THE METHODS OF FIRE-MAKING, 



By Walter Hough, 

 (Department of Ethnology, U. S. National Museum.) 



The study of anv art includes a knowledge of the materials, the ap- 

 paratus, the processes, and the finished products. In a former paper* 

 the apparatus of fire-mating having been discussed, attention will here 

 be given to the handling of the apparatus, the mechanical principles, 

 the physics, and the chemistry of fire-making. 



All mechanical methods of generating fire take advantage of the law 

 that motion, apparently destroyed by friction, is converted into heat. 

 These methods can be grouped under three classess, viz: (1) Wood 

 friction ; (2) percussion of minerals; and (3) compression of air. 



Three other methods exhaust the entire range of usages in fire-mak- 

 ing, and they are with one exception, perhaps, recent. These may be 

 arranged in the following classes: (4) chemical; (5) optical; (6) elec- 

 trical; but these are also the exhibition of friction in its higher mani- 

 festations. 



I.— FRICTION ON WOOD. 



There are three well-defined variations in the method of making fire 

 artificially by friction on wood, viz: (1) By twirling or reciprocating 

 motion; (2) by sawing; (3) by plowing. 



1. FIRE-MAKING BY TWIRLING. 



Three kinds of apparatus are used in producing fire by the recipro- 

 cating motion, viz: (a) Simple two-part hand drill; (b) bow and cord 

 four-part drills; and (c) the pump-drill. 



(a) /Simple two-part hand drill. — This apparatus consists of two parts, 

 a vertical and a horizontal element called the spindle, aud lower socket 

 pieces: the latter may be called the hearth, which all the machines 

 under this class agree in possessing. The twirled hand-drill is the 

 simplest form of fire-making tool, and is, without doubt, primitive. 



The Eskimo of Labrador, Point Barrow, and other localities, also 

 bore holes with this form of drill. The Haida Indian carpenters, of 



* Smithsonian Report 1888, II, pp. 531-587. 



395 



