Steemit Engagement Challenge S11 - W1: Perhaps if man had not invented fire, what would this earth have looked like?

Hello, All My Steemian Friends,

The questions of when, why, where, and how to use fire stated, it is believed that the discovery of fire is one of the aspects that separates humans from the rest of the species. But there are proof that even chimpanzees, dolphins, and many other species of birds know how to use fire.

In some places where evidence of the use of fire has been found, they have started using fire as far back as three to four hundred thousand years or even older than that.

This is my guess, but there is no solid proof; probably the first fire was derived from an outburst of natural gas or volcanic activity. Culturally, economically, socially, and technologically, fire was a revolutionary tool, and this 'revolution' has taken millennia.

𝚆𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚊𝚍𝚟𝚊𝚗𝚝𝚊𝚐𝚎𝚜 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚍𝚒𝚜𝚊𝚍𝚟𝚊𝚗𝚝𝚊𝚐𝚎𝚜 𝚘𝚏 𝚏𝚒𝚛𝚎?

Fire brought the possibility of heat and light, and therefore a double expansion of the habitable environment, into the cold, and into the dark. In physical terms, caves were the prerogative of fire. This is the beginning of the use of fire, the spears of early man were hardened in fire, cooking became possible, indigestible substances such as seeds became sources of food, and plants of all kinds became edible.

The communities gathered around the hearth after dark for trials in chaotic and unfriendly surroundings. Some individuals who specialized in fire may have become beings of mystical significance, as life and death depended on them. And the need to protect it may have made them masters of communities. As it is today, the one who is most destructive rules the world.

Is fire essential for us or not?

This imagination of how human life would have been if there was no fire takes me to a different world. Fire is as important to human existence as air and water. Fire is definitely dangerous, but it was the fire that brought about a revolution in human life. It was because of the fire that he learned to cook food and saved himself from the bitter cold, animals and discovered a new way of living life. He also used fire to stay safe from danger. It is difficult to imagine human life without fire.

Yet the deepest instincts of this new power always ran towards the good of mankind. The fire must have directly affected the mindset as well. This was another factor reinforcing the tendency for conscious inhibition and restraint, and hence their evolutionary significance. The focus of a cooking fire as a source of light and heat also had deep psychological power.

The fire began to make the iron rigid and strong, change nights and days, and even discipline the seasons. Thus, it moved life further away from the natural rhythms that our fireless ancestors were living.

But the question is, when did man learn to start fire, extinguish, and control fire according to his needs?

As far as I know, research is still going on in some places from the Stone Age where these remains are about one million years old. This indicates that the men of this era had learned to control the fire. Archaeologists argue that long ago, our ancestors learned the art of creating fire by rubbing. It is also possible that they brought burning branches from the forest fire and used them according to their wishes at another place.

Some birds have also been seen using this trick, and many predatory birds press burning twigs in their beaks to get their prey out of the field and throw them into other fields. The early humans must have also used this trick, and they took this method even further. They must have prepared furnaces for this fire, in which they would have put fuel and kept it burning.

So this should answer whether fire is essential for us or not. Humans differ from other species only because of their ability to use fire, but which race of humans first learned to make fire?

According to this, a man learned the skill of lighting fire thousands of years ago. But creating fire by rubbing wooden pieces with each other was a laborious task, whereas fire could be easily produced by rubbing two pieces of stone. So I am not sure what method they preferred to create fire, but it is certain that after this, there was a revolution in the life of the primitive man. When he started eating cooked food, the development of his brain also accelerated, and he began to move toward the modern era faster than he was moving before fire was invented.

The discovery of fire is one of the greatest assets for human beings in history because, without fire, man used to eat raw food. Fire is so useful that without it, human life would not have been as easy, as it looks now, so the discovery of fire has revolutionized human life. Fire has changed the ways men are doing things now.

The fire was started in the primitive period itself because the primitive humans living in the forests used fire to escape from the wild animals, and as we all know, that primitive man discovered the fire by rubbing the stone when he was carrying the stone from one place to another and one of them fell by mistake on another, and that man saw the sparks generated by the collision of the stones. That was the beginning of the fire.

But it was not used until primitive men learned to control it. At that time, primitive man was afraid of it, but gradually he taught them to use it, and in the beginning, if there were caves somewhere, humans used to live in them. Otherwise, they would make a shelter for themselves among the leafy branches of big trees. He was afraid of two things, the weather and wild animals.

I understand that in the pre-fire era, humans would not know many things or how to keep animals away. Why did the thunderstorms take place?

Humans were weak compared to these animals, so they had to either hide in caves and trees to protect themselves or kill them with their crude weapons. But the best way to protect themselves from animals was to light a fire at night to keep all the animals away from their caves. During the stormy nights of winter, the fire provided comfort and security for them.

And there was another method of generating fire, the friction method. The simplest and most popular method of generating fire is to rub a wooden rod on a wooden plate, and this method is popular in different parts of the world. And once the invention of the matchbox for fire came into existence, the use of fire in human life changed.Source

If there had been no fire, then human life would not have been so easy, and as the population increased, people started living with the help of fire even when it was not possible due to the cold.

How should we handle fire for a safe environment?

We should understand that if we have no control over its devasting power, it can cause a lot of damage. Once a fire starts, it continues to burn and spread as long as there is oxygen and combustible material. Fire is extinguished by separating oxygen from fuel.

In the end, as a metallurgist, I would like to add that fire is necessary and useful for humans, but we should use it carefully. Fire is used for adding as well as extracting different metals by heating processes, for making airplanes, ships, automobiles, etc., but if it gets out of our control, it might become the biggest of our enemies.

We all know that we lose the lives of hundreds of thousands of humans and animals every year because of uncontrolled fire, the firepower used in battles, and other reasons like wood fire, bombs, and accidents. Let me add the use of Manganese which is used in firecrackers reduces the temperature of burning wood from 350 degrees Celsius to 250 degrees Celsius. This means Manganese can easily set fire to the woods therefore we should avoid using fircrackers.

I will conclude my post here saying that we all know the answer but not following the rules about how we should handle the fire and this "Fire Power" that changed the world is perhaps going to end this world in the near future. Thank you all for reading my humble views.