The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1915-12-09

was in town last week.
a forest fire ignited by the lightning;
while the third illustrates the primi
tive campfire, and the method of con-
veying fire from one camp to another.
The first two being presumptive nat
ural sources from which man may
have obtained fire before he knew
manner for kindling it himself.
The progressive steps of mans ac-
quaintance with fire are three: The
knowledge of fire, the means of util-
izing it, and the means of preserving
it. The last step, which is one Of.
the most important in the history of
mans development, is fully illustrat-
ed by the series of different appara-
tus and materials. Many improve
ments have followed the first steps
p; in mans progress, and each method
hsa been subject to various modifica-
tions by different peoples. What was
probably the first method, that of
rubbing two sticks together with the
hands, was improved by reciprocating
motion effects; the twirling of one
stick held vertically between the
palms and resting on a second lying
horizontally on the ground, then by
the addition of bow and socket, fol-
lowed by the weighted stick as in
the pump drill, and finally the ma
chine with cog wheels and crank as
employed in Soudan-. The Indians of
the two Americas, Somalis, Kafirs,
Veddahs, and Australians, were gen.
orally exponents of the simple two
stick method. The four-piece appar-
atus was used by the Eskimo, Hin
docs, Dyaks, and some Athapascan
tribes, and the weighted drill was
employed by the 1roquois and the
Chukchis.
The second method is that of saw
ing, and the apparatus comprised a
thin strip of bamboo which was drawn
edgewise across section of the same
wood, in which a. corresponding
groove had been cut across the grain,
the sparks created falling through
the groove upon some infammable
substance lying beneath the large Sec
ton. This was also accomplished by
drawing a thong of rattan across
stick in which a longitudinal slot had
been cut PARKWAY through, the sparks
lighting some tinder placed in the
slot. These methods We're used by
the Malays, and Burmese, as we'll as
some other races.
Fire was, also made by plowing,
that is, a thin piece of wood was fore :.
ed along a narrow slot cut length
wise in large piece until the friction
ignited the tinder.. This system was
evolved by the Polynesians, the Aus,
tralians and the Papuans.
Another and more advanced sys-
tenn, of stricking fire was by percus-
sion, first employed through the use
of flint and iron pyrites, or stone con-
tanning iron, by the Eskimo and
Northern Indians, and later suppressed
ed by flint and steel, custom which
became quite general, and remained
popular for many years.
The collections of the museum,
which include several examples of
different forms of apparatus under
the above subdivisions, are supple
mented by examples of more recent
devices. One is tinder pistol, an
English adoption of the flint and
steel in a gunlock, which threw
sparks on some tinder What was
known as a fire piston was made by
the Siamese and Malays. This COM
prised a cylinder of wood with a
closely fitting wooden piston, a smart
thrust OF which kindled tinder within
the cylinder. A lens for focusing the
Sunllght on tlnQer is SnO"4l DIS du eA-
ample of a method first employed by
the early Greeks for kindling a fire.
Other apparatus includes what was
known in Germany in 1924 as hy-
drogen lamp, the hydrogen being de-
rived from the action of acid on zinc,
was made to play on spongy plati-
mum, thus causing it to glow; match
light box of about 1909, from Wen
ma, consisting of bottle of sulphuric
acid into which splints tipped with
chlorate of potash and sugar were
dipped, and matches of sulphur and
PHOSPHORUS, as we'll as an electric
| gas lighter The latter exhibits bring