Fire-making Apparatus.
The collector of copper and brass looks with regret on the early fire-making apparatus in that iron was the chief metal employed. Nevertheless there are some objects associated with fire-making manufactured in brass. There are some well-known collectors who have specialized on fire-making appliances and early lamps. Among fire-making appliances are those of the percussion type, commencing with iron pyrites, flint, steel, and tinder. Some of the earlier tinder boxes were made of brass, although the majority were of wood and tin; many of the pistol-action tinder boxes which immediately followed the earlier form were furnished with stands and candle-sockets, being used for the purpose of lighting an early candle. Some of the brass candle-stands and candle-sockets are beautifully engraved, and many of the contrivances which were fired by the priming of gunpowder, the flash igniting the tinder, are highly ornamental. That method, of course, marked an advance. There are pistol-action tinder boxes from Japan, highly ornamental, the cases being pierced and in some instances decorated with raised silver and copper relief. From China and Central Asia come tinder pouches, many of them having decorative brass mounts, some being gilt on copper. Tinder was often carried about in tubes of brass and copper, some of the best examples being very elaborately engraved. In some small compartments are found; these were intended for the flint and steel. A later type of mechanical fire-making appliance, introduced by Richard Lorentz, in 1807, took the form of a patented compression tube or fire syringe, the piston of which was of brass. Chemical methods of lighting fires and striking lights have been tried with more or less success, and among the collectable curios are relics of these early attempts to produce fire and light by scientific methods. The collector, while welcoming every curious object, has generally to rely upon the objects which were in common use and made in larger quantities. Of these commonly used appliances, however, there are many varieties, and of the more perfected forms of lighting requisites there is an abundant choice.
FIG. 46.—A TWO-TUBE CANDLE MOULD.
FIG. 47.—TWO TYPES OF EARLY PRICKET CANDLESTICKS.