When I was in junior high school, we had to read a Jack London short story called “To Build a Fire.” Published in 1908, this man vs. nature tale is about a man traveling on foot on an extremely cold, sub-zero day in the Yukon Territory. At one point in the story, he falls through a hidden layer of ice and becomes wet up to his knees in freezing water. After a series of mishaps, he eventually freezes to death because he can’t light a fire to warm himself and dry out his clothes.
In the story, the man unsuccessfully tries to light a fire with matches, but he would have been in even worse shape if he hadn’t had those. A year or so ago, I got to thinking about this story, and it dawned on me that I’ve never really tried to start a fire without matches or a cigarette lighter. You see survivalists like Bear Grylls start fires with all sorts of improvised tools and techniques, but I’ve never tried any of these myself.
I added “Start a fire without matches” to my “life list” last year just to see if I could do it. You never know when this skill might come in handy or when it could possibly save your life. Like a lot of guys, I’ve watched enough TV and did the Boy Scout/military thing enough to know about some of the methods for starting a good fire without matches, but I’d never actually put any of these skills to the test.
Before trying to carry this out, I did a little research and learned that there are a lot of ways to start a fire without matches. For the simplicity’s sake, I settled on the tried and true method of starting a fire with a magnifying glass. It looked simple enough and required very little equipment. It also looked like a good way to teach my kids a little applied science. (I also gave them a stern warning about the danger of fire and how they were never to try start a fire if I wasn’t around.)
Yesterday afternoon, I had the kids gather up some dried grass, leftovers from recent yard work, and also a page of newsprint from Sunday’s edition of The Mobile Press-Register. We arranged this pile of combustible material atop a cinderblock and began trying to focus the rays of the sun with the magnifying glass to ignite it all. The Sunday skies were partly cloudy, so passing clouds foiled several of our attempts.
It took a lot of trial and error, but eventually we sparked a fire that could have been turned into a much larger blaze had I wanted to start a large campfire. I believe it would have been easier had the grass been a little dryer. It had been cut the day before, so it probably wasn’t as dry as it should have been. Regardless, I did succeed in lighting a small fire without matches, so if push come to shove, I could have done this in an emergency – sunlight permitting.
In the end, how many of you have ever started a fire without matches? What method did you use? What’s the best method?
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