Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
needed and had to exist in a form that was usable.This required devices to
start fire, special fuels to stoke it, and appliances to store and regulate it.
They are among the most ancient of technologies and the most familiar, or
were until industrialization rendered them alien, almost magical.
FIRE STARTERS, FIRE PRESERVERS
Nature has not been an easy source for fire, however. Some places have lit-
tle flame; others have it only as the whim and seasonality of lightning or
volcanic eruption allow. Nor, for early hominids, was fire easy to make.
They had to hold on to it once they had it. If they lost it, they could get
more only by begging, borrowing, or stealing from others.Yet it was rare
for groups to give fire away: it was too precious.They shared only within a
clan, from a common source, and shared with outsiders only during core
ceremonies like marriage or treaty-signings where the commingling of
their fires symbolized the merging of their interests. To lose fire could be
disastrous, the very symbol of catastrophe.
So they strove to preserve fire. Slow matches, banked coals, embers insu-
lated with banana leaves or birch bark, and perpetually maintained com-
munal hearths kept fire constantly alive.With suitable kindling and coaxing,
new fires could be ignited from this source. The effort to preserve the
hearth fire or the sacred fire of the larger community had thus an
immensely practical purpose, eventually coded in elaborate ceremony and
symbolism. Many peoples, moreover, carried their glowing fires with them
when they traveled. It was once believed that Australian Aborigines,Tasma-
nians, and Andaman Islanders did not know how to start fire because for
decades they were not seen to kindle one. Instead they carried their fire-
sticks with them.They were right that fire was usable only if it was portable.
Most groups, however, substituted fire-starters for fire itself.Three kinds of
devices prevailed—the fire drill, the fire piston, and the fire striker.The first
includes fire plows and saws, as well as drills proper, and works by vigorous
rubbing to the point that the heat of friction can kindle tinder.The second,
more restricted, works like a diesel engine by quickly plunging a tinder-
draped piston into a small chamber and then pulling it out. The rapid
buildup of heat and sudden release into oxygen results in ignition.The third
embraces a wide variety of instruments that showers sparks onto tinder.
Drills and strikers closely mimic the stone and bone tools of
Homo sapiens,
and almost certainly date from the same Paleolithic epoch; their geography
