Figure 3 - Smoking tinder bundle with coal extender core
Figure 4 - Self-igniting tinder bundle with coal extender core.
NOTES ON POLYPORE FUNGI AS COAL EXTENDERS
By R. Alan Mounier
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Charles Worsham identified polypore fungi (Phellinus rimosa) as effective coal extenders. My experimentation with a variety of such fungi indicate that he is correct. To know why, I took a close look at polypore fungi. A summary follows.
Polypore fungi, also known as bracket fungi or shelf fungi, comprise a family of pore-forming fungi that typically grow on stressed, diseased, or dead trees. Soft when young, they become firm, corky, or woody with age. My specimens were harder and less resilient than cork but appreciably softer and more spongy than sound softwood, such as white cedar. The body consists of a woody mass which contains numerous, tiny, and closely spaced tubes or pores. This characteristic gives the material its name, polypore (literally, many pores). The specimens that I examined were gathered from black locust trees in Deptford Township, Gloucester County, New Jersey. This is the type of fungus noted by Worsham.
I prepared thin sections of the fungi for examination under a microscope. Freshly cut surfaces have a dark reddish brown color, closely approximated by the Munsell designation, 2.5YR 3.5/5 ("dusky red"). The transverse section revealed a regularly arranged matrix of tiny tubes in the woody body of the fungus. These tubes have an average diameter of 103.62ym (104 microns or micrometers = 104/ 1000 mm = 0.10mm). The intertubular distance on average is 70.65ym (Figure 1). In longitudinal sections the tubes have pinched and staggered closures, resembling the end view of an automobile radiator core or certain kinds of "Chex" cereals (see Figure 2). The tubes range between 47ym and 612ym in length. The staggered arrangement imparts strength that would be lacking if the tubes were substantially longer.
A glimpse of the sections reveals that the body of the polypore is very well ventilated. Since the woody material is both well aerated and combustible, the fungus catches an ember readily, even when damp. Once ignited, this material will continue to smolder for extended periods of time, thus making it desirable for the fire-maker. In open air, the smoldering pieces do not burst into flames, but they burn tenaciously, and hot enough to ignite even slightly damp tinder.
A sample cube, 5mm on a side, was impaled on the point of a small needle. Upon ignition this sample glowed brightly for 2 minutes, 37 seconds, then blinked out in a mass of fluffy white ash. Another sample cube, 10mm per side, burned for 21 minutes, 53 seconds. No open flames were observed, but bright red incandescence was distinctly visible in subdued light. The heat could be felt on the fingertips up to 10cm (4 inches) away.
An interesting property of this material is that, once ignited, the entire mass quickly becomes a glowing body. The bright red color indicates that the embers attain a temperature of approximately 1,250° F in open air. Forcing a draft on the ember causes bright reddish yellow incandescence, indicating a temperature of approximately 1,650° F. Temperature estimates are from a color chart in an old welding manual, where bright red is termed "Medium Cherry" and bright reddish yellow is equivalent to "Salmon" (Mackenzie and Card, The Welding Encyclopedia, 1922).
With samples of the sizes indicated, the entire mass continues to glow until all of the combustible material has been exhausted, whereupon the incandescence instantly vanishes—just like someone switched off a light. Very mystical.
The fact that the entire body glows indicates that combustion gases fill the tubular structure, which then radiates as the gases burn. In essence, the body of the burning polypore acts like the mantle in a gas lantern. Eventually, when the fuel is exhausted, the light just blinks out.
The residue is a soft, fluffy white ash, whose color is whiter than any chip in the Munsell Soil Color Charts (1992). The nearest color among the common soil colors is 5Y 8/1 (white), which is visibly more gray than the sample ash. The ash is easily crushed into a very fine powder that may have potential as a pigment for paint. But that is the subject for another inquiry.
Using polypore shavings, I was able to start a flaming fire outdoors when the temperature was only 9° F and the wind blew at 15 to 25 mph, with higher gusts. I made this fire by friction in the open, using a white cedar hearth and spindle. A seated posture permitted me to shelter the hearth-pit from the wind with my body. A kneeling posture would have made the hearth more vulnerable to the wind.
I placed the center of the hearth-pit well in from the edge of the board so that the powder would collect in the notch. This placement retarded the tendency of the wind to dislodge the powder pile from the edge of the board. I placed a sheet of paper beneath the notch to catch the fire dust. Once an ember was formed, six or eight slivers of thinly sliced polypore fungus were added. Once these slivers were glowing well, I added cattail fluff on top.
Figure 1: Sketch of magnified cross section showing porous structure. Pores are about 0.10mm in diameter.
Figure 2: Sketch of magnified longitudinalsection showing porous structure. Tubes range from 0.47mm to 0.61 in length.
Figure 3: Sketch of glowing coal nested between two small Polypore Fungi.
