WEBVTT - TechStuff On Fire 0:00:04.240 --> 0:00:07.200 Get in touch with technology with text stuff from how 0:00:07.240 --> 0:00:13.880 stuff works dot com. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. 0:00:13.920 --> 0:00:16.279 I'm johns and strictly and I'm Lauren fo Obama and 0:00:16.320 --> 0:00:20.240 we have a hot item to talk to you about today. 0:00:21.600 --> 0:00:24.480 This this is just indicative of how this entire podcast 0:00:24.480 --> 0:00:28.320 it's gonna go, isn't it. It's gonna be a smoke 0:00:28.400 --> 0:00:33.280 in episode, a spurture. Yeah, we're talking about flyer, you know, 0:00:33.680 --> 0:00:36.800 because here's the thing. We wanted to look into camping 0:00:36.880 --> 0:00:38.479 gear and we did, and as we were doing it, 0:00:38.520 --> 0:00:41.200 we saw all these cool things about different fire starting 0:00:41.200 --> 0:00:43.280 technology and and we thought, you know, it would be 0:00:43.360 --> 0:00:45.280 kind of cool to talk about this. But the more 0:00:45.400 --> 0:00:46.880 we saw, the more we thought, well, this is just 0:00:46.920 --> 0:00:49.560 going to completely dominate this episode. This could in fact 0:00:49.600 --> 0:00:51.479 be a whole episode. And then wait a minute, we 0:00:51.520 --> 0:00:54.120 have the full power to make it an entire episode. 0:00:54.160 --> 0:00:58.200 So that's what we're going to do. So first of all, 0:00:58.400 --> 0:01:01.000 we should mention that fire obviously one of the most 0:01:01.040 --> 0:01:04.520 important discoveries that that early humans made. It's a pretty 0:01:04.520 --> 0:01:08.200 critical technology to human existence. Yeah, you could argue that 0:01:08.560 --> 0:01:12.480 because it's technically part of a chemical reaction, maybe you 0:01:12.480 --> 0:01:15.040 don't call it a technology, but it plays an integral 0:01:15.120 --> 0:01:17.760 role in so much of our tech, uh and and 0:01:17.880 --> 0:01:21.080 certainly the technology that we used to create it. Yeah, 0:01:21.240 --> 0:01:23.880 I mean that's technology, it's technological. So we're going to 0:01:24.000 --> 0:01:27.360 cover everything from low tech ways of making fire to 0:01:27.640 --> 0:01:31.760 some pretty uh pretty high tech and uh terrifying obviously 0:01:32.280 --> 0:01:35.200 ways to make fire. So we've spent a lot of 0:01:35.280 --> 0:01:38.479 human history, not we personally humans, as a general rule, 0:01:38.680 --> 0:01:40.880 it's spent a lot of history learning of different ways 0:01:40.920 --> 0:01:44.360 to make fire, to control fire, to extinguish fire. We've 0:01:44.400 --> 0:01:48.120 had full episodes on firefighting technologies in the past. But 0:01:48.240 --> 0:01:53.520 what is fire? So this is part of that chemical 0:01:53.560 --> 0:01:56.040 reaction I was talking about. It's essentially a chemical reaction 0:01:56.040 --> 0:01:59.960 between oxygen and some sort of fuel source has reached 0:02:00.120 --> 0:02:03.280 it's ignition temperature a k a. The temperature at which 0:02:03.360 --> 0:02:07.720 it will burn. Right, So when a substance, whatever it 0:02:07.760 --> 0:02:10.520 may be, has reached that temperature, if it is in 0:02:10.560 --> 0:02:13.960 the presence of oxygen, it will burn and thus we 0:02:14.040 --> 0:02:17.480 get fire. Now, flames from a fire keep the fuel 0:02:17.760 --> 0:02:21.120 at its ignition temperature. That means the reaction becomes self 0:02:21.200 --> 0:02:24.600 sustaining as long as you have fuel, which is you know, 0:02:24.639 --> 0:02:26.800 that that that's the dangerous thing about fire, right, This 0:02:26.840 --> 0:02:29.560 is a chemical reaction that's just going to continue until 0:02:29.680 --> 0:02:31.960 all the fuel is gone, or you have otherwise found 0:02:31.960 --> 0:02:34.880 a way to extinguish it, perhaps by removing the oxygen 0:02:34.919 --> 0:02:38.480 from the environment or dampening it with something. Yeah, so 0:02:38.800 --> 0:02:41.840 which lowers the temperature as well. Yeah. So this this 0:02:41.919 --> 0:02:45.840 is the obviously the very dangerous part about fires. That 0:02:45.880 --> 0:02:47.480 