FIRE-MAKING APPARATUS IN THE U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



By Walter Hough. 



Man in his originals seems to be a thing unarmed and naked, and unable to help 

 itself, as needing the aid of many things; therefore Prometheus makes haste to find 

 out fire, which suppediates and yields comfort and help in a manner to all human 

 wants and necessities; so that if the soul be the form of forms, and the hand be ihe 

 instrument of instruments, fire deserves well to be called the succor of succors, or 

 the help of helps, that infinite ways aff'ord aid and assistance to all labors and the 

 mechanical arts, and to the sciences themselves. — Bacon. — Wisdom of the ancients, 

 Prometheus, Works, vol. iii. Lond., 1825, p. 72. 



There is a prevalent belief that to make fire by rubbing two pieces 

 of wood is very difficult. It is not so; the writer has repeatedly made 

 fire in thirty seconds by the twirling sticks and in five seconds with the 

 bow drill. 



Many travelers relate that they have seen various peoples make fire 

 with sticks of wood. The most common way, by twirling one stick upon 

 another is well described by Pere Latitau with reference to the Hurons 

 and Iroquois. 



They take two pieces of cedar wood, dry and light ; they hold one piece firmly down 

 with the knee and in a cavity which they have made with a beaver-tooth or with 

 the point of a knife on the edge of one of these pieces of wood which is flat and a 

 little larger, they insert the other piece which is round and pointed and turn and 

 press down with so much rapidity and violeuce that the material of the wood agi- 

 tated with vehemence falls off in a rain of fire by means of a crack or little canal which 

 leaps from the cavity over a match [slow match]. This match receives the sparks 

 which fall, and preserves them for a long time and from which they can make a large 

 fire by touching it to other dry materials.* 



All these descriptions omit details that are essential to the compre 

 hension of the reader. There is a great knack in twirling the vertical 

 stick. It is taken between the palms of the outstretched hands, which 

 are drawn backwards and forwards past each other almost to the finger 

 tips, thus giving the drill a reciprocating motion. At the same time a 

 strong downward pressure, is given which may be called a rotating 

 pressure. The hands move down the drill; when they nearly reach the 

 lower end they are brought back to the top with a quick, deft motion, 

 This is repeated as rapidly as possible, If the lower part of the drill is 

 observed when the motion begins it will be seen that powder is ground 



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