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FIRE

Humans and the entire universe is made up of


Five elements or panchmahabhutas.
The actual names of these elements and their approximate English translation is as follows:

Prithvi: Earth , Jal: Water , Vayu: Air , Agni: Fire , Akash : Ether

Thus fire happens to be one of the five elements of the universe.

The fire triangle illustrates the three elements a fire needs to ignite: heat, fuel, and an oxidizing agent (usually oxygen).

A fire occurs when these elements are present and combined in the right mixture, meaning that fire is actually an event rather than a thing

A fire can be prevented or extinguished by removing any one of the elements in the fire triangle

For example, covering a fire with a fire blanket removes the oxygen part of the triangle and can extinguish fire.

Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material in the chemical process of combustion. At a certain point in the combustion reaction, called the ignition

point, flames are produced. Flames consist primarily of carbon dioxide, water vapor, oxygen and nitrogen. Fire emits heat and light.
Fire is not a form of matter; it is a chemical reaction. Fire is not made of any actual materials, but instead it is the result of chemical
reactions from heating certain materials while they are in contact with oxygen such as wood or gasoline.

Historians do not know for sure just how fire was discovered, but most believe that humans first saw fire after
lightning struck a tree during the Lower Paleolithic age. Soon, humans discovered that it was possible to not only use the flame for
heat and light, but also to cook food.

USES OF FIRE
Heat
In very cold seasons you can find persons sitting around open fires to get warm. This is because fire generates heat that keeps the temperature up so
persons can function normally during the times when the temperature is extremely low. Even today people regularly use open fires to stay

warm outdoors during camping trips or use fireplaces in homes to keep the house warm during the winter.

Light

One of the most important uses of fire is to provide light. Fire is a good light source although it pales in
comparison to other sources, such as light bulbs and flashlights etc. It does, however, provide a soft glow that can help
light an area and make it possible to move around at night outdoors. In the days prior to electric lights fire was a main
source of light used in fireplaces and oil lanterns.

Cooking

Fire can be used to prepare foods in many ways. Open fires have long been used to roast meats and
vegetables while grills use flames to prepare favourite foods like steaks, hamburgers, hot dogs, fish and much more.
Many people prefer grilling to oven roasting or frying because of the distinct smoky flavour it produces..

Energy

Every time you turn on a light in your home, flick on the air conditioner, watch television or use any other
appliance, there is a good chance you have fire to thank for the luxury though it doesn't seem apparent to many
people, electricity does not magically occur without an energy source.. Fuels such as coal, natural gas or oil is burned
to heat water and produce steam that builds pressure and forces turbines to turn, creating energy that supplies
electricity to the public. Fire is at the root of the process and without it, much of the current electrical availability across
the country and much of the world would not exist.

Blacksmithing

Trades such as blacksmithing and other more modern metal forging operations rely on fire to produce
extreme heat to help shape raw materials into new objects.

Landscaping
Prima facie this may seem one of the most destructive uses of fire. In this case large area of land is burned to remove trees and other deluge to prepare
the land for development.
Cooking
Boiling, frying, toasting, baking, even with the new aged appliances and equipment used in kitchen there is no escaping the use of fire in the processes of
cooking meals. One could even say that the main ingredient in the preparation of all meals is fire.

Fire making, fire lighting or fire craft is the process of starting a fire artificially.
Fire was an essential tool in early human cultural development.The control of fire by early humans probably dates back to Homo erectus or very early Homo
sapiens: that is, 400-200 thousand years ago based on archaeological evidence of hearths. Friction is the most commonly used primitive method for making
fire. Ancient techniques for starting friction fires include the hand drill, the bow drill, the fire plow and the pump drill

etc.

Friction
Fire can be created through friction by rapidly grinding pieces of solid burnable material (such as wood) against each other or a hard surface. Successfully
creating fire by friction involves skill, fitness, knowledge, and acceptable environmental conditions

The hand drill is known to be the oldest method of fire by friction, characterized by the use of a thin, straightened wooden

shaft or reed to be spun with the hands, grinding within a notch against the soft wooden base of a fire board

(a wooden board with a carved notch in which to catch heated wood fibers created by friction).

The bow drill uses the same principle as the hand drill (friction by rotation of wood on wood) but the spindle is shorter,

wider (about the size of a human thumb) and driven by a bow, which allows longer, easier strokes

and protects the palms. With a well-built bow drill and enough practice, fire can be easily created

even in wet conditions.

A pump drill is a variant of the bow drill that uses a coiled rope around a cross-section of wooden stakes to produce friction on a hard surface, combusting
material underneath the mechanism.

Percussion
To produce sparks, one may strike a hard stone (for example flint or quartz)

onto another containing iron (such as pyrite or marcasite).

Sparks struck by this method must make immediate contact with tinder, black charcloth, or steel wool,

which will smoulder from the spark. The material used to hold the spark is held above the flint or quartz

, tight against the stone.

Other methods
One of the easiest methods of creating fire is to use a lens or condensing reflector (such as a burning glass) to focus the energy from the sun onto tinder. It is
most effective on dark- coloured tinder, which absorbs heat and light energy better than light-coloured tinder.

A concave mirror, such as a polished soda can bottom, can be used as well to focus the sun's rays on tinder.

An unusual method of making fire is with a device called a fire piston. Commonly constructed from wood, horn, or

plastic, it has a hollow tube with one sealed end and a piston that fits snugly into the tube. At the end of the piston

is a depression where tinder is held during compression. The tinder is inserted into the depression, and the piston

is quickly pushed into the tube. This compresses the air, raising the temperature in the tube, just as a diesel engine

fires, until the tinder ignites and forms an ember.

Modern methods
Matches are small wooden sticks or stiff paper with a coating that can be easily ignited by friction.

Lighters, such as those for cigarettes or grills, use a ferrocerium "flint" for the spark, and gas fuels such as butane, or a liquid naphtha/gasoline-impregnated
wick as the tinder and fuel.

Electric firemaking involves the contact of an electrically conductive object with tinder. A current is run through the object until it is red hot, like the burners on
an electric stove, and it is brought into contact with the tinder, lighting it. Also, a low electric voltage, such as a flashlight battery coming into contact with a
thin wire mesh (such as steel wool) will produce enough heat to ignite charcloth or other tinder.

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