HEATING AND LIGHTING UTENSILS IN NATIONAL MUSEUM 13 



whaler. In the fisheries collection is an iron basket at the end of a 

 long iron rod socketed in the extremity of a wooden pole. This 

 appliance was called "Torch Dragon" and was used in mackerel 

 fishing to attract the fish to the seine. (PI. 7a, fig. 3, Cat. No. 57,829, 

 Gloucester, Mass.; U. S. Fish Commission.) Fishing torches for 

 placing in the bow of a canoe are of various materials and variously 

 installed. Broadly, they are torches used by peoples unacquainted 

 with metals and those having metals. In the first case the torches 

 are bundles of bark, canes, or slivered wood. In the second case a 

 basket of iron, or lantern, or a so-called torch with wick may be used. 

 In the first class the birch bark torch of the northern Indians may be 

 cited as an example (pi. 75). The model canoe was made by north- 

 ern Algonquians and the group composed in the Museum laboratory. 

 The other, almost as primitive, but made of iron, is a fishing torch 

 holder from Finland. This apparatus consists of a block of wood 

 fitting in a thole in the bow of the boat and bearing a bent piece of 

 iron having three U-shaped loops riveted to it. In these loops was 

 laid the torch or lightwood. (PI. 7a, fig. 2, Cat. No. 167864, Antrea, 

 Finland; Hon. John M. Crawford; 23.2 inches long, 6 inches wide (59 

 cm., 15 cm.) A torch displaying considerable ingenuity was used on 

 the whalers about half a century ago. It consists of a can with 

 handle and match case combined, the lid of the can having a long 

 handle, a shield, and an iron rod with a burner of perforated and 

 plain iron plates attached to the end. In use, the can was charged 

 with the illuminant, apparently rape-seed oil, the burner always 

 bathed in the oil, withdrawn, lighted with a match, and replaced in 

 the can, and smothered out when the exigency was over. To obviate 

 any gas pressure, an air vent was led in a tube from the bottom of 

 the can. The specimen was presented in 1882 by C. A. Williams 

 and Co. (PI. 8a, fig. 4, Cat. No. 75370, New London, Conn., col- 

 lected by J. Templeton Brown; 14.2 inches (36 cm.) high.) 



On account of a survival of usage in the open air the name torch 

 is applied to vessels having a large wick burning oil. In reality 

 these belong in the single-wick type of lamps and mostly are mod- 

 ern. Of these, torches carried in political processions are familiar 

 examples. One of these, rudely made of tin and fitted with a gas- 

 pipe wick tube, is said to have been carried in a torchlight proces- 

 sion during the Lincoln campaign. (PL 8a, fig. 5, Cat. No. 289457; 

 Anton HeitmuUer; 4.6 inches (12 cm.) dia., 7.8 inches (20 cm.) 

 high.) Another, more elaborate, is a flare torch of tin painted red 

 with long tubular handle. Air is blown through the flame by means 

 of a tube, the mouth of which projects from the handle. (PI. 8^5, 

 fig. 2, Cat. No. 251476; U. S. Patent Office; 24.4 inches (62 cm.) 

 long. Patented August 1, 1876, by I. W. Shaler.) A hand torch 



