Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1890-05-22
FIRE FROM FRICTION.
How Say2ce People Obtain Fire by the
Rubbing of Dry Sticks.


One of the first things every child
learns about fire is that certain savage
races produce it by the rubbing of two
sticks. says the american analyst. De-
lightfully simple as the description of
the process is, any one who has tried
to perform the operation will certify
that it Is by no means an easy one. and
very E.lely will afterward declare
fervent!y upon oath that the thing can
not be done. Many travellers have
tried under the most suspicious circum-
stances countries where the pro-
duction of fire in this manner is in
everyday use. with a grinning native
to choose the weapons and give a
practical exhibition of his own skill
and after many joint and muscle aching
experiments have given up the at
tempt in state of mind bordering on
temporary insanity. 1--WE ourselves, y
writes a traveller, "have been success
full just often enough to understand
the uncertainty of the operation" 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 ex-
pert sometimes 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, obably-sharpens
the light bit, places it in the inter-
sections of the cross, and twirls it
steadily between his palms. Gradually
finder forms in the shape of dust,
which drops down the grooves in q
tiny heap on either side. If the twirl-
ing be interrupted for second that
represents so much waste time. which
must be recovered at enormous interest.
If the heavy piece shifts the tinder is
displaced.
But the power of originating fire in
this manner with facility is not an &C.
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 a last resort.
fire. A native carries in his betel-boX,
perhaps, fragment of hard pottery
and a morsel of dry fungus. Fixing a
bit of the latter in the hollow of the
former, and holding it down with the
thumb-in such a way 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 finder is glowing in an instant.
The friction methods in use in different
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 piece of wood lying on the ground.
duce fire in few seconds, but only
succeeded himself after much labor.
This device is employed in New Zea-
land, the Sandwich 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. a tire-drill. This
device has been observed in Australia,
Kamschatka, Sumatra, and the Caro-
lines, among the Yeddahs of Ceylon,
throughout great part of South
Africa, among the Esquimaux and
Indian tribes of North America, in the
West Indies. in Central America, and
as far south rs the Straits of Magellan
1t was also employed by the ancient
Mexicans, and Mr.. Taylor gives a
quaint picture of the operation from
Mexican MS, in which a man, half
kneeling on the ground, is causing the
stick to rotate between the palms of
his own hands. This simple method
of rotarion 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
Guacho Of the Pampas takes IAN elastic
stick about eighteen inches long,
presses one end to his breast and the
other in the hole of piece of wood,
and then rapidly turns the curved part
like carpenters center-bit." In other
cases the rotation is affected by means
of cord or throng wound around the
drill and pulled alternately by this end
and that. A further advance was
made by some North American In
dians 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 de-
scription OF these instruments we must
refer the reader to Mr. Taylor's valua-
BILE chapter in his Researches"
These methods of producing fire are
but rarely used in Europe, and only in
connection with superstitious observ-
ances. We read in Wuttke that some
time ago the authorities of a Micklen-
berg village ordered wild fire to be
lighted against the murrain among
cattle. For two hours they strove
vainly to obtain a spark. but the fault
was not ascribed to the quality of the
wood or to the dampness of the atmos-
old lady who, Directing to the super.
stition, would not put out her nj CHIT
light. Such a fire to be efficient must
burn alone. At last the strong-minded
woman was compelled to give in. Fire
was obtained, but of bad quality, for it
did not stop the murrain. A belief in
the peculiar virtues of fire obtained by
friction of wood has at one time or
another prevailed among nations Of
lndO-EurOpean race, and not MANY
years age the obtaining of need (fre)
was practiced in the highlands of Scot
land. One of its principal virtues has
always been considered to be its eff
cheney against disease.
"SLOID."
System of Manual Training Now Being
Taught in This Country.