2007-08-10 14:00:01 · 5 answers · asked by Janineous 1 in Arts & Humanities ➔ History
Below is the link for Field & Stream's "Seven Ways To Light a Fire Without a Match"
If you're talking about colonial Americans, they banked their fires and the next morning started the fire again with some hot coals and kindling. Maybe with tinder and kindling if the coals were banked too hard.
If they let the coals burn out, or smothered them completely, they either borrowed some glowing coals from a neighbor or started a new fire.
To start a new fire, they would have used flint and steel to spark some tinder, have blown on the spark to cause a flame and fed the small flame tiny bits of tinder and kindling until they were sure that the fire was caught, then would have fed it bigger and bigger pieces of kindling until they could lay regular pieces of split wood on the fire without it going out.
2007-08-10 14:34:21 · answer #1 · answered by Peaches 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Flint and steel along with char-cloth and tinder. Very easy to do really. Takes about 20-40 seconds to have a small fire going in tinder.
Flint is available world over. Quality of flint varies and the steel you use needs to be the proper hardness. If they were in a cabin, most likely some embers from the fireplace were going at all times so the flint would not be needed but they probably all had them.
2007-08-10 15:29:31 · answer #2 · answered by Ret. Sgt. 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Some used Flint and steel, others rubbed sticks. others actually had a form of butane lighter but used whale rubber for oil to burn as it did in lamps of the era.
Many things could be used to create a spark to start a fire long before matches were invented. i think an ancient form of a zippo was out before a match was but again that I am not 100% sure of.
2007-08-10 14:06:25 · answer #3 · answered by Legend Gates Shotokan Karate 7 · 4⤊ 0⤋
Flint, they would have to get some very dry moss or fine grass and use the flint and maybe a little gun powder or other flammable liquid to help catch the grass on fire. Then over the grass you would have small twigs and just keep going until you had a nice fire going.
2007-08-10 14:08:18 · answer #4 · answered by Prof. Dave 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
i think they used flints. it's a kind of rock that lights up when you strike it i think.
2007-08-10 14:06:25 · answer #5 · answered by lila 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