you want to make sure that you have a controlled 0:02:47.560 --> 0:02:50.600 environment where you can control exactly how much fuel is 0:02:50.639 --> 0:02:53.240 being added to the fire to make sure you don't 0:02:53.240 --> 0:02:57.560 have a nasty situation pop up. Though. You mentioned ignition temperature, 0:02:57.600 --> 0:03:01.239 and technically any given fuel has two a friend technician temperature, 0:03:01.440 --> 0:03:05.000 that's true, there's the piloted ignition temperature. That's how hot 0:03:05.000 --> 0:03:08.120 a fuel needs to be before it will catch fire 0:03:08.160 --> 0:03:10.880 in the presence of a spark, so it doesn't have 0:03:11.000 --> 0:03:14.480 to be as hot as if if you don't have 0:03:14.520 --> 0:03:17.640 any sparks there. For an object to burst into flame 0:03:17.680 --> 0:03:19.920 in the presence of oxygen, it's temperature has to be 0:03:20.040 --> 0:03:24.000 much higher. That's the unpiloted ignition temperature. Right, that's kind 0:03:24.000 --> 0:03:27.760 of the spontaneous combustion s Yeah, exactly, except that means 0:03:27.800 --> 0:03:31.240 a different thing, but but similar similar, right. So, for instance, 0:03:31.280 --> 0:03:34.359 if you were to heat up a piece of wood 0:03:34.440 --> 0:03:37.240 to a certain temperature and then hit it with a spark, 0:03:37.680 --> 0:03:40.080 it'll start to catch fire. You would have to heat 0:03:40.120 --> 0:03:41.960 it to a much higher temperature for it to just 0:03:42.000 --> 0:03:46.240 start burning it to itself. Yeah, So that that's one 0:03:46.240 --> 0:03:48.200 thing we should point out now. Granted we're gonna mostly 0:03:48.240 --> 0:03:51.240 be talking about piloted ignition temperatures because we're talking about 0:03:51.240 --> 0:03:53.760 helping things along by adding a little spark to it. 0:03:54.280 --> 0:03:57.080 And also something to remember, the fuel that has a 0:03:57.160 --> 0:04:00.840 large surface area to volume ratio burns more readily, meaning 0:04:00.880 --> 0:04:03.320 that you've got a lot of surface area and you 0:04:03.360 --> 0:04:05.640 don't have a lot of volume, you can heat up 0:04:05.800 --> 0:04:09.600 and get to that ignition temperature much faster than if 0:04:09.640 --> 0:04:11.280 you had a lot of bulk to you because that 0:04:11.320 --> 0:04:14.680 temperature could then be conducted away from the point of heat, 0:04:15.160 --> 0:04:17.560 and it takes longer for you to actually get that 0:04:17.640 --> 0:04:21.360 to catch fire. Also, as a fuel source itself, it's 0:04:21.400 --> 0:04:26.920 going to have more exposure to oxygen, yes, exactly. So 0:04:27.320 --> 0:04:29.360 you know, one of the many reasons why you want 0:04:29.360 --> 0:04:32.520 to use little bits of tinder before throwing logs onto 0:04:32.600 --> 0:04:34.280 a fire. I mean, it's the tinder is going to 0:04:34.360 --> 0:04:37.039 catch fire more easily and then you can start to 0:04:37.080 --> 0:04:41.440 build up from there. So going very very basic one 0:04:41.480 --> 0:04:45.880 is the most basic way early humans, uh interacted with fire, 0:04:46.240 --> 0:04:49.200 finding some fire and then using it for stuff. Right, 0:04:49.960 --> 0:04:52.520 So this isn't so much making it. This is what 0:04:52.680 --> 0:04:55.360 is that big hot orange thing over there? Let's go 0:04:55.480 --> 0:04:57.720 check it out. I bet we can do something with that. 0:04:57.839 --> 0:04:59.960 And the thing is is that there's evidence that preda 0:05:00.120 --> 0:05:04.320 humans were deliberately controlling this natural found fire to do 0:05:04.440 --> 0:05:07.440 work for them as long as one point five million 0:05:07.680 --> 0:05:10.160 years ago. Right, So once you figure out, oh this 0:05:10.279 --> 0:05:14.240 fire eats stuff, if we keep produces heat, yeah, if 0:05:14.240 --> 0:05:16.840 we keep feeding it, it will stay around. If we 0:05:16.880 --> 0:05:19.440 stop feeding it, then it could go out and we 0:05:19.480 --> 0:05:22.080 can kind of bring it over here if we want to. Yeah, yeah, 0:05:22.160 --> 0:05:24.640 we have to be real careful about that. But yeah, this, 