purpose of
procuring fire between the years 1669 and 1833.

The first invention was what were called "phosphoric tapers." From the
accounts given (although it is not easy to understand the description),
phosphoric tapers seem to have been sulphur matches with a little piece
of phosphorus enclosed in glass fixed on the top of the match, the idea
being that you had only to break the glass and expose the phosphorus to
air for it to catch fire immediately and ignite the sulphur. If this was
the notion (although I am not sure), it is not easy to understand how
the phosphoric tapers were worked. The second invention for the purpose
of utilizing phosphorus for getting fire was by scraping with a match a
little phosphorus from a bottle coated with a phosphorus composition,
and firing it by friction. The fact is, phosphorus may be easily ignited
by slight friction. If I wrap a small piece of phosphorus in paper, as I
am doing now, and rub the paper on the table, you see I readily fire my
phosphorus.

[Illustration: Fig. 6.]

After this, "Homberg's Pyrophorus," consisting of a roasted mixture of
alum and flour, was suggested as a means of obtaining fire. Then comes
the "Electrophorus," an electrical instrument suggested by Volta, which
was thought at the time a grand invention for the purpose of getting
light (Fig. 6 A). The nuisance about this instrument was that it proved
somewhat capricious in its action, and altogether declined to work in
damp foggy weather. I do not know whether I shall be successful in
lighting a gas-jet with the electrophorus, but I will try. I excite this
plate of resin with a cat-skin (Fig. 6 B), then put this brass plate
upon the resin plate and touch the brass (Fig. 6 C); then take the brass
plate off the resin plate by the insulating handle and draw a spark from
it, which I hope will light the gas. There, I have done it! (Fig. 6 D.)

[Illustration: Fig. 7.]

Well, next after the electrophorus comes the "fire syringe" (Fig. 7).
The necessary heat in this case is produced by the compression of air.
You see in this syringe stopped at one end, I have a certain quantity
of air. My piston-rod (C) fits very closely into the syringe (B), so
that the air cannot escape. If I push the piston down I compress the air
particles, for they can't get out;--I make them in fact occupy less
bulk. In the act of compressing the air I produce heat, and the heat, as
you see, fires my tinder.

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