THE AUTOMATIC FIRE-LIGHT.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1365, 14 July 1885, Page 3

THE AUTOMATIC FIRE-LIGHT.

" How do you manage to light a fire so quickly 1" said a lady to her servant, who had quite a genius for making a kettle boil. " Xi's the way I puts the wood, mum." One morniDg, however, Bridget set fire to the chimney, and this in ila turn set fire to the 6hiogled roof. A rush to the kitchen revealed the secrets of Bridget's method. The wood had been thrown on top of the colonial oven, something like a pint of kerosene had been poured over it, aDd sundiy candle ends, and half the length ef a candle had been thrust between the pieces before the match was applied. "Effective, but neither economical nor quite safe," was the observation made by the master of the house. It then occurred to him that Bridget bad the right material for firelighting if ODly used in the proper way. He therefore took a handful of dry sawdust ,melted some scraps of fat, and haviug slightly moistened the sawdust with kerosene poured the melted fat over, and well mixed the whole together, piessing it into balls as large as a. walnut. The experiment showed that one of these would light the most obstinate fire, burning for ten minuteß with a steady flame about six inches high. Two were found sufficient to boil a small kettle. The cost of fire-light is merely the cost of the little kerosene required. Half-a-pint of kerosene would make enough to light a fire every day for two or three months, perhaps even more.