what did Robinson Crusoe use to start his fire?!

[forrestdweller]

i'm currently rereading "Robinson Crusoe" and in chapter12 he finds cave, to explore it he uses self made candles. to ignite them he uses a tinderbox made from a musket lock "with some wild-fire in the pan". i've no idea what he refers to and my google search for "wild-fire" directs me to bushfires :-(
does anyone have an idea what he talks about?!

 

[Tengu]

Some kind of tinder? Maybe something flammable mixed with a bit of gunpowder? (Which we know he had, as he is very careful with it).

Something like the old trick of lighting a fire by taking the bullet and propellant out of a cartridge, replacing with rag and firing it into the ground, as the old timer used to do if they had no matches?

(Sounds a bit hit and miss, that)

 

[demographic]

I don't know the actual answer but paper/rag soaked in saltpeter solution then dried acts as a blue touch paper and burns with a fizz.

Or Yellow Pages does anyway cos I did it as a teenager.

 

[Kadushu]

That was my thought. Dave Canterbury demonstrated rag impregnated with black powder as a fire starter. No idea what wild fire actually is though.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

Flint lock weapons use a flint in the hammer, which when cocked & the trigger pulled, strikes a metal plate which creates a spark, which ignites a small amount of priming powder placed in a small receptacle, called a pan of flash pan, adjacent to the touch hole, destined to ignite the gunpowder rammed into the barrel.
The wild fire could refer to a type of gunpowder or just Daniel Dafoe putting some spark into it.

 

[Jared]

Heard of using char cloth, and rub cloth (gunpowder impregnated cloth). No idea what wildfire would be.

 

[Jared]

ChatGPT says it's a non specific term for something flammable.

ChatGPT - Wildfire in Robinson Crusoe

Shared via ChatGPT

chatgpt.com

 

[woodsorrel]

I always admired Robinson Crusoe. He was the only man to ever get all his work done by Friday.

- Woodsorrel

 

[TeeDee]

I always admired Robinson Crusoe. He was the only man to ever get all his work done by Friday.

- Woodsorrel

Not sure if I should be laughing at that one but the word play made me smile. Thank you!