0:05:24.640 --> 0:05:26.920 this is this is all before we had found ways 0:05:26.960 --> 0:05:30.800 to necessarily make it ourselves. It was just taking advantage 0:05:30.880 --> 0:05:32.880 of something that was found, you know. And of course 0:05:32.920 --> 0:05:37.080 fires happened in nature for multiple reasons. But if we 0:05:37.120 --> 0:05:39.520 wanted to make it ourselves. In fact, this is something 0:05:39.560 --> 0:05:42.440 that we can still do This is what early humans did, 0:05:42.839 --> 0:05:45.880 and if you're really determined and you are patient, you 0:05:45.920 --> 0:05:48.000 can do it too. People still do it today. You 0:05:48.000 --> 0:05:51.440 can make fire through friction. So first we gotta talk 0:05:51.440 --> 0:05:55.720 about friction. Friction is the resistance to the relative motion 0:05:56.000 --> 0:05:59.520 of two solid objects that are in contact with one another. 0:06:00.200 --> 0:06:02.680 So in other words, like if uh, we have a 0:06:02.720 --> 0:06:04.720 table here in front of us, I have my hand 0:06:04.760 --> 0:06:07.040 on the table. If I want to slide my hand 0:06:07.080 --> 0:06:09.599 across the table, first I have to put enough force 0:06:09.680 --> 0:06:14.200 to overcome this resistance to the motion, this friction, and 0:06:14.240 --> 0:06:16.279 even then I'm going to feel the friction as my 0:06:16.360 --> 0:06:20.400 hand moves across the table. That Now, the actual amount 0:06:20.440 --> 0:06:23.440 of friction is usually proportional to the force pressing the 0:06:23.480 --> 0:06:27.400 surfaces of the two objects together. So if I'm pressing 0:06:27.560 --> 0:06:29.960 down really hard on the table and then try to 0:06:30.000 --> 0:06:32.880 move my hand, I'm going to encounter more friction than 0:06:32.920 --> 0:06:36.640 if I just very lightly had my hand on the table. Obviously, 0:06:36.720 --> 0:06:39.880 friction can be things that are you know, an object 0:06:40.160 --> 0:06:42.560 that's just on a flat surface that's not moving at all, 0:06:43.000 --> 0:06:46.160 and maybe it's an inclined surface, and the the the 0:06:46.240 --> 0:06:49.159 normal force, the force that's pressing the surfaces together would 0:06:49.160 --> 0:06:51.520 just be gravity in that case. But you can also 0:06:51.560 --> 0:06:56.520 have two different objects that are experiencing friction against each 0:06:56.560 --> 0:06:58.760 other that aren't. You know, gravity is not the main 0:06:58.839 --> 0:07:02.800 force at play. That's also totally possible. Um. So the 0:07:02.880 --> 0:07:06.880 roughness of the surfaces also affects the amount of resistance 0:07:06.960 --> 0:07:09.800 that they have to moving against each other. That makes sense, right, 0:07:09.840 --> 0:07:13.720 If you're using a rough sand paper against some wood, 0:07:13.800 --> 0:07:16.040 then it ends up feeling. You can feel that resistance 0:07:16.040 --> 0:07:18.560 and you can feel the heat certainly using that a 0:07:18.560 --> 0:07:20.760 little bit. If you use a really finely grained piece 0:07:20.800 --> 0:07:23.280 of sand paper, the resistance isn't as much. You're you're 0:07:23.280 --> 0:07:25.000 going to be able to move that paper a little 0:07:25.000 --> 0:07:31.440 more easily. Interestingly enough, this only is true to a point, right. 0:07:31.520 --> 0:07:34.440 This this is relatively simplified, because if you, as it 0:07:34.480 --> 0:07:38.320 turns out, okay, if you take two perfectly smooth sheets 0:07:38.320 --> 0:07:42.600 of metal, yes like flawlessly smooth, and you put them 0:07:42.600 --> 0:07:44.560 in a vacuum, right, and you try to rub them 0:07:44.560 --> 0:07:48.160 against each other. They had here, they had here, it's 0:07:48.200 --> 0:07:52.720 called cold welding. They actually, on a molecular level, adhere 0:07:52.760 --> 0:07:56.120 to one another. So at this point you would think normally, 0:07:56.160 --> 0:07:59.360 if you if you're talking about perfectly smooth surfaces, you 0:07:59.400 --> 0:08:01.760 would think friction lists. You would think, oh, well, those 0:08:01.800 --> 0:08:03.480 things are just going to slide