flint and steel were also used for
hthpOh-papor-JQlCk porous
paper that had been dipped in solution
Of saltpeter and afterward dried, The
was held close to the piece
Of flint, with its edge at the point of inn
pact with the steel. 1t ignited readily
and burned freely, but without fame.
Amadou, or German tinder, and ''touch-
wood, being woody tissue in certain
stage OF decay, were sometimes used in
lhe same way as match-paper.
The methods of initiating FIRE, as has
been seen, were, up to this point, by
rude mechanical expedients. It is only
Turing the last half century that science
nay be said to have been applied to the
of matches. One of the
earliest novelties was the instantane-
'us lighting box" which contained a
9ottle charged with sulphuric acid and ,
ibrous asbestos. The tipped match was
ct into the bottle, and caught fire in its
contact with the acid. The revolution
n matchmaking, and the origin of the
match manufacture, as large and i'm
'ortant industry, may be said to date ,
rom the introduction of phosphorus as
n ingniting agent applied in various
Ways.