In the East Indies, there is a white spongy plant, which, when reduced to a kind of charcoal, furnishes a very good tinder.
Spunk, or pyrotechnical sponge, is generally made in Germany.
In the preparation of ordinary tinder, the best mode of carbonizing the old linen, instead of burning and then smothering the flame, is to char the rags in close iron vessels. It may be made more quick by soaking it in a solution of nitre, and then drying it.
Dry turf, or peat, is susceptible of inflammation by the spark, and, if previously soaked in a solution of nitre, the effect, we are told, is much the same as with spunk. Professor Beckman (History of Inventions, i, p. 333), remarks, that a spark falling accidentally on a turf moor, during a dry summer, often sets it on fire; and the conflagration it occasions, often lasts so long, that it cannot escape notice. Of the earth taking fire in this manner, there are many instances to be found in the ancients. One of the most remarkable, is that mentioned by Tacitus, (Annal., lib. xiii, cap. 57), who relates, that not long after the building of the city of Cologne, the neighbouring land took fire, and burned in such a manner, that the corn, villages, and every production of the fields, were destroyed by the flames, which advanced even to the walls of the city. This was certainly a morass set on fire.
Gmelin (Travels in Russia, 1768-69, vol. i, p. 22) speaks of a morass in Siberia, where a village was erected, which, on account of its situation, the inhabitants deserted. This morass was set on fire, and when he was there, had been burning for more than six months; and being very inflammable, produced much devastation.
Turf, which consists of a congeries of vegetable roots or fibres, partly in a dry and decomposed state, or partly carbonized, when separated from earthy matter, and treated in the same manner as the medullary excrescence of wood, may be advantageously employed in like manner; but it is to be remarked, that for this purpose, the small and more friable, and consequently the more decomposed part, should be preferred. That turf, or peat, has been used for fuel, from time immemorial, there can be no doubt; since it is furnished in some countries very abundantly, and its inflammability has been long known.
Sec. XLII. Of Extinguishing Flame with Fired Gunpowder.
The different methods for extinguishing fire in chimnies, by using salt, sulphur, &c. to smother the flame, as it is called, depend on one principle, that of producing either a gas or vapour, which supplies the place of atmospheric air, and as it is a non-supporter of combustion, extinguishes the flame. Carbonic acid gas would have the same effect as the sulphurous acid gas, produced by the combustion of sulphur, or the vapour of salt.
So long, however, as the air is permitted to have a draught, the fire will continue to burn; and hence, without making any remarks on the bursting of chimnies, by closing all the avenues, by which the air enters, as the fire must exert a lateral pressure, this plan is generally adopted.
It has been suggested, and in fact the suggestion is by no means new, that the smoke of fired gunpowder would extinguish flame. Some recommend firing a pistol up a chimney for this purpose, and others again, throwing gunpowder into the fire.