Answer: The story focuses less on the ways man used to start fires and more on the ways that nature started fires independently of humans. That being said, it would seem as though the author is trying to express the fragility of fire early on, and it does seem as though he/she is saying that early on, humans just found a small amount of fire from a really dangerous origin to use as a kindling. The author develops the idea that humanity’s early fire-starting tools may have been dangerous by saying that “it took thousands of years to learn how to make [a match].” Because it took such a long time, it must not have been easy. The author continues to develop this idea by informing us that the first way man was able to use fire was by collecting fire produced by lighting or volcanos, which is certainly life-threatening and very dangerous. The author finishes up the history by saying that the fire was often put out, which would call for constant long and arduous journeys to collect the fire once again. With the 100's and early times as stated in the article,"When a forest is set on fire by cinders from a neighboring volcano, or when a tree is set ablaze by a thunderbolt, we may say that nature strikes a match." Now, that doesn't seem very safe does it? And for the 1800's, the example here is the wild sputtering as said like this: "Although Walker's match did not require the bottle of acid, nevertheless it was not a good one. It could be lighted only by hard rubbing, and it sputtered and threw fire in all directions." Now, would you want to risk being being hurt by cinders or sputtering fire? Without the acid was safer, but not too safe. Plus, acids and chemicals often cause health problems. The line that shows the value of the match it's the second one it was a long, long time before they learned how to kindle one easily". The match allows humankind to handle fire easily.The match is a significant invention that was produced after a historical evolution of kindling fires.The main idea is how fire kindling evolved to what it is today.
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