Part 16 (1/2)
a Amacou, punk, or German tinder, is made from a kind of fungus or mushroom that grows on the trunks of old oaks, ashes, beeches, etc.; many other kinds of fungus, and, I believe, all kinds of puff-b.a.l.l.s, will also make tinder. ”It should be gathered in August or September, and is prepared by removing the outer bark with a knife, and separating carefully the spongy yellowish ma.s.s that lies within it. This is cut into thin slices, and beaten with a mallet to soften it, till it can easily be pulled asunder between the fingers. It is then boiled in a strong solution of saltpetre.”
A Roll of Rag.--Cotton rag will easily take fire from the spark from a flint, in a very dry climate, if well struck. It must be rolled up moderately tight, so as to have the end of the roll fluffy; the rag having been torn, not cut. A rag rolled in this way is not bad tinder, if the sparks are strong, and one commences to blow it the instant one of the fibres is seen to be alight. If its fluffy end be rubbed into a little dry gunpowder, its property as tinder is greatly improved.
Cotton Lamp-wick.--A piece of it drawn through a tin tube, to s.h.i.+eld the previously charred part from being rubbed off, is excellent in dry climates. (See fig. 1, p. 180.)
Touch-paper is merely paper dipped in a solution of saltpetre, or what comes to nearly the same thing and is somewhat better, paper smeared with damp gunpowder until it is blackened. Some grains of uncrushed gunpowder should be left adhering to the paper, and a few more should be allowed to lie loosely upon it. Unsized paper, like that out of a blotting-book, is the best suited for making into touch-paper; paper is rendered unsized by being well soaked and washed in water. (See next paragraph.)
Saltpetre for Tinder.--In all cases the presence of saltpetre makes tinder burn more hotly and more fiercely; and saltpetre exists in such great quant.i.ties in the ashes of many plants (as tobacco, dill, maize, sunflower), that these can be used, just as they are, in the place of it.
Thus, if the ashes of a cigar be well rubbed into a bit of paper, they convert it into touch-paper. So will gunpowder, for out of four parts of it, three are saltpetre; damaged gunpowder may be used for making touch-paper. If it be an object to prepare a store of tinder, a strong solution of saltpetre in water should be obtained, and the paper, or rags, or fungus, dipped into it and hung to dry. This solution may be made by pouring a little water on a charge of gunpowder, or on the ashes above-mentioned, which will dissolve the saltpetre out of them. Boiling water makes a solution forty-fold stronger than ice-cold water, and about eight times stronger than water at 60 degrees Fahr.
Hair of Plants.--The silky down of a particular willow (S. lanata) was used by the Esquimaux, with whom Dr. Kane had intercourse; and the botanist Dr. Lindley once informed me that he had happened to receive a piece of peculiarly excellent tinder that was simply the hair of a tree-fern. The Gomuti tinder of the Eastern Archipelago is the hair of a palm.
Pith.--Many kinds of pith are remarkable as tinders; that whence the well-known pith hats are made, is used as tinder in India. Pieces of pith are often sewn round with thin cotton or silk, so as to form a long cord, like the cotton lamp-wick I have described above, and they are carried in tubes for the same reason.
b. We now come to the different kinds of tinder that fall into our second division, namely, those that are too friable to bear handling.
Rags.--Charred linen rags make the tinder that catches fire most easily, that burns most hotly when blown upon, and smoulders most slowly when left to itself, of any kind of tinder that is generally to be obtained.
In making it the rags are lighted, and when in a blaze and before they are burnt to white ashes, the flame is stifled out. It is usual to make this kind of tinder in the box intended to hold it; but it can easily be made on the ground in the open air, by setting light to the rag, and dropping pinches of sand upon the flaming parts as soon as it is desired to quench them. The sand is afterwards brushed away, and the tinder gently extricated.
Touch-wood is an inferior sort of tinder, but is always to be met with in woody countries.
Dry Dung.--Dry and powdered cattle dung--especially horse-dung--will take a spark, but with trouble. After it is lighted it can be kept burning with little difficulty.
