How fires are started and stopped. You have learned that burning is rapid oxidation which gives off light and heat. In order to start a fire, three conditions are necessary: something to burn; something to support the combustion; and a means of lighting the fuel . Having lived all his life in a home where the furnace is kept burning all winter, the average person seldom thinks of the difficulty of starting a fire.
To get some idea of the difficulty of starting fires, imagine yourself shipwrecked like Robinson Crusoe upon an uninhabited island. To build a fire, the first condition would be met by collecting some wood. The second condition would be no problem as air is always present to support combustion. The third condition, raising the fuel to its kindling temperature, would offer a real difficulty. Two methods have been used. The first is to employ the heat of friction caused by rubbing two dry sticks together. This sounds simple, but much skill and practice are essential to the success of this operation. The second method is to make sparks by striking two pieces of flint together. This may work if the operator is persistent and if his fuel is sufficiently fine and dry. But before he succeeds in getting a fire started by either method, our Robinson Crusoe will do some thinking about the usefulness of the common match.
Poison matches. There are two kinds of phosphorus used in making matches, white and red. White phosphorus has an advantage and a disadvantage. White phosphorus is cheaper and, at one time, its use was quite common. White phosphorus is poisonous, however, and for this reason its use in making matches is prohibited by law in nearly all civilized countries. Men working in match factories which used white phosphorus were subject to a disease which caused the jaw bones to decay. The danger of small children being
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