![огонь1.jpg](https://gateway.ipfs.io/ipfs/QmTyaH2hCgN4YC4ocezpChMjSViEg5GYF2LX76KNwtDsa2)

To begin with, fire is not an invention, and certainly not a person. To understand this, it is enough to open a school textbook on chemistry. Fire is an intense process of oxidation. Man has learned to receive fire at the right time and in the right place. And no more.
The source of fire in nature can be lightning, trapped in a dry tree, and maybe a volcano that erupts the streams of hot lava or the famous Tunguska meteorite, as a special case. Nothing more comes to mind. Most likely this is all. As you can see, all listed ways of creating fire for a person are very dangerous and are defined as catastrophes.
I do not know why in ancient times a man suddenly needed a fire. Cooking food, and maybe they were raw food, and stocks were stored in dried form or frozen as the people of the far north. Fire as a source of heat, but then they had to live away from the equator. Something had to be special to direct the human mind in that direction. There are many myths on this topic. For example, about the resettlement of people, after the discovery of the method of obtaining fire. But all this is speculation and conjecture.
An important invention is the prototype of a modern match. Its importance is to get the fire in the right place and at the right time. The story tells of many ways. Some are still used. The importance is determined by the period of existence of the invention. And constantly improving the way, also speaks of the importance of obtaining fire for a person's life.
All methods can be conditionally combined into three groups.
1. The most ancient is the friction of wood on wood. If a tree is rubbed at a high rate, it will light up from heating. The figure shows a way how to do this with a thread and dry sticks. It is important that the stick of which you are a third was solid wood, and on which the third is softer. A way to come in handy in the campaign if soaked or lost matches.

2. The next method is silicon and steel or pyrite. Most likely, such a method without special training is not possible, so now little is applicable.
3. Chemical. Of course, the most common way is matches. The prototype of matches was sticks soaked in sulfur. They used them in medieval China. Those matches to which we were accustomed were invented in the 18th century. There were different options and ways of manufacturing. These are chemical matches that light up when they come in contact with sulfuric acid. Sulfur matches in which antimony sulfide was used and ignited by rubbing on a grater or sandpaper. Then there were lists on the basis of white phosphorus, which were easily ignited and were very dangerous. And finally the Swedish match, so interestingly described in the trilogy of T. Dreiser's desires. In the Swedish match, white phosphorus was replaced by red and the grater was also made of red phosphorus. In this form they have reached our days.
End of the first part