right off each other, 0:08:03.520 --> 0:08:06.480 but actually the opposite is true. They will cold weld 0:08:06.560 --> 0:08:10.480 together on a molecular level. So we just keep that 0:08:10.520 --> 0:08:12.640 in mind that when we're talking about friction, we are 0:08:12.800 --> 0:08:15.240 simplifying things. We're using a very kind of macro look 0:08:15.240 --> 0:08:19.040 at it. There's also the coefficient of friction. That's essentially 0:08:19.480 --> 0:08:22.680 the amount of resistance that you have, that ratio of 0:08:22.720 --> 0:08:26.840 the frictional resistance force to that normal force pressing together 0:08:26.920 --> 0:08:30.680 the two services. So you're moving one object against another object, 0:08:30.800 --> 0:08:32.640 and some of that energy you put into moving the 0:08:32.679 --> 0:08:35.680 object goes to overcoming that friction, and that energy is 0:08:35.720 --> 0:08:38.680 not lost because you don't lose energy. Yeah, you don't 0:08:39.240 --> 0:08:42.959 create or destroy it, you just converted. It's converted into heat. Yes, 0:08:43.520 --> 0:08:46.320 So whatever heat, whatever energy would have been used overcoming 0:08:46.320 --> 0:08:48.400 that friction gets converted into heat. So when you rub 0:08:48.440 --> 0:08:52.160 two sticks together, those contacting surfaces start to heat up, 0:08:52.640 --> 0:08:54.800 and if you rub them together fast enough and for 0:08:54.920 --> 0:08:57.920 long enough, the dust or charred that's given off by 0:08:57.960 --> 0:09:00.720 those sticks will grow hot enough to glow and that 0:09:00.760 --> 0:09:04.240 becomes your coal. So the coal in this case, it's 0:09:04.240 --> 0:09:06.240 not coal like you would dig out of the ground. 0:09:06.240 --> 0:09:09.800 We're talking about an ember, something that is so hot 0:09:09.840 --> 0:09:12.360 that it may be glowing, giving off light as well 0:09:12.400 --> 0:09:15.520 as heat. And then you would introduce that coal to 0:09:15.960 --> 0:09:18.880 tender too in order to to get a flame going. 0:09:19.360 --> 0:09:22.400 And you can do this with sticks, although more frequently 0:09:22.480 --> 0:09:24.520 you'll have something like a board and a stick and 0:09:24.559 --> 0:09:27.160 you'll do a like a hand drill, so that you 0:09:27.840 --> 0:09:30.360 drill a stick against the board and you start boring 0:09:30.400 --> 0:09:32.720 a hole and as a as a result, the dust 0:09:32.760 --> 0:09:35.360 that's around the hole will get hot, and if it 0:09:35.400 --> 0:09:37.960 gets hot enough, it becomes a coal. Or you might 0:09:38.000 --> 0:09:42.280 have a piece of hardwood that's like a rod and 0:09:42.480 --> 0:09:45.199 some soft wood that has a little trough dug in it, 0:09:45.480 --> 0:09:47.640 and you just rub the end of the rod through 0:09:47.679 --> 0:09:51.680 the trough rapidly, and that also will generate this very 0:09:51.760 --> 0:09:54.000 hot char that eventually we'll get hot enough for it 0:09:54.000 --> 0:09:56.520 to become a coal and then you can light a fire. Yeah, 0:09:56.800 --> 0:10:01.319 it sounds like it's really easy. This is not something 0:10:01.320 --> 0:10:05.760 that's necessarily easy. It actually takes quite a bit of practice. Usually, 0:10:05.800 --> 0:10:07.480 I mean people who try it for the first time 0:10:07.920 --> 0:10:10.840 are rarely successful unless they have the careful guidance of 0:10:10.840 --> 0:10:14.000 an expert who has done it before, because you know 0:10:14.040 --> 0:10:17.360 it's it's It can be exhausting. It takes a lot 0:10:17.400 --> 0:10:20.680 of patients and a lot of strength and endurance, um, 0:10:20.880 --> 0:10:22.880 especially if you don't have the technique down, if you 0:10:22.880 --> 0:10:24.800 haven't built up calluses on your hands. It can also 0:10:24.880 --> 0:10:30.040 be painful. But it is certainly a possible thing to do. 0:10:30.080 --> 0:10:32.080 I mean, people do it all the time. You've probably 0:10:32.080 --> 0:10:35.440 have seen television shows, whether they are fictional or documentaries, 0:10:35.440 --> 0:10:37.880 where people have done this kind of method, and