A spark, a flint:
how fire leapt to life
The control of fire was
the first and perhaps greatest of humanity’s steps towards
a life-enhancing technology.
To early man, fire was a
divine gift randomly delivered in the form of lightning, forest fire or burning
lava. Unable to make flame for themselves, the earliest peoples probably stored
fire by keeping slow burning logs alight or by carrying charcoal in pots.
How and where man learnt
how to produce flame at will is unknown. It was probably a secondary invention,
accidentally made during tool-making operations with wood or stone. Studies of
primitive societies suggest that the earliest method of making fire was through
friction. European peasants would insert a wooden drill in a round hole and
rotate it briskly between their palms This process could be speeded up by
wrapping a cord around the drill and pulling on each end.
The
Ancient Greeks used lenses or concave mirrors to concentrate the sun’s rays and
burning glasses were also used by Mexican Aztecs and the Chinese.
P e r c
u s s i o n methods of fire-lighting date back to Paleolithic times, when some
Stone Age tool-makers discovered that chipping flints produced sparks. The
technique became more efficient after the discovery of iron, about 5000 years ago
In Arctic North America, the Eskimos produced a slow burning spark by striking quartz
against iron pyrites, a compound that contains sulphur. The Chinese lit their
fires by striking porcelain with bamboo. In Europe, the combination of steel,
flint and tinder remained the main method of fire-lighting until the mid-19th
century.
Fire-lighting
was revolutionised by the discovery of phosphorus, isolated in 1669 by a German
alchemist trying to transmute silver into gold. Impressed by the element’s
combustibility, several 17th century chemists used it to manufacture
fire-lighting devices, but the results were dangerously inflammable. With
phosphorus costing the equivalent of several hundred pounds per ounce, the
first matches were expensive.
The
quest for a practical match really began after 1781 when a group of French
chemists came up with the Phosphoric Candle or Ethereal Match, a
sealed glass tube containing a twist of paper tipped with phosphorus. When the
tube was broken, air rushed in, causing the phosphorus to selfcombust. An even
more hazardous device, popular in America, was the Instantaneous Light
Box — a bottle filled with sulphuric acid into which splints treated with
chemicals were dipped.
The
first matches resembling those used today were made in 1827 by John Walker, an
English pharmacist who borrowed the formula from a military rocket-maker called
Congreve. Costing a shilling a box, Congreves were splints coated with
sulphur and tipped with potassium chlorate. To light them, the user drew them quickly
through folded glass paper.
Walker
never patented his invention, and three years later it was copied by a Samuel
Jones, who marketed his product as Lucifers. About the same time, a
French chemistry student called Charles Sauria produced the first “strike-anywhere”
match by substituting white phosphorus for the potassium chlorate in the Walker
formula. However, since white phosphorus is a deadly poison, from 1845 match-makers
exposed to its fumes succumbed to necrosis, a disease that eats away jaw-bones.
It wasn’t until 1906 that the substance was eventually banned.
That
was 62 years after a Swedish chemist called Pasch had discovered non-toxic red
or amorphous phosphorus, a development exploited commercially by Pasch’s compatriot
J E Lundstrom in 1885. Lundstrom’s safety matches were safe because the red
phosphorus was non-toxic; it was painted on to the striking surface instead of
the match tip, which contained potassium chlorate with a relatively high ignition
temperature of 182 degrees centigrade.
America
lagged behind Europe in match technology and safety standards. It wasn’t until
1900 that the Diamond Match Company bought a French patent for safety matches —
but the formula did not work properly in the different climatic conditions prevailing
in America and it was another 11 years before scientists finally adapted the French
patent for the US.
The
Americans, however, can claim several “firsts” in match technology and
marketing. In 1892 the Diamond Match Company pioneered book matches. The
innovation didn’t catch on until after 1896, when a brewery had the novel idea
of advertising its product in match books. Today book matches are the most
widely used type in the US, with 90 percent handed out free by hotels,
restaurants and others.
Other
American innovations include an antiafterglow solution to prevent the match
from smouldering after it has been blown out; and the waterproof match, which
lights after eight hours in water.
Complete the summary below. Choose your
answers from the box at the bottom of the page and write them in boxes 1-8 on
your answer sheet.
NB There are more
words than spaces so you will not use them all. You may use any of the words
more than once.
EARLY FIRE-LIGHTING
METHODS
Primitive societies saw fire as a …. (example) ….gift. Answer heavenly
They
tried to ….. (1)…. Burning logs or
charcoal …… (2) …… that they could create fire themselves. It is suspected that
the first man-made flames were produced by ….. (3) ……
The
very first fire-lighting methods involved the creation of ... (4) ... by,
for example, rapidly ... (5) ... a wooden stick in a round hole. The use
of ... (6) ... or persistent chipping was also widespread in Europe and
among other peoples such as the Chinese and ... (7) ... . European practice of this method continued
until the 1850s ... (8) ... the discovery of phosphorus some years
earlier.
Questions
9-15
Look
at the following notes that have been made about the matches described in
Reading Passage above. Decide which type of match (A-H) corresponds with each
description and write your answers in boxes 9-15 on your answer sheet.
NB
There are more matches than descriptions so you will not use them all. You may
use any match more than once.
Example Answer
Could be lit after
soaking in water H
99.
made using a less poisonous type of
phosphorus
. 10 .identical to a previous type of match
111.
caused a deadly illness
112.
first to look like modern matches
413.
first matches used for advertising
114.
relied on an airtight glass container
115.
made with the help of an army design
Anawer Key
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