Fire: Encyclopedia II - Fire - Controlling fire

Fire - Controlling fire

Controlling fire for the purposes of providing heat and light was one of humankind's first great achievements. The ability of fire to generate heat and light made possible migration to colder climates and enabled people to cook food — a decisive step in the perennial fight against disease. Smoke signals were an early use of fire for communication, and fire soon enabled advancements in metallurgy such as smelting and forging. Archaeology indicates that ancestors of modern humans such as Homo erectus seem to have been using controlled fire as early as some 790,000 years ago. The Cradle of Humankind site has evidence for controlled fire 1 million years ago.

By the time of the Neolithic introduction of grain based agriculture, people the world over used fire as a tool in landscape management. These fires were typically controlled "cool fires," as opposed to uncontrolled "hot fires" that damage the soil. Such hot fires destroy plants and animals, and endanger communities. All too often this is a problem in the forests of today where traditional burning is prevented in order to encourage the growth of timber crops. Cool fires are generally conducted in the spring and fall. They clear undergrowth, burning up biomass that could trigger a hot fire should it get too dense. They provide a greater variety of environments, which encourages game and plant diversity. For humans, they make dense, impassable forests traversable.

Today, the applications of fire are numerous. In its broadest sense, fire is used by nearly every human being on earth in a controlled setting every day. Owners of internal combustion vehicles use fire every time they drive. Thermal power stations provide electricity for a large percentage of humanity. However, fire is also used more directly; many nomadic peoples still use fire for cooking. It is also used for smoking, and as a weapon.

In fact, the use of fire by militaries has a long history up to the present day. Homer detailed its use by Greek commandoes who hid in a wooden horse to burn Troy during the Trojan war. Later the Byzantine fleet (late Romans) used Greek fire to attack ships and men. In the Vietnam War, the Americans dropped a modern version, Napalm, from the air. More recently many villages were burned during the Rwandan Genocide. Aerial bombing of cities, including firebombing (using incendiary bombs) was also frequently used during World War II. See also Category:Incendiary weapons. Molotov cocktails are in common use as well.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Controlling fire", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki