Roman lamp question

[M. Demetrius]

Maybe. You'll know soon enough.

If you have a fire, making charred cloth, or charcloth (analog to charcoal) is the tried-and-true method. You'll need pure vegetable fiber (no wool or synthetic) cloth: cotton or linen, for example. You'll also need a small metal container that's nearly air tight. An Altoids tin works, a cleaned shoe polish tin, or similar container. This will hold the squares of cloth while they're converted to charcloth. Then a few minutes and you will be ready.

[Peroni]

Here are a couple of Roman fire steels...

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Ahhhhh real bronze.....drool :roll:

[Donciorate]

Another way to carry an ember from fire to fire is to burn animal dung, hardened cow pies or horse droppings will burn and smolder for hours and with some tinder can be re ignited pretty easily. There is no denying that there would be plenty of said items around; and in an area where there are shortages of wood such as syria and in the eastern provinces tribal peoples used camel dung as fuel for fires to save wood. So it is known to work, you just need something to carry it in.

[Robert]

Cowhorns have often been regarded as good "dung-carriers" for this purpose.

[Peroni]

Another way to carry an ember from fire to fire is to burn animal dung, hardened cow pies or horse droppings will burn and smolder for hours

In India this is still common practice. It is used as a fuel and also keeps the mosquitos down. The first thing that assaults the nostrils as you step out of Delhi airport is the smell of burned cow pats! :?

[PhilusEstilius]

I think an awful lot of people are of the opinion that some kind of fire would be there in some form or other, and when we think that it was the Emperor who could beat the Vestal Virgins for letting the eternal flame go out the general consensus may be correct. If we think of the Goddess Vesta she was the deity of the hearth and the home and when Pater Familia was at war, Mater familia and the older children were tending the fields, it was the job of the youngest daughter being a virgin? to keep the fire going to ward off evil spirits from the door. In my long years of being in the military there was the thing called delegation of responsibility, where one guy in a century or maniple would be given the job of lighting a fire and the whole Cohort would share however outside of that Cohort you b..8@er off and find your own.

[Arminius Primus]

Ave,

Reference the photos posted as flint strikers. I have seen very similiar objects identified as Roman Razors.

The flint strikers that I am familiar with are all iron and come in various shapes , Sort of a " C " shape , while others have more of a "P" shape and then there are sort of flat ones.

The shapes seem to come and go over the centuries. The "C ' shaped ones were very prevalent on the american frontier.

Regards from the Balkans, Arminius Primus aka Al

[Peroni]

These are definately not razors. Look at the thickness of the ferrous parts. They are also flat and not edged.

Some people on a certain auction site do list them as razors. Admittedly there are similar-sized objects that could well be razors.

I would say that this is more like a razor.. A much thinner iron blade. and nowhere to get a good grip for striking against a flint like the other examples.

[markusaurelius]

Not too drag things off topic, but that last image Peroni looks like a modern Fake to me. Rust looks "fresh" and the Patina looks like the typical all too common chemical acid ones you see all over the place.....

But your point is well taken, regarding the thickness of the blade.

[Peroni]

Yes I agree it looks like a fake!

[Epictetus]

I was glancing through Carcopino’s old Daily Life in Ancient Rome last night and saw where he claimed that the Romans used matches to start fires. I was rather surprised about this so checked his source and found this:

XLI. TO CAECILIUS.
You imagine yourself Caecilius, a man of wit. You are no such thing, believe me. What then? A low buffoon; such a thing as wanders about in the quarters beyond the Tiber, and barters pale-coloured sulphur matches for broken glass; such a one as sells boiled peas and beans to the idle crowd; such as a lord and keeper of snakes; or as a common servant of the salt-meat-sellers; or a hoarse-voiced cook who carries round smoking sausages in steaming shops; or the worst of street poets; or a blackguard slave-dealer from Gades; or a chattering old debauchee...

41
Vrbanus tibi, Caecili, uideris:
non es, crede mihi. Quid ergo? uerna,
hoc quod Transtiberinus ambulator
qui pallentia sulphurata fractis
permutat uitreis, quod otiosae
uendit qui madidum cicer coronae,
quod custos dominusque uiperarum,
quod uiles pueri salariorum,
quod fumantia qui tomacla raucus
circumfert tepidis cocus popinis,
quod non optimus urbicus poeta,
quod de Gadibus improbus magister,
quod bucca est uetuli dicax cinaedi...

Martial, Epigrams

Does this look right? Did they have matches?

[D B Campbell]

Does this look right? Did they have matches?

Yes, it seems to be correct. I must confess that I assumed the Romans used flint-and-steel, although Theophrastus (the "wood" guy) talks about the kind of fire-drill that Boy Scouts use. But you're right -- Martial has certainly been cited as evidence of sulphur matches, sulphurata. (He seems to be the only one, though.)

[M. Demetrius]

Martial has certainly been cited

Even if he's the only one, it would indicate that at least such a thing was known. If fire steel wasn't used, there's wouldn't be so many of them.

I remember reading that it wasn't until the 18th century that matches became reliably damp-proof. But I wouldn't be able to find that reference. Even today, though, in really wet weather matches seem to fizzle sometimes. Sulfur alone wouldn't do it. It takes that phosphorus tip to start the ignition. As long as your tinder is dry, you can get a spark to flame with flint and steel.

Oh, while I'm thinking about it. If your area lacks flint, find one of those suppliers that offer modern reproduction arrowheads. Usually they're like 3 for a dollar or something, and every side is a sharp edge of flinty stone. Jasper, obsidian, chert and sometimes quartz will bring a spark from good steel. Granite might, if you can get a sharp edge...kind of crumbly, though. Limestone won't.

[Epictetus]

It takes that phosphorus tip to start the ignition.

Yes, it appears (from the limited information I have found) that a sulphur match was not actually self-igniting: it needed a source of high-heat or sparks. I suppose that sulphur matches were akin to very good tinder - something used to get a flame going, but not actually the cause of the initial combustion.