253 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



IK. 



in history he discovered the Promethean 

 spark, and a train of blessings came with its 

 advent. The light and warmth of the sun 

 were let into his cheerless dwelling. Forests 

 and jungles, with their poisonous malaria, 

 noxious insects, venomous serpents, and 

 ravening beasts were subdued or quickly re- 

 moved. Life was prolonged by the cooking 

 of food and by the ability to preserve it for 

 future use through drying, smoking, roast- 

 ing, etc. In the open the hunter sleeps se- 

 cure from ravenous beasts so long as his fire 

 is burning. 



In old archeological sites in Europe, rep- 

 resenting the remains of the cave-men of the 

 Mousterian epoch in France and Belgium, 

 are found flints that have been cracked by 

 fire, fragments of charcoal, burnt bones that 

 have been split for the marrow. MASON 

 Origins of Invention, ch. 3, p. 84. (S., 

 1899.) 



1235. FIRE FROM FLINT AND STEEL 



Progress to Friction Matches, Argand 

 Burner, Gas and Electric Lighting. One of 

 the most vivid recollections of my childhood 

 is of seeing the cook make tinder in the 

 evening by burning old linen rags, and in 

 the morning, with flint and steel, obtaining 

 the spark which, by careful blowing, spread 

 sufficiently to ignite the thin brimstone 

 match from which a candle was lit and fire 

 secured for the day. The process was, how- 

 ever, sometimes a tedious one, and if the 

 tinder had accidentally got damp, or if the 

 flint were worn out, after repeated failures 

 a light had to be obtained from a neighbor. 

 At that time there were few savages in any 

 part of the world but could obtain fire as 

 easily as the most civilized of mankind. 

 . . . About 1834, phosphorus began to be 

 used with other materials to cause more 

 easy ignition, and by 1840 these matches 

 became so cheap as to come into general use 

 in place of the old flint and steel. . . . 

 Whereas down to the end of the last century 

 our modes of producing and utilizing light 

 were almost exactly the same as had been in 

 use for the preceding two or three thousand 

 years, in the present century we have made 

 no less than three new departures, all of 

 which are far superior to the methods of our 

 forefathers. These are: (1) the improve- 

 ment in lamps by the use of the principle of 

 the Argand burner and chimney; (2) light- 

 ing by coal-gas ; and ( 3 ) the various modes 

 of electric lighting. WALLACE The Wonder- 

 ful Century, ch. 4, pp. 26-30. (D. M. & Co., 

 1899.) 



1236. FIRE, ITS SERVICE TO SCI- 

 ENCE Maw's Friend and Servant^A Chief 

 Factor of Civilization Gives Power over 

 Nature. Looking back through the long 

 dark vista of human history, the one step 

 in material progress that seems to be really 

 comparable in importance with several of 

 the steps we have just made, was, when fire 

 was first utilized, and became the servant 

 and the friend, instead of being the master 



and the enemy, of man. From that far dis- 

 tant epoch even down to our day, fire, in 

 various forms and in ever-widening spheres 

 of action, has not only ministered to the 

 necessities and the enjoyments of man, but 

 has been the greatest, the essential factor, 

 in that continuous increase of his power 

 over Nature which has undoubtedly been a 

 chief means of the development of his in- 

 tellect and a necessary condition of what we 

 term civilization. Without fire there would 

 have been neither a bronze nor an iron age, 

 and without these there could have been no 

 effective tools or weapons, with all the long 

 succession of mechanical discoveries and re- 

 finements that depended upon them. With- 

 out fire there could be no rudiment even of 

 chemistry, and all that has arisen out of it. 

 Without fire much of the earth's surface 

 would be uninhabitable by man, and much 

 of what is now wholesome food would be 

 useless to him. Without fire he must al- 

 ways have remained ignorant of the larger 

 part of the world of matter and of its mys- 

 terious forces. He might have lived in the 

 warmer parts of the earth in a savage or even 

 in a partially civilized condition, but he 

 could never have risen to the full dignity 

 of intellectual man, the interpreter and mas- 

 ter of the forces of Nature. WALLACE The 

 Wonderful Century, ch. 1, p. 2. (D. M. & 

 Co., 1899.) 



1237. FIRE KINDLED BY PRIMITIVE 

 MAN Australian Devices. The Australians 

 obtain fire by rubbing together two pieces of 

 wood. The process, however, being one of 

 considerable labor, particularly in damp 

 weather, great care is taken to prevent the 

 fire, when once lighted, from becoming ex- 

 tinguished. For this reason they often carry 

 with them a cone of Banksia, which burns 

 slowly. AVEBURY Prehistoric Times, ch. 13, 

 p. 425. (A., 1900.) 



1238. 



Origin of Flint and 



Steel The Fire-drill. The fire-drill is a 

 means of converting mechanical force into 

 heat till the burning-point of wood is 

 reached. But all that is really wanted is 

 a glowing hot particle or spark, and this 

 can be far more easily got in other ways. 

 Breaking a nodule of iron pyrites picked 

 up on the seashore, and with a bit of flint 

 striking sparks from it on tinder, is a way 

 of firemaking quite superior to the use of 

 the wooden drill. It was known to some 

 modern savages, even the miserable natives 

 of Terra del Fuego; to the prehistoric men 

 of Europe, as appears from the bits of py- 

 rites found in their caves; and of course to 

 the old civilized world, as witness the Greek 

 name of the mineral, purites, or "fiery." 

 Substitute for this a piece of iron, and we 

 have the flint and steel, the ordinary appa- 

 ratus of nations from their entry into the 

 iron age till modern times. Yet even this 

 has now been so discarded that the old- 

 fashioned kitchen tinder-box with its flint 

 and U-shaped steel, and damper for pre- 



