1916.1 The Invention of Fire. 5 



they will glibly say that is the method they would adopt in an 

 emergency. When they do try, they generally get much 

 warmer than their instruments. 



Except in more or less uncivilised places, and here and 

 there for ceremonial purposes, the match has ousted the 

 flint and steel and the fire stick. It, in turn, may be replaced 

 by the spongy platinum or other form of " automatic lighter " 

 in which, by the opening of a neat little pocket case, a file is 

 caused to scratch a mass of an alloy of iron and cerium giving 

 showers of sparks to ignite a small spirit lamp. The distri- 

 bution of the fire stick method in its various forms has been 

 dealt with very fully and carefully by Mr. E. B. Tylor in his 

 "Researches on the Early History of Mankind and the Develop- 

 ment of Civilisation," and by Mr. H. Balfour in the Journal 

 of the Royal Anthropological Institute, Vol. XLIV, 1914. p. 32. 

 The focussing lens and the fire pump, in which tinder is 

 ignited by the heat due to the compression of air, are compara- 

 tively modern methods, modern that is as compared with the 

 stone and iron ages. Mr. H. Balfour describes the five piston 

 and its origin and distribution in the " Anthropological Essays 

 presented to E. B. Taylor, 1907." The origin of gunpowder 

 has been ascribed to a fortuitous mixture of charcoal with 

 saltpetre from the saline accretions on midden heaps, but such 

 a mixture requires flame for ignition and is not readily set on 

 fire by percussion. 



In this sketch of the origin of the use and generation of 



fire for the service of man, the use of wood has been assumed 

 as the only fuel. Later on, other fuels would be employed, 

 such as charcoal, coal and peat, and also natural gas and 

 oils would be utilised. Artificial gas did not come into vogue 

 until the beginning of last century when William Murdoch's 

 experiments resulted in lighting the Soho works of Boulton 

 Watt & Co. near Birmingham. 



Charcoal, which is wood freed almost completely from 

 its volatile constituents, is smokeless and can be considered as 

 a development of charred embers from a fire of wood, brought 

 into the primitive man's cave to add to his comfort; but 

 probably primitive man, like many of his modern descendants, 

 did not object to smoke in his dwelling. When coal was first 

 employed is very uncertain, but the history of coal mining has 

 been worked out by Galloway and other authors. Natural gas 

 is not a portable thing but at one time it attained a very 

 important religious signification. Within the last fifty years 

 the gas wells of America have been an enormous source of 

 power. With uses of coke and artificial gas in all their many 

 forms in historic periods, this paper is not concerned. Only 

 attention is drawn to it in order to show that development in- 

 creased in rapidity as time went on, and it may be remarked 

 that every step was delayed by allegations of non-utility. 



