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!

 

[forrestdweller]

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

- Woodsorrel

which is how the five-day-week was invented

 

[forrestdweller]

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.

shame Daniel Defoe wasn't more specific...

but seeing that Robinson Crusoe is supposed to have two good barrels a
(and two wet ones) of gun powder and comes up with the idea of taming goats after ca. 11years on his island (when realising he's getting low on powder) i'd daresay it's not gun powder (or rub cloth)...

 

[Trojan]

This is the book that started me on my journey into bushcraft. A must read for young people I think.

 

[Tengu]

Its a fine book for young and old.

(Its a shame the sequel is so poor).

 

[Falstaff]

Yes, found what my distant memory recalled. I think the author was talking it up a bit, but it possible:
"Suggestions have been made that the Dictamnus albus plant, found throughout northern Africa is a candidate for the burning bush. In the summer, the plant, also known as the “gas plant,” exudes a variety of volatile oils that can catch fire readily and may give the impression that the bush is burning. So was Moses witnessing the combustion of a mix of terpenes, flavonoids, coumarins and phenylpropanoids? An interesting hypothesis about the burning bush, but one that can be readily doused.

The plant’s volatile oils do not catch fire spontaneously, they need a source of ignition. Moses is unlikely to have been walking around with flintstones looking for bushes to ignite. And when the vapours coming off the Dictamnus albus plant do ignite, the flash lasts just a few seconds."

Which would approximate to using a flintlock and a plant that I think was also called wildfire. I see no reason why Moses would not have the means and knowledge to make fire. A long, long, while ago I came across something about african natives using a plant called or referred to as "wildfire" to make fires.