OCTOBER 24th - I Have Made Fire



On this day in 1836, Alonzo Dwight Phillips became the first American to receive a patent for a phosphorus friction match. Apparently, he just ripped off Dr. Charles Sauria, a Frenchman from St. Lothair, although Phillips’ match was described as an “improvement.” But Suaria probably just ripped off somebody before him, who had ripped off somebody before him, dating all the way back to when the first caveman struck the first match. Or, you know, got extremely bored making shadow puppets in the sunlight and hunting for food and starting rubbing two sticks together. I’m just extremely thankful people figured out the whole fire thing. More specifically that Phillips or Sauria or the guy before him or the guy before him figured out the whole how-to-make-fire-easy thing. Because rubbing sticks together seems like a pain in the ass. It probably wouldn’t be for Thomas Jefferson, so undoubtedly he would not be very impressed by Phillips or Sauria or the guy before that or the guy before that. But TJ once saw a master archer start a fire in midair by shooting three arrows. The sheer physics of that is mind-bottling, but TJ was just like, “Here are some flint rocks dude. Much more efficient.” But since I am not TJ nor a master archer, and I don’t normally walk around with flint, I am quite impressed by the invention of matches. Even more so by the lighter. Fire in my pocket? Yes, please. While I wouldn’t mind feeling such satisfaction from my own fire-starting that I felt the overwhelming desire to break into dance and sing The Doors like Chuck Noland in Cast Away, the time spent actually building the thing would prove a toonsy bit tedious. I always just imagine I Have Made Fire when I pull out a lighter to light soothing aromatherapy candles anyway. I believe Charlie Sheen would call that Winning.

This day has been Marked.

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