Researched by Sonia T.
2002-03

• PURPOSE 
• HYPOTHESIS 
• EXPERIMENT DESIGN 
• MATERIALS 
• PROCEDURES 
• RESULTS 
• CONCLUSION 

• RESEARCH REPORT 
• BIBLIOGRAPHY 
• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 

• ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

Introduction
Human health is an essential part of life. One priority needed in order to be healthy    is warmth.  The average human needs to maintain a body temperature of 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit, or else sicknesses or hypothermia may be brought on. Having a fire starter, which can burn effectively and stay ignited for a long time can significantly reduce the risk of hypothermia, and can help people survive while stranded in the wilderness.

The definition of lint is "bits of thread, raveling, or fluff from cotton or yarn". The definition of petroleum jelly is "a greasy jelly like substance consisting of a mixture of semi-solid hydrocarbons obtained by petroleum" (Webster’s New 20th Century Dictionary). Together, these two materials can be combined to form a reliable fire starter. 

Petroleum Jelly
Petroleum jelly is a partially solid substance formed from petroleum. It has no taste or smell, and is also called liquid petroleum, white mineral oil, and white paraffin oil. Petroleum jelly is sold in stores under the name of Vaseline. It is clear, or glossy yellow in color. It is an agent used in the making of plastics, and is an ingredient in medicines and cosmetics. It can also be used to lubricate certain objects.

Fire
The earliest use of fire was for warmth. As history continued, fire became useful for other things, such as cooking, shaping tools, light, and to transform clay to pottery.

What is Fire?
Fire is the heat and light that is produced by a burning object. This burning of an object is also known as combustion. When oxygen combines with other substances at such a slow rate that little heat or light is given off, something called oxidation occurs. 

Types of Flames
Not all objects that can burn, burn the same way. For example, charcoal, gives off heat and light with a faint glow. Other fuels, such as wood and oil produce flames containing both light and warmth. 

How Fire is Produced
Before someone can have fire, three conditions must be present. First, there must be a fuel, or an object to burn. Next, the fuel must be heated to a certain temperature, ignition temperature, the lowest temperature at which combustion can occur. Last, there has to be plenty of oxygen present. There are three classifications of fuels. They are liquids, such as oil; solids, such as coal and wood; and gasses, such as natural gass and hydrogen. 

The burning of an object depends on the form of fuel.  The thicker, more compact objects are harder to catch fire. The fire starts when heat flows to the center of an object. That object then needs to be able to maintain a hot enough temperature, to keep the heat within the object. When the fuel reaches the ignition temperature, the fire begins. The ignition temperature varies with each object. Liquids and solids need time to heat up before being ignited, because the fuel needs to vaporize, or turn into a gas before catching on fire. The ignition temperature of a solid is higher than the ignition temperature of a liquid or gas, because it takes longer to vaporize.

Starting Fires
There are many ways of starting fires. Before matches were invented, flint and steel were used. To start a fire out of these materials, you had to use a tinder from cotton, linen cloth, or dry, powdered bark from specific trees. Then you had to heat the fuel in an oven until almost ready to burn. Next, you would place it in a tinderbox in order to keep it dry. After that, you would place the tinderbox on the ground, and strike flint against the steel. The sparks caused by the friction would fall on the fuel, and ignite the fuel.

Matches also can start fires. The first match was invented by John Walker, in the year 1827.The tip of the match he made was covered with a mixture of antimony sulfide and potassium. When a tip was rubbed against a rough surface, friction produced heat to ignite the chemicals. The heat ignited the matchstick, and the fire could be transferred to other flammable objects. Other, safer matches were invented after Walker’s.

Heat Transfer
Heat transfer, in physics, is the process in which energy, in the form of heat, is transferred between parts of the same body with different temperatures. All heat is transferred through conduction, convection, and radiation. Though these processes often occur at the same time, it is not unusual for one of the three to be more important, because convection, conduction, and radiation all have different purposes.

Conduction
Conduction is the only way to transfer heat through dense objects. If one end of a solid is heated, eventually the other end will do the same, and will become hotter. This is believed to happen because of the motion of the free electrons inside the matter, which transports energy to the other end. This theory also explains why electrical conductors can serve as heat conductors.

Even though heat conduction has existed for many years, it wasn’t until 1882 when the French mathematician Jean Batiste Joseph Forier invented the law of heat conduction. This law stated that all materials conduct heat differently. It also said that materials that do a poor job conducting heat are known as insulators. It is believed that in the future, conduction will be used for many other things.

Textile

Fibers:
Fibers are what all textile material starts with. There are two kinds of fibers. Fibers are thin, hairlike structures. There are several forms of fibers. They are either short, staple, or chopped, in length. They are continuous single fibers, or untwisted bundles of continuous filaments. Fibers are classified by their chemical structure, origin, or both. They can be made into ropes or felts, and knitted or woven into fabrics. They can also be reinforcements in products consisting of two or more different materials.

Natural Fibers:
Natural fibers are fine strands from nature such as animal hair, plants, or minerals, that are twisted together to make yarn. Plants provide more fibers that the other two natural fibers. Cotton alone produces 95% of all natural fibers used in the United States! The main fibers produced from animals are wool fibers, and the only fibers that come from minerals are asbestos, which come from rock, that is not flammable.

Manufactured Fibers:
Manufactured fibers are produced by wood pulp, cotton linters, and petrochemicals. Wood pulp comes from scraps of wood at a lumber industry, which have no other significant use. Cotton linters are small fibers still on the cotton seed after the larger fibers have been removed. Petrochemicals are made from raw oil or natural gas. Some of the fibers from wood pulp and cotton linters are rayon and acetate. These two fibers are called cellulosics, because they are made from cellulose from wood and cotton, and the two are very similar. The main fibers that are produced from petrochemicals are nylon, polyester, acrylic, and olefin. Other manufactured fibers are made from glass and metal. Glass fibers are flame resistant, and are used mainly for decoration.

