been
accomplished independently by men living under very different conditions
and at all ages. The fire-making of the Ancients has been rediscovered
by primitive people in more recent days, although it is probable that
native races who until recently have been living apart from the great
world outside have moved slowly in their march of civilization, and have
been using the same methods as those first tried by their ancestors ages
ago. In the unrivalled collection of appliances got together by
Professor Petrie, there are fire drills from the Transvaal, bow drills
used by the Esquimaux, and fire ploughs from North Queensland. Lighting
fires must have been a slow and difficult task in the days when tinder
boxes were in request, for when Curfew rang and the _couvre de feu_ had
done its work there was no fire in which to thrust the torch, and the
entire process had to be gone over again when the fire had once more to
be kindled.

Tinder Boxes.

The tinder box, formerly a real necessary, was to be found in every
house, and in many instances, in the days before lucifer matches, it was
a desirable pocket companion. Tinder boxes were made of different
materials; some were of wood, others of iron or brass. They lent
themselves to ornamentation: thus some were engraved and quite artistic;
many of the more recent ones were made of tin, and on the covers were
decorative little scenes. The contents of the tinder boxes were of
course flint and steel and tinder (something very inflammable, such as
scorched linen), with a damper for extinguishing the smouldering fire
after a light had been obtained, or in later days by the sulphur-tipped
match applied to it. Among the varieties are what are termed pistol
tinder boxes, instruments which contained a small charge of gunpowder,
which, when fired, lighted the tinder. Tinder pouches or purses
containing flint and tinder having a piece of steel riveted on to the
edge of the purse or pouch were a common form. Those brought over from
Central Asia were frequently decorated with dragons and the swastika
symbol, in damascened work.

Many inventions were put forward by chemists before the perfecting of
the common match, the wax vesta, and the fusee. One of these was Berry's
apparatus, which he devised in the beginning of the nineteenth century,
calling it a "contrivance for lighting lamps in the dark." It consisted
of an acid bottle with a string by which a conical stopper could be
raised, an