THE ULTIMATE
CAMPFIRE JUST
NEEDS ONE PIECE
OF WOODDeveloped by Swedish
soldiers during the
Thirty Years’ War of
the 17th century, this
Swedish fire log is easy
to create and is loaded
with perks.A NO-BRAINER BUILD
Find a log at least 8 inches in
diameter and 16 inches long
(make sure both ends are flat)
and stand it upright. Using an
axe or chainsaw, make 2 or 3
cuts down the length of the
log as if you were slicing a pie,
stopping 5 inches above the
base (some wire will hold the
log together if it starts to fall
apart). Stack kindling atop
the log at the intersection of
the cuts and light. It will fall
through the cracks as it burns,
lighting the log from the inside.AN ULTRA-FOCUSED
FLAME
Traditional fires can take
hours to produce embers suit-
able for cooking or warming
your camp. But a Swedish fire
log’s contained heat makes it
hot enough for cooking in as
little as 20 minutes. It’s less
smoky and safer than classic
campfires, too.A MAKESHIFT STOVE
The log’s flat top makes it the
closest thing nature can give
you to an actual stovetop, ideal
for your coffee pot, cast-iron
skillet, or Dutch oven. If you
use a hardwood like oak, it’ll
burn longer and hotter than a
softwood fire log, like pine.SELF-FEEDING
Fires require constant
resource management and
maintenance, but a Swedish
fire log’s inside-out design
makes it self-ventilating and
self-sustaining. A substantial
log can last as long as four
hours.ton diesel engines that power container
ships through the Panama Canal today.
“Gasoline had great advantages over
electricity or gaseous fuels: energy density,
weight, volume,” Rocke says. “You needed
those differences if you were going to put
your power plant [your fuel source] on a mov-
ing object.”
In 1900, just 22 percent of American
automobiles were powered by gas; but thanks
to Henry Ford’s mass-production methods,
the invention of the self-starting ignition
in 1912, and our newfound need for speed,
the internal-combustion engine gained
supremacy among autos. Fire was powering
us toward modern life.
SMOLDERING DANGERS
This modernization put fire and combus-
tion at the crossroads of practicality and
danger once again. The early 1900s were a
time fraught with fatal conf lagrations. Chi-
cago’s Iroquois Theater fire in 1903 killed
more than 600 people, and in 1910, the “Big
Blowup” wildfire in Idaho, Washington,
and Montana killed at least 85 people as it
reduced 3 million acres—an area about the
size of Connecticut—to ashes. These fires
prompted changes: The Iroquois fire led to
the invention of the emergency exit panic
bar for doors, and the “Big Blowup” led to
the development of some prescribed-burn
containment techniques. But they also
served as reminders of the risks that come
with implementing combustion in our every-
day lives.
Today, Rocke suggests that the advances
wrought by fire have ironically taken us
past it. Many energy and power advances of
the 20th century don’t involve combustion:
Nuclear energy relies on a physical reaction
rather than a chemical one, and renewable
energies like solar, wind, and water power
skirt combustion’s literal explosiveness. We
understand now there are costs of powering
the world with fire, from deforestation to pol-
lution to climate change. Going forward, we
have to reconcile these downsides with fire’s
awesome potential.
Because it is awesome. Fire sparks the
reaction between aluminum and ammo-
nium perchlorate that turns solid rocket fuel
into the driving force of space travel (NASA’s
rocket boosters reach 5,000°F during
launch). When fire is used to distill alcohol
(which evaporates at 173°F), we’re treated to
things like Four Roses Single Barrel bourbon
and Blanton’s Original. Every time you strike
a match, the stroke of friction between the
match head and the box turns the box’s red
phosphorus to white, and it takes just 86°F for
white phosphorus to combust. Then you have
fire at your fingertips.
It’s hard not to stare at that little f lame.
Simple combustion still inspires us at a basic,
primal level, whether we’re throwing another
log on the fireplace or sitting around a back-
yard bonfire. As Rocke affirms: “Fire is so
elemental, it will never go away.”The Chicago Fire of 1871
razed 17,450 buildings and
dealt $3.77 billion in damage
(adjusted for inflation).KEITHLANCE/GETTY^ IMAGES^ (CHICAGOFIRE);^ FRESHOFF^ THEGRID^(SWEDISHFIRELOGS)76 December 2019