THE WIGWAM

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1037, 30 July 1930, Page 14

THE WIGWAM

Here we gather, here we meet in pow wow friendly and discreet. To talk of earth, and tea, and sky, and t catch the world of men go by.

FIREMAKERS

WHEN we apply a match to a tire, liow quickly the yellow tongues of flame leap round the wood and seek ardently to explore the chimney. A little insignificant stick of wood or wax with a prepared end has performed a miracle The savage, laboriously rubbing a stick to and fro in a wooden groove, would gasp with amazement at such simplicity were he here today. The ancients drew lire from the sun, and it was Archimedes, the Greek, who arranged mirrors to bring the rays of the sun to one point from which fire resulted. The ancient Romans kept a fire, lit from the sun, constantly burning in a central place, round which they erected a temple. Vesta was the goddess of this sacred temple, and six ■{’estal virgins tended the fire by night and day, feeding it with oil lest it should go out. The tinder-box is of comparatively recent date, though now the matchbox has completely replaced it. The tinder was merely charred linen, upon which sparks, made by striking flint and steel together, were dropped, and to the smouldering mass a sulphur match was applied. The first friction match was invented by John Walker, a chemist of Stockton, who sold his wares at the rate of fifty a shilling. So, down the ages, we come to the present day, when a box of matches may be purchased for a joenny and a fire lit in the twinkling of an eye. KEDFEATHER.