YouTube 0:10:38.000 --> 0:10:40.160 is just full of instructional videos if you want to 0:10:40.240 --> 0:10:43.160 learn how to do this, and you may be saying 0:10:43.160 --> 0:10:47.160 to yourself that, hey, this isn't really a technology, um, 0:10:47.200 --> 0:10:49.880 but there are a few a few tricks or or 0:10:50.120 --> 0:10:52.000 hacks or whatever you want to call it that you 0:10:52.040 --> 0:10:54.080 can use that will move it a little bit closer 0:10:54.080 --> 0:10:57.000 into the realm of technology, like adding a little bit 0:10:57.000 --> 0:10:59.600 of grit to the surface of the sticks to increase 0:10:59.679 --> 0:11:03.440 the action between them, or creating a simple pulley system 0:11:03.520 --> 0:11:07.000 using a sturdy strap to help you to to help 0:11:07.000 --> 0:11:09.400 make the movement easier. So I mean, like like the 0:11:09.440 --> 0:11:11.959 bow method where you have the the bow where the 0:11:12.240 --> 0:11:14.200 string is wrapped around one of the sticks, and you 0:11:14.320 --> 0:11:16.480 use that to make the spin it, Yeah, to spin 0:11:16.520 --> 0:11:19.280 it really really fast. So yeah, this is these are 0:11:19.320 --> 0:11:23.079 basic tools, but basic tools are the foundation of technology. Yes, 0:11:23.160 --> 0:11:25.840 and we're not sure, I mean not just us, but 0:11:25.920 --> 0:11:28.480 humanity in general is not sure how long we have 0:11:28.600 --> 0:11:32.080 been using this particular form of fire starting. I've been 0:11:32.120 --> 0:11:35.360 doing it longer than we've been writing. Yes, and you know, 0:11:35.520 --> 0:11:38.120 at a certain point, sticks really don't hold up that 0:11:38.200 --> 0:11:40.880 well to the tests of time. Yeah. So yeah, it's 0:11:40.880 --> 0:11:42.880 one of those things where you can't really necessarily go 0:11:42.960 --> 0:11:46.960 back and uh find find lots of evidence for exactly 0:11:47.000 --> 0:11:49.120 how you might be able to find evidence of a fire, 0:11:49.480 --> 0:11:51.880 but not necessarily know how they got it started right, 0:11:52.160 --> 0:11:53.920 you know, was this something that they used, the whole 0:11:53.960 --> 0:11:56.800 rubbing sticks together thing, or was this they found fire 0:11:56.880 --> 0:11:59.280 and brought it back? I think I think the oldest 0:11:59.600 --> 0:12:03.400 stick that I've seen mentioned in a museum website where 0:12:03.640 --> 0:12:06.400 some four thousand years old. But that seems awfully young 0:12:06.960 --> 0:12:09.080 for this kind of thing, considering that, you know, we've 0:12:09.080 --> 0:12:11.600 been using fire in some form or another for more 0:12:11.600 --> 0:12:15.040 than a million years. Uh, so then moving on to 0:12:15.559 --> 0:12:20.359 flint and steel or other metals or technically other minerals 0:12:20.440 --> 0:12:23.040 as well. Uh, you've probably have heard of flint and steel, 0:12:23.120 --> 0:12:25.240 particularly if you play mind graft, because it's one of 0:12:25.240 --> 0:12:28.000 the things you can make. So flint is a hard 0:12:28.160 --> 0:12:31.400 sedimentary rock and it has a type of micro crystalline 0:12:31.559 --> 0:12:36.280 quartz structure to it. Uh. Geologists call it shirt, which 0:12:36.320 --> 0:12:38.040 is just a great word. I call it. I call 0:12:38.080 --> 0:12:41.560 it bob. Uh. No. It's been used in toolmaking for 0:12:41.640 --> 0:12:45.160 a while, some some two million years. So it can 0:12:45.200 --> 0:12:48.800 break into very sharp pieces that structure, that crystalline structure, 0:12:48.920 --> 0:12:53.600 so it makes really good knives or spear or arrow heads. Um. 0:12:53.679 --> 0:12:56.760 So it's been used in lots of different types of tools. 