American inventions and inventors . e had placed at the point of contactwere ablaze. Little by little this drill was improved, andnow among some of the American Indians it furnishes acomparatively easy way of kindling a fire. Most children have seen a spark caused by the shoe of ahorse striking a stone in the road. Sometimes if one stonestrikes another a spark is produced. All this was perceivedeven in the earliest times, and the best substances to be usedbecame well known. Thestone called flint was foundto be the best for one of thetwo substances, and steel isusually preferred for theother. W
American inventions and inventors . e had placed at the point of contactwere ablaze. Little by little this drill was improved, andnow among some of the American Indians it furnishes acomparatively easy way of kindling a fire. Most children have seen a spark caused by the shoe of ahorse striking a stone in the road. Sometimes if one stonestrikes another a spark is produced. All this was perceivedeven in the earliest times, and the best substances to be usedbecame well known. Thestone called flint was foundto be the best for one of thetwo substances, and steel isusually preferred for theother. When steel and flintstrike each other, if a sparkfalls upon some vegetablematter a fire is soon kindled. Perhaps the most commonsubstance used to catch thespark was touchwood, a soft,decayed wood carefully broken into small fragments. After a time, in place of thetouchwood, tinder was used, which was made by scorchingold linen handkerchiefs. Later the tinder box was invented,in which a steel wheel was spun like a top upon a piece of. TINDER BOX, FLINT, AND MATCHES, 54 AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. flint set in tinder. After the discovery of gunpowder, flintand steel were used in guns. A hammer of flint struck ananvil of steel, and the spark produced fell into a pan of gun-powder, causing the flash which fired the gun. Before the American Revolution, and even into the pres-ent century, the process of kindling a fire w^as not a simpleone. The most frequent means employed, as has been seen,was the borrowing of coals from a neighbor. Less often, re-course w^as had to the long and difficult process of rubbing aspark from two pieces of wood. Sometimes, among the well-to-do, the tinder box was used; but it was seldom these reasons the fire was always most carefully watched;every precaution was taken to prevent it from goingout. Seldom could the house be left by the whole familyfor any length of time, and all because of the lack of amatch. Matches are a result of t
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