Making fire

[jendobyns]

If I may be permitted to add my own anecdote about fire starting: I have a glass magnifying lens that I use to light my pipe with (tricky, when you can't hold the pipe in your mouth and see inside the bowl for the correct distance and angle for the lens). While at an encampment a few years ago I decided to experiment to see how well gunpowder could start a cooking fire, and I chose my lens to see if I could ignite the powder with it. I had to lay my carronade ball shaped body down close to the fire pit to be able to get the lens in close enough. So here are the results:

Does it work?

YES IT DOES.

How long does it take for the lens to ignite the gunpowder?

EXACTLY 3 SECONDS.

What was the result?

Well there was a great whoosh and eruption and smoke and such much like an old time camera flash in a wild west movie. I can now say I have much in common with Wile E Coyote, for I am now both a super-genius and my face was covered in the inevitable cartoonish black soot like some Acme powered anti-road runner death machine exploding on ol' Mr Coyote. Fortunately I was wearing my spectacles at the time, so no permanent damage done and also no need to shave for the rest of the weekend.

Recreate experiment at your own peril.

Oh, goodness, but you were lucky! I can recall at least two incidents where starting a fire with the aid of gunpowder ended badly.

[willie wobble]

How do you light a PIG on fire in Key West??

[adam cyphers]

oh oh i know....rummmmmmm :)

[Dutchman]

and a blunderbuss......

snicker- graye fox's gunpowder incident got me thinking about one of our folks. Seems he had dropped a few rolled charge ends in his shirt pocket rather than litter the ground- nice environmental sort he is- well he was headed home pulled out the cigarettes and lighter that were in the same pocket and hit the lighter flint- burned his eyebrows off.

[Mission]

Nothing new or shocking here, but I thought it worth sharing. It's from The four years voyages of capt. George Roberts when he shipwrecked on St. Johns in 1721 or 22:

"[The natives] asked, Whether we could not make a Fire? they said, They had nothing to strike a Fire with, neither had they any Fewel to make it with; one said, He had Steel, Tinder, and Cotton, and some of the other asked me, If the Wood of the Wreck would not burn? I told them yes, very well; at which, an elderly Man bid some of the young Men swim off, and bring some of the smallest and lightest pieces of Boards which were swimming about in the Water, which they did..." (Roberts, p. 178)

The wood didn't burn very well, as you can imagine. (They don't mention if they tried it again when it was dry.)