FIBE AS AN AGENT IN HUMAN CULTUEE 53 



invention the stove, notably that of Benjamin Franklin. With every 

 change also of fuel, modifications took place in the stove and so 

 appeared the gas stove, the alcohol stove, the oil stove, the gasoUne 

 stove, and the electric stove. This portion of the history, character- 

 ized by a multitude of important inventions, is left to other hands. 



FUEL 



Fuel is particularh a matter of environment, but is chosen for defi- 

 nite purposes of use in cases where the surroundings do not compel 

 the employment of one or a hmited number of fuels. There has evi- 

 dently been comparatively as much research in the kinds and quaU- 

 ties of fuel by man since ancient times as in the inventions for 

 employing fire for a definite purpose. Fuel has reacted on the kind 

 of stove necessary to use it; thus invention is influenced in a manner 

 which seems contrary to the common behef as to the cause of inven- 

 tions. The fuel question has always since the domestification of fire 

 been a most important problem, vexatious in all ages. The organi- 

 zation to procure and transport fuel has occupied a part of the ener- 

 gies and planning of man time out of mind, and perhaps the first 

 gathering and storing was connected with the fuel for the fire. At 

 this day fuel is the basis of an industry so enormous as to be 

 incomprehensible. 



Wood. — The most ancient fuel known to man necessarily was wood, 

 the most abundant and available for the simple fire. It is apparent 

 that this material would be dead and fallen wood, gathered with 

 difiiculty and great labor in most situations. It also seems probable 

 that the custom was, as among observed tribes, to use fuel sparingly. 

 An Indian acutely remarked: ''White man get lot of wood, make 

 big fire to boil his coffee; Indian use a few little sticks." 



As an example of the scientific method of the ancients in regard to 

 wood fuel, Mollett may be quoted under the word Acapna, defined 

 as smokeless: "Wood for fuel, which had undergone several opera- 

 tions to hinder it from smoking when put on the fire. One of the 

 methods employed consisted in stripping the bough of the bark, im- 

 mersing it in water for some days, and leaving it to dry. In a second 

 method the surface was rubbed with oil, or oil lees, or else the piece 

 of wood was plunged into the oil for a few moments. A third method 

 consisted in shghtly charring the surface of the wood by passing it 

 through the flame. The wood prepared by this last process was also 

 called coda and coctilia. ^* 



The search for something to burn brings out not only examples of 

 ingenuity but throws light on environmental conditions in various 

 regions. Thus we find the inhabitants of Rupchu, Ladakh, and Lahul 



'* J. W. Mollett. Illustrated Dictionary of Words Used in Art and Archeology, Boston, 1883. 



