Mankind has been coming up with all kinds of creative ways to use fire ever since we first came into contact with it. We first probably noticed that it was warm, but not a very good idea to touch it. While getting close could be very comforting, but getting too close could be a big mistake. Next we probably figured out we could use it to cook our food to make it taste better. This might have been an accident of when someone dropped a hunk of meat into the flames and it was retrieved and eaten. That was a really great discovery accident or not if it was.
We know that other uses for fire was discovered when we began using it to bake pottery to make useful dishes and vessels that were used to carry water and other things in. This was also a great achievement for mankind and we have been making pottery for useful things as well as artistic ever since. Techniques have been drastically improved over the centuries and now electric kilns are used by many people, but some more primitive cultures still make it the old fashioned way.
Later on in time when metals were found to be pliable, fire once again played an intricate part in the process. All sorts of metals could be shaped and fashioned by using a fire hot enough to melt them. When poured into molds and cooled, they could then be pounded into other more specific shapes if desired. This use of fire brought a whole new era about in warfare. People could battle using more than wooden spears and bows and arrows. They developed swords, shields, helmets, and battle axes.
Warfare was not the only ting to be advanced by metals being turned into things. Farming tools and eventually machinery were to also become of great usefulness. Today it would be hard to imagine not having the use of metal objects. We have cars, trains, buses, and airplanes and they are made from metal or have metal components. Many of our buildings are made using metals in many different forms.
None of these spectacular inventions would have been possible if some ingenious ancient person had not figured out how to use fire to create things. As dangerous and destructive as fire can be, it is also glorious in the great inventions is has provided for us. |