0:12:57.160 --> 0:12:59.640 And when you strike it against steel, you end up 0:12:59.640 --> 0:13:02.559 getting the spark that's really good for a fire. And 0:13:02.600 --> 0:13:04.680 actually my notes, I wrote flint gives off a spark 0:13:04.720 --> 0:13:06.560 suitable for starting a fire, but that's not really true. 0:13:06.559 --> 0:13:09.440 It's actually the steel that's giving off the spark. So 0:13:09.600 --> 0:13:11.760 here's the interesting thing. Now, this is going to be 0:13:11.760 --> 0:13:14.160 different when we talk about modern day lighters that use 0:13:14.200 --> 0:13:17.679 a very similar approach. But the idea is that you 0:13:17.800 --> 0:13:21.760 are creating the friction generated by this strike. You're trying 0:13:21.760 --> 0:13:23.640 to strike it from an angle. You know, it's not 0:13:23.679 --> 0:13:27.720 like direct on, like slam iron against a piece of flint. 0:13:27.760 --> 0:13:31.440 You're you're you're doing this kind of angular motion. And 0:13:31.480 --> 0:13:34.360 the point is that you're trying to create friction generated 0:13:34.360 --> 0:13:37.600 by the strike to knockoff little pieces of steel or iron. 0:13:37.800 --> 0:13:41.240 I mean, steel really is is refined iron um and 0:13:41.240 --> 0:13:44.120 and that works because the flint is harder than the steel. Yes, 0:13:44.960 --> 0:13:47.560 so you you will actually have the flint knock little 0:13:47.559 --> 0:13:50.440 pieces of steel off. Now, those pieces are heated above 0:13:50.520 --> 0:13:54.640 the ignission temperature for iron based on those tiny, tiny 0:13:55.000 --> 0:13:57.840 um particles, they're gett knocked off again, we're talking about 0:13:57.840 --> 0:14:01.559 that surface area to volume. The ignition temperature of iron 0:14:01.640 --> 0:14:05.160 is actually very low. Yeah, well comparatively when you get 0:14:05.200 --> 0:14:08.080 it into the tiny little pieces. Certainly if you're looking 0:14:08.080 --> 0:14:11.760 at it in bulk, very high. But but but you 0:14:11.840 --> 0:14:14.640 might be asking, well, what else is going on here? Well, 0:14:14.640 --> 0:14:17.120 the presence of oxygen is what's allowing those pieces to 0:14:17.160 --> 0:14:22.080 heat up even more. Because iron has something called pyrophoricity, 0:14:22.160 --> 0:14:24.480 and you might say it was pyrophoricity. It means that 0:14:24.560 --> 0:14:27.200 it will ignite in the presence of oxygen. Yeah, and 0:14:27.240 --> 0:14:29.600 you might say, wait a minute, I have a wrought 0:14:29.600 --> 0:14:33.320 iron fence and I can't even remember a single day 0:14:33.320 --> 0:14:35.800 when it was on fire. Super not on fire. Yeah, 0:14:35.880 --> 0:14:39.760 it's probably the least on fire thing that's in my 0:14:39.840 --> 0:14:43.120 house or around my house. It's because that has a 0:14:43.160 --> 0:14:46.120 coat of iron oxide on it. So iron oxide also 0:14:46.400 --> 0:14:51.359 we call that rust. But iron goes through this oxidation 0:14:51.400 --> 0:14:54.200 process when you have it in bulk. The heat generated 0:14:54.240 --> 0:14:57.360 from that oxidation process means that the it can be 0:14:57.400 --> 0:14:59.560 conducted through the rest of the material, and that's why 0:14:59.560 --> 0:15:01.960 it doesn't heat up to a point where it gets burns, 0:15:02.280 --> 0:15:05.120 burst into flames. But if it's a really really small 0:15:05.280 --> 0:15:09.640 piece that is suddenly exposed to oxygen, then there's nowhere 0:15:09.680 --> 0:15:12.120 for that heat to go. It just ends up becoming 0:15:12.160 --> 0:15:17.360 this oxidized super hot mass, super hot for its size anyway, 0:15:17.960 --> 0:15:21.120 uh and can be very Uh can since become molten, 0:15:21.840 --> 0:15:24.800 which then you can use to set fire something yet 0:15:24.880 --> 0:15:28.120 tender tender usually usually UM. Humans have been using this 0:15:28.200 --> 0:15:31.200 method for some four to ten thousand years, which means, 0:15:31.360 --> 0:15:34.240 of course that that the earliest flint based fire starters. 