SPARKS OF INSPIRATION
Almost every primitive culture has a story
about how man came to harness fire, and
many of these stories involve—curiously—
petty theft. From the famed Greek myth of
Prometheus snatching fire from Zeus and
handing it to man (thanks for that, bud,
and sorry about the whole bird-eating-your-
liver thing), to the Native American story of
Rabbit stealing fire from the bloodthirsty
Weasels, to the Polynesian legend of Maui
taking fire from the birds during a fishing
trip for his mother, our desire to control the
element has always run up against our bet-
ter instincts.
The themes of thievery make sense. In
the days of early man, fire was our most
valuable possession. Sculptor Paul Man-
ship summed up this sentiment in his art.
Behind his famous statue of Prometheus
in New York City’s Rockefeller Center, he
paraphrased the Greek dramatist Aeschy-
lus, noting that fire “proved to mortals a
means to mighty ends.”
Without fire—and later, without com-
bustion—there would be no skyscrapers,
air travel, International Space Station,
bourbon, or medium-rare steaks. The ele-
ment has unlocked and enabled some of
the greatest industrial and technological
achievements in human history.FUEL FOR SURVIVAL
It’s impossible to know when the first fire
was made, but we can speculate at its ear-
liest major use: cooking, says Alan Rocke,
Ph.D., a professor emeritus of the history
of science and technology at Case Western
Reserve University.
Cooking with heat broadened early
man’s palate by killing off potentially dan-
gerous microbes in formerly unsafe foods.
Fish and beef are at their juiciest and free
of illness-causing bacteria at 145 degrees
Fahrenheit. Rabbit is safe at 160°F; chicken
at 165°F. Fire tenderizes meat (pulled pork
falls apart at 205°F), but at 330°F it also
triggers the Maillard reaction (brown-
ing) to give steak a mouth-watering sear.
Harvard professor and primatologist Rich-
ard Wrangham, Ph.D., suggests that the
invention of cooking fed evolution itself by
unlocking energy-giving nutrients for our
ancestors’ evolving brains and bodies.
In fact, Wrangham suggests that our
digestive tracts evolved as a result of discov-
ering cooking. Human guts are 56 percent
small intestine and 17 percent colon, while
those respective numbers for chimps are
almost the opposite: 23 and 52 percent.3. PRIME YOUR
CHIMNEY FLUEIn wintertime, cold air coming
down your chimney can suppress
a fire and push smoke into your
house. “Priming the flue” reverses
the draft. To do this, roll up a spare
piece of newspaper, light one end
like a torch, and stick it up your
chimney for a few moments. The
rising hot air will push the cold air
out of the chimney, allowing smoke
to escape.4. LI GHT
IT UPLight the paper. As it ignites, lean
larger pieces of tinder against the
hut. After those catch, add a fuel
log on top of the hut, being careful
not to smother the flames. To help
the wood catch, blow air across the
bottom of the fire where the news-
paper meets the surface of the
fireplace. Don’t have a fireplace tool
set? Use sturdy metal kitchen tongs
to move the wood around.- FIND YOUR
FUEL
Keep seasoned wood—meaning
it’s been air or kiln dried—near the
fireplace (a couple of days indoors
should dry out most pieces). Wood
with rough surfaces will catch eas-
ier than smooth wood. For tinder,
gather two handfuls of twigs and
break them so they resemble a No. 2
pencil in length and diameter. Half a
section of newspaper or a grocery
store mailer will work as kindling.2. SHAPE YOUR
KINDLINGAfter making sure your chimney’s
damper is open, tear the newspaper
into two-inch-wide lengths and rub
the strips between your fingers
so they separate into ribbons. Put
the ribbons in the fireplace in a
mound the size of a tennis ball.
Rest some of your tinder on top of
the mound and lean more tinder
on those twigs to create a little hut
around the paper.TH E B E ST WAY
TO BUILD A FIRE IN
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December 2019 73