The Portland daily press., 1893-06-13

Flame is never produced by this oper-
alton. The wood or coal must be brought
into contact with the finder and eau
tiously famed into blaze.
Another form is called the sspump or
weighted drill" and Mr.. Hough, in the
report of the National museum, says
that this apparatus is used Sin only two
localities in the WORLD" for making fires
viz, among the Chukchis Of Siberia and
the Iroquois Indians Of New York and
Canada. This apparatus is very ingeni-
ously constructed. It consists of piece
Of soft loose grained wood, as in the
first case, and the pump" or spindle.
The spindle is made of well seasoned
elm or other hard wood. It is usually
about two feet long and has a kind Of
fywheel about three inches from the
bottom. A crosspiece Of wood with
hole in the center large enough for the
spindle to pass through easily is then ad-
justed as the pump handle. Attached
to each end of this handle are cords,
which are fastened to the top of the
spindle and twisted. around it in such
manner that moving the handle up and
down will cause it to revolve rapidly in
alternate directions, thus creating
maximum amount of friction at the
point of contact with the loose grained
wood. This was the kind of apparatus
used by the Iroquois Indians ait the
white dog feast in 1888. a
The natives of the East Indies and Of
Australia use another method for OBJ
tanning ignition by means of wood fric-
ton. Their method is by saving A
V shaped notch is first cut lengthwise
in piece of bamboo almost penetrat-
ing it. Then another piece of bamboo or
other hard wood is shaped like the blade
of knife, and this is drawn backward
and forward, after the manner of saw
ing, until the lower piece is pierced and
the heated wood powder falls through.
DIR. r. M. Luther tells the following
incident Of lighting a fire by this proc
ess: "a Burmese found branch of the
oil tree, hewed in it v shaped cavity,
cut q knife of ironwood, sawed with it
across the branch and in less than three
minutes had coal of fire underneath.
This was taken in some dry leaves,
wrapped in bunch Of grass and whirled
around the head, giving q flame In q .iif-
fy. III This method, however, does not
seem to have been ever used by the North
American Indians. ~
Flint, compressed air and various 9TH
or materials were used to produce fire
until finally in 1895 chemical matches
were invented. These were generally
made Of strips Of shaving or thin pieces.
Of wood dipped in sulphur, but they had
to be plunged into bottle Of phosphor-
GUS mastic mixed with oxide of phos-
phorus to create flame. Various 9TH
Or chemical appliances had already been
tried. In 1914 patent was granted for
one of them in the United States, but in
1886 the patent Office at Washington is
sued patent for a friction match, and
since that time everybody who uses light
in any shape is aware " the perfection
to which the manufacture of matches
and fire lighting apparatus has been
brought.
There is, however, considerable con-
troversy as to the first inventor of fric-
ton matches. 1t is claimed for an
American in 1885, by the English in
1899 and by the Germans before 1880.
Whichever of the three countries was
the one in which friction match was
first made it is at all events certain that
the first patent was granted in the
United States.
WALTER F. RoBERTs
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