6 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [N.S., XII, 



The main object of this paper has been to show the exces- 

 sive slowness with which the development of the utilisation of 

 fire in the service of man has proceeded. This has been here 

 ascribed in part to the incapacity of primitive man to appre- 

 ciate the effect of any observation he may have made, and to 

 his inability to remember and to apply his knowledge when 

 remembered. Very largely this was due to want of education ; 

 and early man was hampered to an inordinate extent, as com- 

 pared with man of the present day, by lack of power to apply 

 analogy and to use inherited skill, induction and deduction. 



It is always easy to be wise after the event. It is difficult 

 to appreciate how hard it is to invent anything which satisfies a 

 really existent, but unrecognised, want ; and it is very easy, in 

 view of existing knowledge, to be astonished at the apparent 

 simplicity of the problem which has been solved with such 

 trouble and pain. In any case involving the infringement of a 

 patent, when the validity comes into question, it is more than 

 exceedingly difficult to revert mentally to the state of the art 

 at the date of the invention, or in other words, to obliterate 

 from the mind all the progress that has ensued since the prior 

 date. So to us, in the present day, fire and matches are every- 

 day things— we know them so well and the state of affairs in 

 their absence is almost inconceivable. Fire for the service of 

 man probably took ages and ages to develop in the then 

 existing stages of primitive civilisation, and life without fire is 

 now unthinkable. 



Life without matches is at least a hardship. For the sake 

 of comparison the invention of matches amongst a civilised 

 race, in contradistinction to the invention of fire amid a highly 

 developed animal race may be considered in view of present 

 knowledge. As has been said, flint, steel and tinder, with few 

 exceptions were the prevalent means of getting fire until well 

 on in the 19th century, say between 1840 and 1850. In 1827 

 a practical form of frictionally ignited match was first put on 

 the market, but only on a very small scale at the very high 

 price of a shilling (twelve annas) a box. Long before then, 

 the want of some readier means of obtaining fire had been felt. 

 From late in the 17th century some attempts had been made 

 to utilise phosphorus which had just been discovered by 

 Robert Boyle. The beginning of the 19th century saw the use 

 of mixtures of sugar and potasium chlorate which are ignited 

 by contact with strong sulphuric acid. The history may be 

 read in the Encyclopaedia Britannica. In the sixties of last 

 century, matches cost an anna a box at least. Now they can 

 be bought, in spite of the war, at two annas (pence) or less per 

 dozen and each box contains three score sticks. 



Consider what this means. A neat little box with the 



or even less, and each fire 



fire3 