Tinder-boxes.--There are three ways of striking a flint, which are best explained by sketches. Fig. 1, p. 180, shows how tinder that is tough enough to bear handling, is grasped together with the flint. When no tinder-box is at hand the more friable kinds of tinder, as touch-wood, may be enveloped in a roll of rag and be used either as in fig. 1 or in fig 3. Fig. 2 shows how tinder may be laid on the ground, and how sparks may be struck upon it. The household tinder-boxes of thirty years ago, before lucifers were invented, were for use in this way. Fig. 3 shows how sparks may be struck into a small tinder-box. It is the method most commonly adopted by travellers: for instance, it is universally used in South Africa and in North America. A hollow cylinder of wood or metal, about three inches long, and corked up at one end, is all that is essential. If it be barrel-shaped the flint lies against its sides, at the most convenient angle for striking sparks into the box, as is shown by the bottom drawing of fig. 3.
[Fig 2 and 3 as described].
Wet Weather.--In long-continued soaking weather, the best way of keeping a tinder-box dry is to put it into a small pocket hung close under the armpit.
Fuel.--Firewood.--There is a knack in finding firewood. It should be looked for under bushes; the stump of a tree that is rotted nearly to the ground has often a magnificent root, fit to blaze throughout the night.
Dry Cattle-dung.--The dry dung of cattle and other animals, as found on the ground, is very generally used throughout the world, in default of better fuel, and there is nothing whatever objectionable in employing it.
The Canadians call it by the apt name of ”Bois de Vache.” In North and South Africa it is frequently used; throughout a large part of Armenia and of Thibet the natives rely entirely upon it. There is a great convenience in this sort of fuel; because, as it is only in camps that fuel is wanted, so it is precisely at old encamping-places that cattle-dung is abundantly found.
Bones.--Another remarkable subst.i.tute for firewood is bones; a fact which Mr. Darwin was, I believe, the first to mention. The bones of an animal, when freshly killed, make good fuel; and even those of cooked meat, and such as have been exposed to the air for some days, will greatly increase the heat of a scanty fire. Their smell is not disagreeable: it is simply that of roast or burnt meat. In the Falkland Islands, where firewood is scarce, it is not unusual to cook part of the meat of a slaughtered bull with its own bones. When the fire is once started with a few sticks, it burns well and hotly. The flame of course depends on the fat within the bones, and therefore the fatter the animal the better the fire. During the Russian campaign in 1829, the troops suffered so severely from cold at Adrianople, that the cemeteries were ransacked for bones for fuel.
(Moltke, in the Appendix.)
Sea-weed makes a hot though not a cheerful fire. It is largely used. The vraic or sea-weed gatherers of the Channel Islands are represented in many picturesque sketches. The weed is carted home, spread out, and dried.
Peat.--Travellers must bear in mind that peat will burn, especially as the countries in which it is found are commonly dest.i.tute of firewood; and, besides that, are marshy, cold, and aguish.
Charcoal is frequently carried by travellers in sacks; they use a prepared charcoal in the East, which is made in the form of very large b.u.t.tons, that are carried strung together on a string. An Indian correspondent informs me that they are made by mixing powdered charcoal with mola.s.ses, in the proportion of ten to one, or thereabouts, rolling the ma.s.s into b.a.l.l.s, and drying them in the sun. A single ball is called a ”gul.” They are used for igniting hookhas: they are also burnt inside the smoothing-iron used by washermen in order to heat it. The juice or sap of many plants would probably answer the purpose of mola.s.ses in their preparation.
Small Fuel for lighting the Fire.--Shreds and Fibres.--The live spark has to be received and partly enclosed, in a loose heap or nest of finely-shredded fuel. The substances for making such a nest, are one or other of the following list:--
Dry gra.s.s of the finest kinds: leaves: moss: lichen, and wild cotton; stalks or bark, broken up and rubbed small between the fingers; peat or cattle-dung pulverised; paper that has been doubled up in many folds and then cut with a sharp knife into the finest possible shavings; tow, or what is the same thing, oak.u.m, made by unravelling rope or string; and sc.r.a.pings and fine shavings from a log of wood. The shreds that are intended to touch the live spark should be reduced to the finest fibre; the outside of the nest may be of coa.r.s.er, but still of somewhat delicate material.