0:15:34.440 --> 0:15:37.320 We're not using steel at all, which was invented in 0:15:37.360 --> 0:15:39.960 the bronze and or iron age some uh, you know, 0:15:40.160 --> 0:15:43.080 less than four thousand years ago, right, so earlier stuff 0:15:43.120 --> 0:15:46.440 was using something else, right, iron pyrate, a fool's gold. 0:15:46.840 --> 0:15:51.760 Instruments of those types have been found dating back way farther, 0:15:52.200 --> 0:15:53.760 and I didn't want to say that. Part of this 0:15:53.840 --> 0:16:00.640 technology is really also a tender materials technology issue, because 0:16:01.240 --> 0:16:05.360 as we have improved ways of creating tinder and carrying 0:16:05.400 --> 0:16:08.080 it and keeping it dry, we have been able to 0:16:08.800 --> 0:16:13.480 more effectively use flint and steel to create fire. Around 0:16:13.520 --> 0:16:16.320 the world, tinder has been made from everything from like 0:16:16.400 --> 0:16:20.280 simple bits of dried grass or bark to decaying tree fungus, 0:16:20.320 --> 0:16:24.320 which is apparently really effective at starting fires. I'm not sure. 0:16:24.600 --> 0:16:26.920 I've never tried it. Um, and it's been carried in 0:16:27.000 --> 0:16:31.360 everything from really ornate brass or enameled boxes to go 0:16:31.520 --> 0:16:37.720 testicle leather. Okay, I I have no response to that. 0:16:38.360 --> 0:16:40.880 We're learning things. I do remember watching I think it 0:16:40.920 --> 0:16:45.400 was UM Survivor where the guy would end up getting 0:16:45.480 --> 0:16:49.080 a spark from flint and steel essentially and then lighting 0:16:49.120 --> 0:16:53.440 some tinder and then carrying a handful of smoking tinder 0:16:53.880 --> 0:16:56.200 to where he was going to light his fire, and 0:16:56.240 --> 0:16:59.040 the whole time I was thinking, please don't, please, don't 0:16:59.080 --> 0:17:02.080 burn yourself, Mr nice Canadian man. And then of course 0:17:02.080 --> 0:17:04.639 he would make a fire um like a fire bundle, 0:17:04.760 --> 0:17:08.000 which would have a tin smoking ember inside of it, 0:17:08.600 --> 0:17:11.000 and that would allow him to carry his fire with 0:17:11.119 --> 0:17:14.240 him to his next site, where he would then use 0:17:14.320 --> 0:17:16.359 that ember to help light the fire, unless he wouldn't 0:17:16.359 --> 0:17:20.359 have to create a new spark. Uh. Not all tinder 0:17:20.560 --> 0:17:24.600 is carried already on fire. Some of it is just carried, 0:17:24.760 --> 0:17:28.800 so that's pretty frequently, just just kept very dry and safe. 0:17:27.960 --> 0:17:32.120 Right at any rate, speaking of tinder, though, Hey, there 0:17:32.200 --> 0:17:35.399 was a thing called the tinder pistol, so it was 0:17:35.520 --> 0:17:40.080 softer than regular pistols. It's a tinder pistol. No, No, 0:17:40.880 --> 0:17:45.360 this was in It was sort of a step between 0:17:45.520 --> 0:17:49.439 the flint and steel kits and lighters that we have today, okay, 0:17:49.440 --> 0:17:54.080 And they were converted flintlock pistols. They consist of the 0:17:54.119 --> 0:17:57.359 handle and trigger of a pistol with a small tinder 0:17:57.400 --> 0:18:00.560 box where the barrel of the pistol would be pulling. 0:18:00.560 --> 0:18:02.840 The trigger would pull back the lid on the tinder 0:18:02.840 --> 0:18:06.960 box and simultaneously engage the flintlock mechanism which would send 0:18:07.280 --> 0:18:10.639 sparks into the tinder. And now we we've talked a 0:18:10.640 --> 0:18:13.199 little bit on the show before about flintlock guns. It 0:18:13.280 --> 0:18:15.960 was in our three D Printed Guns episode. Yep. We 0:18:16.000 --> 0:18:19.160 also have an episode from way way back about the 0:18:19.200 --> 0:18:23.479 technology of fifteen ten where Chris, Chris Pallette and I 0:18:23.520 --> 0:18:26.639 talked a lot about flintlock pistols and that one. So 0:18:26.680 --> 0:18:29.879 if you really want a full run down on the flintlock, 0:18:30.480 --> 0:18:32.480 you can listen to that old episode of tech stuff, 0:18:32.960 --> 0:18:36.720 but a quick refresher just because there's such elegant machines. Um. So, 0:18:36.800 --> 0:18:40.479 the flintlock pistols hammer is actually a lever that holds 0:18:40.480 --> 0:18:42.720 a bit of flint at one end and is attached 0:18:42.800 --> 0:18:45.320 to a spring at the other end, and that spring 0:18:45.440 --> 0:18:47.919 connects to the guns trigger, all right, So when you 0:18:47.960 --> 0:18:51.159 pull the trigger, it springs that the flint edge of 0:18:51.200 --> 0:18:53.400 the hammer into contact with a bit of steel called 0:18:53.400 --> 0:18:57.320 