The most common way of building a fire among savages who have not
adopted the ways of civilization is by means of a bow, spindle and
block.
This way of making fire has been exploited by writers on woodcraft
subjects; but the reader should not be deceived into the belief that
if he becomes lost in the woods and night coming on finds him without
matches, he can build a fire by this means. While any boy scout can
demonstrate the method and can produce fire in a very few minutes, he
can do so only by having prepared the necessary materials long in
advance. The wood must be as dry as wood can be made, and such wood
is never found in the forest. To get wood into the proper condition
for fire making by the friction method requires the selection first
of the proper kind of wood, and then a thorough drying indoors for
weeks or even months. Only certain kinds of woods are really good for
the purpose and among these kinds cedar, balsam and Cottonwood seem
to be the best. Spindle and block must be of the same kind of wood
and equally dry.
The materials needed for making a fire are the bow, spindle, block,
tinder, and a shell, a stone with a small cavity, or other similar
object which can be used as a bearing or cap on top of the spindle. A
mussel shell is the best natural object for the purpose, as it is
light and has a hollow side which is smooth and makes an excellent
bearing for the spindle end.
[Illustration: USING THE BOW DRILL IN MAKING FIRE.]
The bow, about two feet long, may be made of hickory or any springy
wood, strung with a stout, hard laid twine. The spindle, of any of
the favorite woods, should be about sixteen inches long by
three-fourths or one inch in thickness. The top should be rounded and
the lower end shaped to a blunt, smooth point. It must be very dry.
The block should be an inch or a little more in thickness and of any
width and length found convenient, but it should be large enough to
be easily held down firmly with the knees when in the kneeling
position assumed when working the drill. It should be of the same
kind of wood as the spindle. The tinder may be any inflammable
material which can easily be fired from the burning dust, such as the
shredded inner bark of a cedar tree, very dry and fine, mixed with
shreds of white cotton cloth.
To use the outfit the operator cuts a V-shaped notch about
three-quarters of an inch deep in the edge of the block. On the flat
side of the block at the apex of the notch he then makes a small hole
with the point of a knife as a starting place for the spindle. Around
this notch he places a small quantity of the tinder. Then, giving the
string of the bow a turn around the spindle he kneels on the block,
places the point of the spindle on the mark at the point of the
notch, places the shell over the other end, and throwing his weight
upon the spindle he works the bow back and forth quickly and
steadily. The spindle, revolving rapidly, bores its way down into the
block, the dust which is worn from the block and spindle filtering
down through the notch among the dry tinder. An increasing heat
develops from the friction of the dry wood, and soon an odor of
scorching wood will be noticed; then a thin wisp of smoke arises from
the dust in the notch and this grows stronger, after awhile the
smoldering fire itself is visible in the dust which has accumulated
in the notch and about the base of the spindle. At this stage the
operator stops the drill and blows the fire into flame. All that is
necessary then is to place fine, dry twigs over the tinder and then
coarser wood, and this wonderful feat of building a fire without
matches is accomplished.
Matches are a comparatively recent invention. When this country was
first settled they were unknown and fires generally were made by
means of flint and steel. By striking glancing blows with a steel
object along the edge of a piece of flint, showers of sparks were
thrown into a little pile of tinder to be blown into a flame by the
fire-kindler. It is said that for an expert the trick was not at all
difficult, and that fire could be produced very quickly; but it is
obvious that very dry materials were necessary.
To the unfortunate who is cast away on a desert island, like the hero
of fiction, this latter method of fire making is the most promising,
for he usually has some steel object, even if only a pocket knife and
a piece of his coat lining picked into shreds may answer as tinder.
The difficulty will be in finding the flint; but that is easy in the
story.
[Illustration: USING THE FLINT AND STEEL TO START A FIRE.]
But the easiest of all ways to make a fire without matches is by
means of a magnifying glass or other lens. A reading glass, if the
sun is bright, will produce a fire almost as quickly as it can be
made with a match, providing, of course, that it is used the right
way. In the absence of a reading glass, a watch or compass crystal,
an eye glass, the lens from a field glass or camera, or even a
bottle, may be used for concentrating the sun's rays onto a pile of
tinder and thus producing a fire. If you are skeptical as to the heat
caused by a concentrated light ray, just hold a reading glass a few
inches above your hand and turn the glass towards the sun so that a
tiny point of intense light is thrown onto your hand and you will be
surprised to see how quickly it will burn a blister. A pipe may be
lighted that way very easily, something that is worth knowing if one
happens to get caught in the woods without matches and with a
magnifying glass in his pocket.
