Fire was probably one of man’s first, if not the first, great
discoveries, and has been one of his greatest servants as well as
one of his greatest dangers. We do not know who discovered fire, or
what nation first used it. It is, however, one of the signs that
distinguishes man from the other animals. Not any of the lower animals
was acquainted with the use of fire, while probably the earliest races
of mankind seem to have been acquainted with it.
Mythology tells us wonderful stories of the origin of fire: according
to these tales it was stolen from the sun, or the gods, and given to
man; and Pandora, the first woman, was sent down to earth to punish man
for his theft.
The most popular of these stories is the legend of Prometheus.
According to this legend, fire, in the early days, was under the
exclusive control of the gods. Prometheus, brother of Atlas, the god
who supported the world on his shoulders, determined that the use of
fire should be given to the people. He decided by some means to send
a spark of fire to the earth, believing that one spark caught by man
would start a burning flame that would never go out.
With this idea in mind, Prometheus visited Zeus, the great ruler, to
carry out his purpose, for Zeus controlled fire. While Zeus was not
looking, Prometheus “stole some brands of fire from the hearth, which
he hid in the stalk of a fennel and sent it down to the earth.” Through
this Prometheus gave to man his first knowledge of fire.
But while this story of fire may or may not be true, the use of fire
rests entirely with man and his ingenuity. Through his ingenuity man
was able to subject fire to his will; making it perform certain of his
labors; and to a certain extent making it his servant; although it
always did and always will get beyond his control at times.
Our ancestors were not satisfied with preserving the fire which the
gods gave them; they tried and succeeded in producing it. One day one
of them discovered that by rubbing two sticks together rapidly, the
friction would create a fire. It was a most useful discovery. Before
long the whole of mankind had learned this trick; others improved on
this crude method until step by step men learned that by striking two
pieces of flint or other hard mineral together, quicker action was
obtained.
[Illustration: DRILLING WITH BOW STRING
Man’s ingenuity soon taught him that if he tied one end of a string to
something and wrapped it around his drilling stick, one end of which
was in a hole as in the first drilling picture, he could increase the
rapidity of making fire.]
[Illustration: DRILLING WITH HELP
With some other to hold the drilling stick while he operated the string
he was able to produce fire more quickly than he had ever done before.]
All kinds of methods were devised to increase knowledge of producing
fire. The early Greeks found out how to catch the rays of the sun on a
burning-glass and produce fire; the Romans achieved the same results
through the use of mirrors.
[Illustration: PLOWING
This is another method man used for rubbing two pieces of wood
together. In following this plan he usually used one stick of bamboo
and rubbed it back and forth in a slot he had made in another piece of
bamboo.]
[Illustration: FLINT AND PYRITES
In some places it was discovered that if you struck a piece of hard
stone, like flint, against another, a spark was produced which could be
caught on a bunch of dry grass or moss and so start a fire.]
In about A.D. 900, an Arab, named Bechel, discovered phosphorus, but it
took almost 800 years more for Haukwitz to learn that when phosphorus
was brought into friction with sulphur, fire would result. In another
hundred years the world was benefited by the invention of the friction
match--and since that time about one-half the people have been carrying
matches about with them, able thus to start a fire easily any time.
~FIRE A MARK OF CIVILIZATION~
Fire and man’s knowledge of it have had much to do with man’s progress
in civilization. Before man had fire, his life and movements were much
like those of other animals. When man had learned to make a fire he was
free to move and live anywhere and, therefore, people began to cover
more territory.
[Illustration: THE FLINT AND STEEL METHOD OF MAKING FIRE