When did humans first learn to create fire ?

[UM-Bot]

Fire is one of mankind's most fundamental technological discoveries - but just how long ago did we discover it ?

https://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/news/339059/when-did-humans-first-learn-to-create-fire

[Jon the frog]

Using fire is one thing, making it is another milestone. Human could have kept some natural fire from dying and even transporting it from place to place. To find proof that the fire was started from nothing is harder to prove. Some hawk uses fire too, but don't start it by themselves, they just spread it.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2018/01/wildfires-birds-animals-australia/

 

Edited August 26, 2020 by Jon the frog

[Ozymandias]

1 hour ago, UM-Bot said:

Fire is one of mankind's most fundamental technological discoveries - but just how long ago did we discover it ?

https://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/news/339059/when-did-humans-first-learn-to-create-fire

Fire is not a human discovery. It is a natural phenomenon. Man has known and used it for as long as he has been encountering bushfires or volcanic eruptions. All humans ever did was to figure out how to use, control and make it themselves. And the making of it was easy once man realised that you can knock sparks out of certain rocks and they will kindle anything that is tinder dry. People are not stupid, you know, and it isn't rocket science. Just a matter of human experience.  

[docyabut2]

I think they learned when lighting hit a tree and started a fire  

 

https://study.com/academy/lesson/how-did-stone-age-man-make-fire-discovery-importance-facts.html

Edited August 26, 2020 by docyabut2

[Imaginarynumber1]

When Prometheus gave it to us, duh.

[ChewiesArmy]

No way did prehistoric man have the capacity to discover/use fire. Aliens had to have shown them. I think I will write a book, and I think I will call it Flashlight of the Gods.

[SHaYap]

"Maui"

You're welcome... 

~

[Imaginarynumber1]

5 hours ago, ChewiesArmy said:

No way did prehistoric man have the capacity to discover/use fire. Aliens had to have shown them. I think I will write a book, and I think I will call it Flashlight of the Gods.

try "Fleshlight of the Gods"  

You'll sell way more copies

[+Hammerclaw]

Fire occurs naturally. Making fire is another thing. They learned from heat generated by friction, a smoldering rope pulling a burden up a slope rubbing on rocks. Friction from a spear straightener, on the wood shaft, friction from a bow drill and so on. Observation, experimentation and discovery, we've done it our entire existence.

[jethrofloyd]

A fire was probably discovered by a volcanic eruptions. Wasn’t that a story here recently about  the Neanderthals climbing a slopes of an erupting volcano in Italy (Devil’s trail). They did it most likely to get to the fire. A same process was probably for a humans as well.

[+DieChecker]

Probably some boys out throwing rocks. Some struck sparks. They showed the adults. Adults did some quick experiments. Boom! Firestarting spreads thousands of miles in a decade or so.

[Vorg]

I believe it was 18,422 years ago.

[+DanL]

The sparks made from striking two rocks together are not very good for making fire. You could spend days and days trying to get a fire with rocks at their best. Flint and steel is a totally different thing. The part that makes the fire is red hot tiny pieces of the steel that the sharp flint had scraped off. The heat is from the friction and the hot metal stays hot a LOT longer than the sparks that you see or the sparks from rocks.

I imagine that man was USING fire for a long long time that he harvested from naturally made fires before he mastered actually making fire. When he did l figure out a way to make it, it was most likely some form of friction made fire and not from beating two rocks together. Once made there were probably some of the older people that then guarded and cared for the fire. When they needed the fires the most it was dark, wet, and cold and NOT the best time to be trying to make a fire.

I'm sure that once they learned they were pretty good at it but today even with the best tools for making fire ,other than things like lighters and matches, even experts can struggle. It is usually easier to protect and keep a fire than to keep remaking it.