Making Fire

[gilham]

Re: Making Fire

Backwoodsman Magizine had an article a few issues back with instructions for making a fire piston.

Here is a ready made one for a reasonable price.

http://matchlessproducts.com/ABOUTFIREPISTONS.aspx

[Pvt Schnapps]

Re: Making Fire

I should add that readers would be well-advised to take a close look at Mrs. Lawson's post, especially the reference to how a match syringe fits with her character. I haven't found anything yet that would indicate that it was in common use during the civil war among the troops. There are contemporary references to flint and steel, and to "savages" using sticks of wood, but most people seem to have used matches.

Here, for example, is a passage on the subject from The Prairie Traveler (1859 -- see pages 156-159: http://books.google.com/books?id=cWk...age&q=&f=false) (BTW, this is something else I believe I can thank Mrs. Lawson for):

It is highly important that travelers should know the different methods that may be resorted to for kindling fires upon a march.

The most simple and most expeditious of these is by using the lucifer matches; but, unless they are kept in well-corked bottles, they are liable to become wet, and will then fail to ignite.

The most of those found in the shops easily imbibe dampness, and are of but little use in the prairies. Those marked "Van Duser, New York," and put up in flat rectangular boxes, are the best I have met with, and were the only ones I saw which were not affected by the humid climate of Mexico. Wax lucifers are better than wooden, as they are impervious to moisture.

I have seen an Indian start a fire with flint and steel after others had failed to do it with matches. This was during a heavy rain, when almost all available fuel had become wet. On such occasions dry fuel may generally be obtained under logs, rocks, or leaning trees.

The inner bark of some dry trees, cedar for instance, is excellent to kindle a fire. The bark is rubbed in the hand until the fibres are made fine and loose, when it takes fire easily; dry grass or leaves are also good. After a sufficient quantity of small kindling fuel has been collected, a moistened rag is rubbed with powder, and a spark struck into it with a flint and steel, which will ignite it; this is then placed in the centre of the loose nest of inflammable material, and whirled around in the air until it bursts out into a flame. When it is raining, the blaze should be laid upon the dryest spot that can be found, a blanket held over it to keep off the water, and it is fed with very small bits of dry wood and shavings until it has gained sufficient strength to burn the larger damp wood. When no dry place can be found, the fire may be started in a kettle or frying-pan, and afterward transferred to the ground.

Should there be no other means of starting a fire, it can always be made with a gun or pistol, by placing upon the ground a rag saturated with damp powder, and a little dry powder sprinkled over it. The gun or pistol is then (uncharged) placed with the cone directly over and near the rag, and a cap exploded, which will invariably ignite it. Another method is by placing about one fourth of a charge of powder into a gun, pushing a rag down loosely upon it, and firing it out with the muzzle down near the ground, which ignites the rag.

The most difficult of all methods of making a fire, but one that is practiced by some of the Western Indians, is by friction between two pieces of wood. I had often heard of this process, but never gave credit to its practicability until I saw the experiment successfully tried. It was done in the following manner: Two dried stalks of the Mexican soap plant, about three fourths of an inch in diameter, were selected, and one of them made flat on one side; near the edge of this flat surface a very small indentation was made to receive the end of the other stick, and a groove cut from this down the side. The other stick is cut with a rounded end, and placed upright upon the first. One man then holds the horizontal piece upon the ground, while another takes the vertical stick between the palms of his hands, and turns it back and forth as rapidly as possible, at the same time pressing forcibly down upon it. The point of the upright stick wears away the indentation into a fine powder, which runs off to the ground in the groove that has been cut; after a time it begins to smoke, and by continued friction it will at length take fire.

[yeoman]

Re: Making Fire

Ma'am and Sir, ti's an interesting thread here be rekindled.
If I may pass on a bit of camp life after a days march from "Two Boys in the Civil War and After" by W.R.Houghton and M.B.Houghton.
"Halted for the night in the rain in the wet woods, one could wonder how he could light a fire. Soon a little glimmer appeared, when some man had obtained a little dried inner bark of a dead tree, ceder twigs or dry leaves or a piece of newspaper, the little flame was carefully fed with pieces of dead twigs until it became a fire, then a hundred hands bore away little torches of twigs to become the parent of other fires".

http://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/houghton/houghton.html

pages 62-63