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Many different techniques for making fire exist. One of the oldest uses a fire drill = fire stick (rotating stick) or striking a stone containing iron to produce sparks. A flint alone doesn't product incandescent sparks. These methods are known since the Paleolithic ages, and still commonly in use with certain 'primitive' tribes but difficult to use in a damp atmosphere.
The oldest way to make fire would have been to carry a burning coal around from a natural fire, and to keep it smoldering in dry plant material (e.g. sage, tobacco) that can hold a burning coal for long periods of time. Dry tinder can be added to the coal, and then blown on to for flames. The problem with this method is that the coal can burn out, and the coal needs new plant material over long periods of time to keep smoldering. It may have been difficult to travel long distances in wet conditions with a burning coal wrapped in such plant materials. However, to keep red hot coals burning is by far the easiest and best way to keep a fire handy. Many natives in North America still use certain smoldering plants to keep a fire alive for days.
Natural Occurrence
Fire occurs naturally as a result of volcanic activity and lightning strikes, and many animals and plants are aware of fire and adapt their behavior accordingly. Thus humans would have known about fire, and later its beneficial uses, long before the ability to make fire on demand was developed. In addition, the first and easiest way to make a fire would have been to use the hot ashes or burning wood from a forest or grass fire, and then to keep the fire or coals going for as long as possible.
Birds
Many birds are aware that by following a fire, they can find many dead bodies lying on the ground.Plants
Various plants have seeds that germinate only after fire when the ground has been cleared of competing plants. Eucalyptus trees even contain flamable oils which help make fires more intense, so as to eliminate competing species........
Friction
This method consists of rubbing a hard wooden stick (for example some poplar) sharpened to a point, sometimes using a fire bow, on a hollowed piece of soft wood (for example fig wood). The heat produced is used to ignite tinder. The hand drill method can be done with a harder wood rubbing against a softer wood.
- The hand drill grinding against the soft wooden base causes black dust to form near the hole of the soft wood, and that can turn into a red hot coal that can be added to some tinder. By blowing on the coal and tinder, a flame can be produced. This takes a great degree of effort and experience to get the right materials to work.
- Another method of making fire, the bow drill, requires some soft wood for the drill bit and a maple like wood for the drill.
Percussion
To produce sparks, one hits a hard stone, for example flint, on another containing iron such as pyrite or marcasite. Sparks with this method must be immediately in contact with tinder.
Modern methods
Matches
The invention of matches date from the nineteenth century, but the word matches from about 1200.Lighters
Cigarette lighters combine a flint with fuel, and can produce adjustable flames.Electric
This is done using an object with a high electric resistance on the wood. A current is run through the object until it is red hot, much like the burners on an electric stove, and it is than brought into contact with the wood, lighting it. A support makes it possible for the resistance not to be in direct contact with the ground.Solar
This uses a concave mirror to focus the Sun's rays on some tinder. Alternately, a magnifying glass can focus the Sun's rays to ignite tinder. Magnifying lenses also can be shaped from pieces of ice.Compression
An unusual method of making fire is by using a device called a fire piston. Commonly constructed from wood, horn and plastic, it is composed of a hollow tube with one sealed end and a piston which fists snugly within the tube. At the end of the piston is a depression where tinder is held during compression as well as a gasket which is located just a few millimeters away from the end. The tinder is inserted into the depression, and the piston is quickly shoved into the tube. This compresses the air, raising the temperature in the tube, similarly to the way a diesel engine fires, to the point where the tinder ignites and forms an ember. Tinder can come from a variety of sources such as "Tinder Fungus" and char-cloth.This was observed in the jungle by Laurens van der Post.
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"Making fire"