a frizzen, which creates sparks which light the material at hand. 0:18:57.400 --> 0:19:00.200 In a pistol it would be gunpowder and in ours 0:19:00.480 --> 0:19:03.840 it is tinder. So you you reload the spring by 0:19:03.840 --> 0:19:09.240 simply pulling back the hammer. Again interesting, not not difficult, um, 0:19:09.320 --> 0:19:12.520 but these these tinder pistols, though were household items. They 0:19:12.560 --> 0:19:15.399 really weren't meant to be portable, and all the models 0:19:15.440 --> 0:19:17.760 that I've seen included these really heavy legs so that 0:19:17.800 --> 0:19:20.680 they could sit kind of elegantly on a table. Uh. 0:19:20.760 --> 0:19:25.719 Flintlock pistols were really new and expensive in the early 0:19:25.840 --> 0:19:28.639 to mid six hundreds, so it was definitely a measure 0:19:28.680 --> 0:19:31.520 of wealth to own such a contraption just for lighting 0:19:31.560 --> 0:19:35.640 candles and your tobacco products and etcetera. You know, one 0:19:35.680 --> 0:19:38.000 thing that I wanted to talk about because I thought, 0:19:38.200 --> 0:19:40.720 you know, it's again a very simple technology that a 0:19:40.760 --> 0:19:43.399 lot of us take for granted, especially since it's not 0:19:43.480 --> 0:19:45.960 that frequent that most of us come into contact with 0:19:46.040 --> 0:19:48.880 us anymore. But just I want to talk about matches, 0:19:49.480 --> 0:19:52.280 and the reason is because it's a cool use of 0:19:52.320 --> 0:19:55.760 our knowledge of friction and chemistry to be able to 0:19:55.760 --> 0:19:59.240 create fire in a manageable way, and it really made 0:19:59.240 --> 0:20:02.800 it much much easier to produce fire. Now. They're relatively 0:20:02.880 --> 0:20:08.560 recent inventions, although the earliest UH research dates all the 0:20:08.600 --> 0:20:12.440 way back to the late seventeenth century sight, and that's 0:20:12.440 --> 0:20:17.439 when a philosopher, physicist, chemist, professional smart person named Robert 0:20:17.480 --> 0:20:22.879 Boyle began to experiment with phosphorus, which is a pretty 0:20:22.960 --> 0:20:26.560 volatile material, and he coded a coarse piece of paper 0:20:26.600 --> 0:20:28.840 with phosphorus and then found that by moving a piece 0:20:28.840 --> 0:20:32.879 of wood coated and sulfur against that phosphorus coated paper, 0:20:33.240 --> 0:20:36.120 he could produce fire. You just had to move fast 0:20:36.240 --> 0:20:38.760 enough for the friction to generate the heat necessary to 0:20:38.800 --> 0:20:43.240 get above that ignition temperature. But his ingredients were also 0:20:43.359 --> 0:20:47.080 kind of toxic, so it wasn't really practical to make that. 0:20:47.160 --> 0:20:50.240 As like, this is the new fire starting technology of 0:20:50.280 --> 0:20:53.120 the seventeenth century, So you get to a century later, 0:20:53.240 --> 0:20:58.040 seventeen eighty French physicists invent the phosphoric candle. Now this 0:20:58.119 --> 0:21:00.760 is super interesting to me because I can't imagine what 0:21:00.840 --> 0:21:04.400 it must have looked like to light something using this thing. 0:21:04.480 --> 0:21:07.280 It sounds very traumatic. Yeah, So imagine that you've got 0:21:07.280 --> 0:21:09.960 a piece of paper or some strings coated in wax 0:21:10.440 --> 0:21:13.359 and it's been tipped with phosphorus and sealed in a 0:21:13.440 --> 0:21:16.159 glass container. So you've got this glass container inside of 0:21:16.160 --> 0:21:19.479 which is this string or glass or a paper, And 0:21:19.520 --> 0:21:22.520 then if you wanted to light the match, you would 0:21:22.560 --> 0:21:26.199 have to break the glass because upon being exposed to 0:21:26.280 --> 0:21:29.840 air the phosphorus would ignite and set fire to the 0:21:29.880 --> 0:21:33.520 paper and or strange. Yeah, so in case of a 0:21:33.640 --> 0:21:37.200 need for fire, break glass. It's kind of the opposite 0:21:37.240 --> 0:21:41.040 of what we usually see. Yeah. Yeah, not obviously not practical, 0:21:41.560 --> 0:21:44.960 very interesting, but not practical. Then let's see if I 0:21:45.000 --> 0:21:47.679