[Illustration: STARTING A FIRE WITH A MAGNIFYING GLASS.]
But he may not have a glass of any description and then--well here is
another way: A man traveling in the woods nearly always carries a gun
of some kind. Let him remove the bullet from a cartridge and
substitute a small bunch of dry tinder; shredded dry cotton cloth is
as good as anything, and loading this cartridge into the gun, fire it
into another small pile of tinder and blow the smoldering pile into a
flame.
The safest and most convenient way of all is, of course, to carry
matches, and to have a portion of them in a waterproof box. Matches
are cheap and a waterproof box will not bankrupt a woodsman. I
always, when in the woods, carry matches in a waterproof match box,
and I never use them except in emergency, carrying my regular supply
loose in a small pocket.
There was one time that I well remember when that box of dry matches
was to me about the most valuable thing in the world. That was the
time when I broke through the ice of a lake in the northern
wilderness, far from camp, and my clothes froze stiff before I had
gone a hundred paces. The dry matches enabled me to make a fire
quickly and dry my frozen clothes. What could I have done without the
waterproof match box?
Fire is as useful to the modern woodsman as it was to the prehistoric
man and in the far north it stands between him and death when King
Boreas reigns. But it can also do a world of mischief. Is it not
strange that the great forces which are so terribly destructive when
let loose in all their strength are the most beneficial and useful to
mankind? We could not exist more than a few days without water, yet
floods destroy each year millions of dollars worth of property and
thousands of lives. Electricity is, perhaps, the most useful power in
the world and we have grown so used to it that to give up its
comfort, which we derive in the form of light, power and heat, would
be an awful hardship, and yet electricity is the most dangerous and
deadly element known.
Fire also is so needful that we could no longer exist without it. It
alone can make our homes comfortable when the winter winds howl
without. Its heat is necessary for the preparation of the greater
portion of our food. Yet fire is a dangerous and destructive element,
and must be closely watched at all times to prevent it from breaking
out of bounds. From the harmless comforter of the home it becomes the
relentless destroyer.
The loss by fire would be reduced greatly if all persons would
observe a few simple rules and in the hope that some of the readers
may become just a little more careful in this respect I will give
these rules here:
(1) Use only "safety" matches. They will ignite only by friction on
the preparation found on the side of the box in which they are
purchased. If one of these matches falls on the floor it is harmless
since it cannot light accidentally and thus cause a fire. If they
fall into the hands of children they are also harmless as far as
starting a fire is concerned.
(2) Do not throw a lighted match onto the floor, or among rubbish.
Burned matches should always be placed somewhere where they cannot
possibly ignite anything in case a little fire still smolders in the
burned wood.
(3) Don't drop cigarettes or cigar ends into places where they can do
harm, and if there appears to be the least possible danger they
should be carefully extinguished. A pipe dumped into a waste basket
has many times started costly fires.
(4) Be sure that there is no woodwork so near the stove that it grows
scorching hot when the stove is overheated. Likewise make sure that
no rubbish is thrown near the stove or fireplace and that there is no
danger of fire dropping out onto the floor.
(5) Never leave the house with a fire burning in the stove, or
fireplace.
(6) Kerosene and similar substances should never be used for kindling
fires; their use is exceedingly dangerous. Gasoline especially is
very dangerous, not alone through the fact that it is very
inflammable but even more so from the fact that the fumes of gasoline
explode with great violence. It should never be used in a house where
there is a fire or a lighted lamp, and a fire should never be lighted
in a room where it has been used until the fumes are completely
cleared from the room.
Burning oil can be extinguished by smothering with woolen blankets,
or by throwing sand on it. Water merely spreads the fire.
While fires in settled communities do the most damage, a dry season
may see many destructive forest fires. Such conflagrations destroy
the forests and kill game and song birds, besides being a menace to
settlers. This country suffers great losses through forest fires,
many of which could be prevented by an observance of the rules
already given, especially those relating to smoking. Campers are also
responsible for many fires of this kind by failing to extinguish camp
fires, or by building them in places where rubbish abounds. A camp
fire should never be made except on a spot of clean ground and if
necessary a spot should be cleared before building the fire, digging
away the vegetable matter on the surface, if need be. Likewise the
camper should be certain that there is no danger from the fire
spreading before he leaves it.
Ordinarily he can feel sure of this only when he has completely
extinguished the fire by pouring water upon it.