MATCHES

MATCHES

We can only conjecture how primitive man first discovered the uses of fire, and obtained fire for his needs perhaps from a volcano. During most of the historical era, only one fire making device was used. This was flint and steel, which still srvives in portable cigarette lighters and some other articles. Until the early nineteenth century, every family kept flint and steel on the hearth, every soldier carried a tinder box in his knapsack. Then the invention of matches put within reach of everyone a much cheaper, easier, and lighter device for making fire.