Fabric Flammability

Cotton Flammability:
When cotton is burned, it ignites easily, and burns with a bright flame.

Polyester Flammability:
Polyester is slower that cotton to ignite, but will eventually burn as a flame. The fibers in polyester hold heat and cool slowly. All manufactured polyester fibers burn hot and are able to cause severe burns. When the fibers are heated and burned, a melting residue forms and sticks to the fabric.
Wool Flammability:
Wool is very hard to ignite, and at first will resist the flame. This is because of a natural flame retardance.

Cotton
Cotton is the most commonly used plant for the manufacturing of natural fibers. The fibers are woven to make soft, strong, and absorbent fabrics. Cotton fibers have been of use to people for thousands of years.

Uses of Cotton:
All parts of cotton are useful. The most useful part of the cotton seed is the lint, which grows out of the seeds inside the seedpod. Textile mills spin cotton fibers into yarn, that can eventually be made into fabric.

Cotton Fibers:
Cotton fibers are natural fibers, which are made from plants. Cotton fibers are used mainly to make material, and clothing. Unlike many fibers, cotton can absorb moisture in its center. This characteristic makes the clothing feel cool in the summer and warm in the winter. Cotton fibers are also strong and durable. 

Kinds of Cotton:
There are thirty-nine types of cotton known to scientists. Four of these thirty-nine are harvested. The most common of these is called Upland Cotton. The second most common is called Pima cotton. The third most common is tree cotton, and the fourth most common is Levant Cotton. These four types of cotton are almost identical. The only characteristics that make them differ are ones such as the height of the fibers, the color, and the time of year they bloom. There are two groups of cotton. Old World Cotton, and New World Cotton.

Old World Cotton:
Old World Cotton consists of Tree cotton and Levant cotton. Levant cotton was a major source of cotton in the old world, until other sources became available, and more useful with a bigger supply of lint. This type of cotton is not as useful as New World Cotton, because of the short, thin fibers.

New World Cotton:
 New World cotton is made up of Upland and Pima cotton. It was first harvested thousands of years ago in central South America.

Upland Cotton:
The upland cotton is believed to have gotten its name from American colonists. The fibers were collected upland from the Atlantic Coast. The fibers found there were 1.9 to 3.2 centimeters long. The reason the Upland cotton is the most common kind of cotton because it is able to be made into many kinds of materials or fabrics.

Pima Cotton:
Pima cotton is a name of cotton developed along the coastline of what is now Peru   and Ecuador. Roughly 8% of all cotton is Pima cotton. Fibers from Pima cotton are 3.4 to 3.8 centimeters long. The Pima cotton fibers are known to be stronger than the Upland fibers. Pima is usually a thread used to make high quality materials such as blouses.

Polyester
Polyester is a form of plastic used in the manufacturing of textiles. The most common use of polyester is to make fabrics.

Polyester Fibers:
The polyester fibers are made from petrochemicals. All polyester fibers are able to absorb little moisture. When polyester fibers are exposed to the sun, the fibers lighten up and weaken in strength. The polyester fibers melt at 260 degrees Celsius. When polyester is sold as fabrics, it is known as polyester, Dacron, Fiber V, Fortrel, and Kodel. 

Wool

Wool Fibers:
Wool fibers are natural and come from animals. They come mainly from the fleece of sheep, but can be produced by other animals also, including goats and llamas. Wool fibers are made into durable fabrics used in manufacturing a variety of clothes and blankets. 

Characteristics:
One of the many characteristics of wool fibers is that it absorbs moisture and insulates well. The fibers in wool are shaped like small cylinders. The overlapping scales on the surface of wool fabrics make the fabric mat up when under heat, moisture, and pressure. This characteristic is called felting. This process strengthens the wool, and enables the wool to be made into felt. 

Sources of Wool:
Almost all of the wool produced is made from sheep. Wool is classified into five groups, separated by quality. First comes fine wool, next is crossbred wool, then is medium wool, after that is long wool, and last is course or carpet wool. Crossbred wool is the wool of sheep, which have a mixture of long and fine wool in them. Medium wool is the wool of sheep used for making industrial and upholstery fabrics. Course wool is wool used to make carpet and handicraft yarns, and fine wool is wool that has a very fine texture. 

The quality of the wool depends on the climate and the physical condition of the animal. High quality wool is covered by a milky substance called yolk. The yolk protects the wool from rain and keeps it from getting matted. The worst quality of wool comes from animals, which are either old, dead, or diseased.
 

* Beaulieu, Robert J. "Textile" World Book Encyclopedia, 1999

* Block, Ira "Wool" World Book Encyclopedia, 2001

* Dolbear, Geffrey E. "Petrolatum" World Book Encyclopedia, 2002

* Dolbear, Geffrey E. "Mineral Oil" World Book Encyclopedia, 2002

* "Fabric Flammability." November 11, 2002
<http://www.iastate.edu/~tc-ext/flame.html>

* "Heat Transfer" Microsoft Encarta, 2001

* "Lint" Websters New 20th Century Dictionary 

* Nguyen, Huy X. "Fibers" Microsoft Encarta, 2001

* "Petroleum Jelly" Websters New 20th Century Dictionary 

* "Polyester", Microsoft Encarta, 2001. 

* Quintiere, James G.  "Fire", World Book Encyclopedia, 2001

*  Smith, Wayne C. "Cotton" World Book Encyclopedia, 1995