The entire mass was then enclosed in the paper, folded to form a thin tube. Air was blown in an open end until the mass smoked vigorously, whereupon it was introduced beneath a handful of maple leaves, simply gathered from the ground at the time. These leaves had some moisture in the form of frost or snow. In a few seconds, upon receiving a gust of wind, the entire bundle burst into flames.
In other experiments with friction fires, I have noticed that a smoldering powder pile cupped between two small polypores (species unknown) is readily transportable and will retain a viable coal for an extended period of time (Figure 3). I have yet to complete time tests, but I imagine that the durability of the coal will be measured in hours or half-hours, rather than in minutes. The trick will be to deny the polypore any more air than is absolutely necessary to support its combustion.
Once ignited, the polypore burns tenaciously. I have found that the coal may spontaneously rejuvenate after being extinguished to the satisfaction of the naked eye. Therefore, due caution is necessary in the use of this material or your experiments may prove more incendiary than expected.
At any rate, polypore fungi are great aids to fire-making. I am entirely certain that there use extends back into ancient times. People living in the forest doubtless had an intimate knowledge of their surroundings and put that knowledge to use in their lives. I suspect that the polypore, because of its peculiar properties, was important not only in fire-making, but quite likely in magico-religious functions as well.
WHERE THERE'S NO TINDER
By E. J. Pratt
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Where there is none of the commonly used tinder available, or indeed, where the tinder available is too wet, a fire can still be started.
If you have material for a friction fire set, you have a fire. In wet weather, dead (but not rotten) wood suspended above the ground can be used to make a fire set and the tinder. Whilst the outside of the wood may be wet, this can be shaved off to expose a dry inner.
Shavings of two grades are made from the wood itself. 1) A good handful of fairly coarse and 2) half a handful of fine scrapings (Figures A & B).
It will be appreciated that this form of tinder is granular rather than fibrous in texture and as such does not hold together on it's own and therefore needs to be kept together or it will disintegrate whilst the coal is being developed. Two containers are suggested as shown in Figures C & D. The construction is important. On dry ground, a hollow, as shown in Figure C can be scraped out. On wet ground the container in Figure D is formed that raises the tinder above the surface. The sides of the container should slope in towards the bottom. The sloping sides feed the tinder granules in towards the coal and help it to coalesce. If the sides are vertical the tendency is for the ignition point to disintegrate.
In Figure D, the container is constructed of ab
out twenty green (to prevent their combusting) sticks pushed into the ground so that they extend outward about the length of an index finger. The construction forms a close knit circle with a narrow base splaying out at the top, to cover an area about the size of your palm. The bottom of the container wants to be covered with a couple of wood chips to raise the tinder above the wet surface
The container is now filled with the coarse shavings, and a hollow is formed in the middle to about half depth. This hollow in turn is filled with the fine scrapings. In the center of this make a small depression just big enough to hold the coal.
By blowing vertically downward and gently covering, the coal is coaxed to increase in size. Match sized slivers of wood are placed on top and the whole blown into ignition from the side.
All this may seem long winded, but on a seashore where there is only driftwood, or inland in wet conditions, this may well be all you have. If you have the wood for a fire set...you have fire.
Fire Bundle or Primitive Match
By David Holladay, Photos By David Wescott
* * *
Once a fire is kindled, much of the work needed to build the next fire is already done. In order to maintain fire while traveling, a storage system can be created to transport the spark from the current fire to the site of the next nights camp.
All that is need is dry, fibrous material that can be shredded, then compacted into a large cigar-like “match”. Lay out strips of bark for the outer layer of the match. Onto this, pile the shredded inner layers (Photo 1). Cattail down may also be added. It is an exceptional material for maintaining a coal without it igniting into a flame. The entire mass is tightly wrapped (Photo 2 & 3) and bound with other fibers (Photo 4). The Match must be wrapped very tightly to minimize air flow. The length of time that the match will last without igniting is a fine balance between reduced air flow to allow the spark to smolder, yet enough air to allow it to be maintained. The match should be sheltered from breezes, as these may cause it to bust into flame.
The spark is fed into one end of the match. Make sure that it begins to feed off of the inside fiber bundle and does not go out. A layer of bark can be lightly wrapped around this end to protect the spark from obtaining too much air.
Once you get to camp, the spark can be transported to a tinder bundle, or the match may be opened and the spark blown into a flame. The match is used to ignite the kindling and fuel.
Photo 5: A simple flake tool is used to split yucca leaves for binding.
* * *
Section 3
Bone, Stone and Wood
Basic Elements
* * *
FIRST TOOLS
By David Wescott
* * *
Which came first, fire or the cutting edge ? Which came first, a wood, bone or stone age ? Which came first, core tools or flake tools ? Which came first, the chicken or the egg ? By the time you ponder all of those questions, someone else will have made the needed tools , collected their groceries, made a fire and cooked a hot meal, and bedded down for the night. Maybe thinking about it is as far as you want to go, but coming to a real understanding of how to do things takes action. By doing with your hands, you train your mind and body to work together. One is no more slave to or in control of the other...we come into balance.
