Did man discover or invent fire?

Question

Man discovered fire burning in the caveman days but how did he harness it? It meant ways of starting fire such as sparks from flint on dry piles of grass. What is your opinion?

Answer 1

you can't invent something that already exists like electricity so man discovered fire

Answer 2

Well, an invention is so named because it does not exist until a person conceives and realizes it. Things like the cotton gin and IPod qualify as inventions.

Fire was long in existence before man harnessed its power. In fact, fire was most likely the inspiration for inventions like the fire pit, fire place, and fire dog (known as the dalmation). But the fire itself did not require inventing.

In a similar vein, consider the salt water aquarium. Nobody sees that and asks if man invented the ocean. It is assumed to have existed; even before humans were invented.

Now there's a question for you- were human being invented or discovered?

Answer 3

When Was Fire Invented

Answer 4

Fire has always existed here on Earth, so man discovered it & eventually learned to make it. One could say man invented ways of making fire, but not fire. It is suspected that the 1st fire came from a lightening strike.. However we can only conjecture as to how the hominid concluded it could be taken elsewhere & used to produce warmth & eventually cook food.
Chuckle, now you force a guess as to wheather the 1st method of producing fire was via the bow & stick or 2 rocks. I lean toward the stick on a dry log method.

Answer 5

It's hard to know, but I think humans would first have taken fire from smoldering trees which had been set alight by lightning. They would have passed the fire from tribe to tribe, place to place, much like the Olympic torch. It was probably a tradeable item.

If the fire went out, they worked out that the fire was still 'inside' the wood even though the flame wasn't visible.

So someone would have finally worked out that rubbing the wood with a stick would eventually release the fire, even wood which had never been burning.

Answer 6

Fire is a chemical reaction that has always existed since the beginning of time. Man just discovered fire.

Answer 7

Humans discovered fire from burning trees, for example, after lightning strikes. Then, humans discovered ways and invented processes and equipment with which to harness fire.

Answer 8

I really think lightning invented fire, but it was difficult for early man to sustain and move his source of fire from place to place. Want to see a good movie on this very subject? Get "Quest for Fire". Absolutely the best movie on early man I have ever seen.

Answer 9

It was there for us to see if you want to call that discovering. We invented ways to create it from scratch and many uses of it. We use it to cook with. It is added security since most animals fear it to some degree. It was used to clear brush and open more land up for exploitation. Fire hardened spears and was also useful in manufacturing other things.

Answer 10

Man discovered fire.

Answer 11

The greatest invention is undoubtedly flight. Flight has shrunk our planet, and allowed travel to be accessed by many people when it used to be the preserve of the very rich. In little over 100 years it has caused the greatest transformation our planet has ever seen. The greatest discovery? penicillin, it has saved millions of lives. Go to any old graveyard and see how many people died at a young age, and compare to today where many of us in the developed world can expect a long life, thanks mainly to penicillin. Done? A man stepping on the moon is probably the greatest achievement.