The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1890-02-07
FIRE MADE BY FRICTION.
HOW THE THING is DONE BY MA.
TlVES IN MANY COUNTRIES.

The Rubbing of Dry Sticks Together Is
the Favorite Method-Crude Inventions
Which Require a Dexterous Hand to
Operats-The Pottery and Fungus Plan.
One of the first things every child
learns about fire is that certain savage
races produce it by the rubbing of two
sticks. Delightfully."- simple as the de-
scrlption of the process is, any one who
has tried to perform the operation will
certify that it is by no means an easv
one, and very likely will afterward de-
clare fervently upon oath that the thing
cannot be done. Many travellers have
tried, under the most auspicious circum-
stances-in countries where the produc-
tion of fire in this manner is ia every
day use, with a grinning native to choose
the weapons and give practical exhi-
bition of his own skiil-and after many
joint and muscle aching experiments
have given up the attempt in state of
mind bordering on temporary insanity.
''We ourselves" writes traveller, "have
been successful just often enough to un-
derstand the uncertainty of the opera-
tion."
JUDGMENT AND DEXTERITY.
In the first place Judgment is required
in choosing the sticks. The immense
variety of tropic vegetation furnishes
many sorts that answer the purpose, but
many also that will not; an expert some
times may be long in finding two species
suitable. One must be light and soft,
the other heavy, of close texture, and
both must be dry. Upon the heavy bit
he cuts two grooves, in the form of a
cross, fixes it tight-with his prehensive
toes probably-sharpens the light bit,
places it in the intersections of the cross,
and twirls it steadily between his palms.
Gradually tinder forms, in the shape of
dust, which drops down the grooves in a
tiny heap on either side If the twirling
be interrupted for second that repre-
sents so much waste time, which must
be recovered at enormous interest. If
the heavy piece shifts the tinder is dis
placed.
But the power of originating fire in
this manner with facility is not an ac-
complishment possessed by every one,
even in the countries where the practice
exists The inhabitants of the tropics do
not always depend wholly upon their
two sticks; among many tribes they are
nothing but last resort. They have
other methods of producing fire. A ma
tive carries in his betel box perhaps a
fragment of hard pottery and a morsel
of dry fungus. Fixing bit of the latter
in the hollow of the former, and holding
l,o4
that it follows the edge-he smartly
strikes his box. which is bamboo, of
course, just as if he were handling flint
and steel. The fungus tinder is glowing
in an instant.
The friction methods in use in differ
ent parts of the world are various. One
of the simplest is with the stick and
groove-a blunt pointed stick being run
along groove of its own making in a
piece of wood lying on the ground In
Tahiti Mr.. Darwin saw a native produce
fire in a few seconds, but only succeeded
himself after much labor. This device
is employed in New Zealand, the Sand
wich Islands, Tonga, Samoa and the
Radack Islands. Instead of rubbing the
movable stick backward and forward,
other tribes make it rotate rapidly in
round hole in the stationary piece of
wood, in the manner referred to, thus
making, as happily designated, fire
drill. This device has been observed in
Australia, Kamschatka, Sumatra and
the Carolines, among the Yeddahs of
Ceylon, throughout great part of South
Africa, among the Esquimaux and In
dian tribes of North America, in the
West Indies, in Central America and as
far south as the Straits of Magellan. 1t
was also employed by the ancient Mexi-
cans, and Mr.. Taylor gives quaint pict-
ure of the operation from Mexican MS,
in which a man, half kneeling on the
ground, is causing the stick to rotate be-
tween the palms of his own hands This
simple method of rotation seems to be
generally in use, but various devices
have been resorted to for the purpose of
diminishing the labor and Fastening the
result.
THE FIRE DRILL.
The Guacho of the Pampas takes can
elastic stick about eighteen inches long,
presses one end to his breast and the
other in the hole in piece of wood, and
then rapidly turns the curved part like
a carpenters center Bit" In other cases
the rotation is affected by means of a
cord or thong wound round the drill and
pulled alternately by this end and that
A further advance was made by some
North American Indians. who appear to
have applied the principle of the bow
drill, and the still more ingenious pump
drill was used by the Iroquois Indians.
For a full description of these instru-
meuts we must refer the reader to Mr..
Taylor's valuable chapter in his RE
These methods of producing
fire are but rarely used in Europe, and
only in connection with superstitious OBJ
servances.
We read in Wuttke that some time
ago the authorities of a Mecklenberg vii
lage ordered a wild fire to be lighted
against the murrain among the cattle.
For two hours they strove vainly to OBJ
tain Il spark, but the fault was not as
,ribed to the quality of the wood or to
The dampness of the atmosphere, but to
he stubbornness of an old lady who, OBJ
jecting to the superstition, would not
put out her night light. Such fire to
De efficient must burn alone. At last the
strong minded woman was cOmnaIIad tn