Early tools were simple and field expedient. Early people picked up, modified, used for a specific task and discarded what tools they needed. They learned to seek out the best materials for a job later on, but at this point they used what was readily available to them...on the spot. "First Tool" or simple technologies require you to become familiar with what you have in your own neighborhood. Don't seek out the exotics or materials that would have to be obtained through trade or travel. Use what you have and master the skills that local materials will allow you to perform.
On our journey through time, we need to start at the beginning and work toward the present. Establishing a foundation in the "first skills" allows us to build not only our knowledge of materials, but to also train ourselves by starting with more large-scale tools and concepts and "evolving" into more refined tools as we travel through time. By mastering the broad-based principles first, we will then have the technical skills and insights to lead us through a natural progression of mental, physical and technological development.
Our Toolmaking Tradition
There is more to our connection with tools than simply making them. The ability to make tools is not unique to us. The fact that we create tools - to create tools - to create tools - to create tools - however, is a human characteristic. The way we alter and use materials as tools is what defines culture. Types of tools, techniques used and materials selected over a wide range of opportunities are what help us to identify a specific group of people. Since the total record of ancestral bones is composed of less than 1,000 individuals, our material heritage is the only other benchmark we have to mark our travel through time. The trait of passing on a collected assortment of technologies and traditions is what many define as the basic human niche - culture. Being culture-bearing is the essence of what makes us human. And our connection to tools - the longest recorded evidence of culture- has much to do with how we define ourselves and our relationship to the expanded range of environments and challenges we now experience.
You Are What You Eat
The question of herbivore, carnivore, or omnivore is a sticky one and will probably never be completely resolved. However, the majority of information points to the fact that early man was predominantly an eater of plants and that many of the expedient or "found" tools were used to access plant parts; i.e. roots, nut meats, fruits. Many of the early stone, bone and wooden tools were plant processors and harvesters that allowed man (an animal inadequately suited to compete with other animals in the same environment) to dig roots that required strong claws, crack nuts without powerful jaws, or prepare foods for those too small or weak to eat them without processing. Early choppers may have been used to modify wood and bone into gathering tools or as processors of what was found. Hand axes with sharp edges on all sides work as well for digging as they do for woodworking or butchering.
TECHNOLOGICAL TIME LINE
5,000,000-10,000 years ago
5 mil
Pre-stone age industries of bone, tooth and wood Digging Sticks, Bone Shovels, Simple Pebble Tools
2.5 mil
LOWER PALEOLITHIC - old stone age Oldowan Tool Tradition - Earliest stone tools Stick, Bone and Found Tools
1.5 mil
Crafted tools and early fire hearths Acheulean Tool Tradition - Cleavers, Axes, Flake Tools Cooking Rocks, Seed Preparation
800,000 .
Man controls fire
400,000
Artificial shelters
100,000
MIDDLE PALEOLITHIC
Skins for clothes and shelter
Bones for utensils and tools
Sophisticated core and platform production
60,000
Complex tools and ritual burials
50,000
Mammoths hunted
40,000
UPPER PALEOLITHIC
Cave paintings Blade and Core Tool Tradition
Atlatls and Spear Throwers
Amulets and Adornments
35,000
Earliest known "written" records
33,000
Bone flutes
30,000
Sculpted Figurines - Food Storage
Complex Language - Fire production tools
20,000
Bone, ivory, antler needles and harpoons
10,000 MESOLITHIC - old world
* * *
The shift from plant eater to meat eater was most likely slow yet deliberate. Survival creates the drive to exploit all options to their fullest. This includes material and food sources. Much of what has been discovered in the form of early tools has been found in direct association with bones that can be dated for age, thus giving us a relative age of the tools. The majo
rity of tools found have been with the remains of animals that were most likely used as food or raw materials for tool production. If we want to ignore the fact that early man became a meat eater, then do we assume that early tools were made by the animals with whom they were found?
The one asset we do have is a set of teeth that allows us to make use of a wide variety of food sources. Compared to other families we may not be the most expedient user of any one source, but our physical ability to create the tools we need to adapt, plus our built-in processors for almost any food type, keeps us fed wherever we go.
Man - The Sculptor
Manmade tools appear in the fossil record as far back as 2.5 million years ago and continue through time. Some, but not many, tool-using animals modify the shape of their "found tools", as well as select specific tools for specific tasks. Man, on the other hand, is able to conduct a mental process that allows him to see within the natural material the tool that is needed to complete a task, and can then modify the material to the shape that does the job the best. This process is basic to becoming a toolmaker. You need to be able to find the best material from among a variety of choices, see your finished product in the material, render it out - sculpt, knap, carve or otherwise reduce the material to the desired form that you saw - and then use the tool for the job that it was intended.
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