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Concept
Fire making
Summary
Fire making, fire lighting or fire craft is the process of artificially starting a fire. It requires completing the fire triangle, usually by heating tinder above its autoignition temperature.
Fire is an essential tool for human survival and the use of fire was important in early human cultural history since the Lower Paleolithic. Today, it is a key component of Scouting and bushcraft.
Control of fire by early humans
Evidence for fire making dates to at least the early Middle Paleolithic, with dozens of Neanderthal hand axes from France exhibiting use-wear traces suggesting these tools were struck with the mineral pyrite to produce sparks around 50,000 years ago. At the Neolithic site of La Draga, researchers have found that fungi were used as tinder. Hearths are one of the most common features found at archaeological sites. Ötzi, a well-preserved natural mummy of a man who lived in the Ötztal Alps between 3400 and 3100 BCE, carried material to make a fire (tinder fungus along with flint and pyrite for creating sparks).
Fires start from increasing tinder's temperature until it combusts. Tinder is a material that combusts first (as an ember or flame) and in doing so heats other material (heavier tinder, twigs, kindling, etc.) until it burns (as a flame). Fine tinder is characterized by its ability to combust from a spark, friction, or other action from the below methods.
Many forms of tinder are available – charcloth is preferred by many; tinder fungus and other species such as Phellinus igniarius have been used as firestarter; most friction methods using wood generate their own fine tinder; today a pile of magnesium or ferrocerium shavings is common; and a moisture-resistant DIY tinder features cotton balls impregnated with petroleum jelly.
Autoignition temperatures of common tinder:
Tinder is preserved within a tinderbox, which today is often a plastic bag.
Tinder, when formed into a tight bundle, can also be used to preserve/carry an ember. Often in the form of a cigar and made of compacted tinder materials held within a tinderbox, a smouldering ember could safely be saved inside.
Official source
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