Lighting Torches Quickly in 12th C. Ireland

SquareSails · Jan 7, 2012

I have characters ready to invade an abandoned, underground prison. There are unlit torches on the walls.

Any idea how a 12th C. man would have made spark quickly to light them? Flint?

WriteKnight · Jan 7, 2012

Define 'quickly'. Flint and steel will make a spark, but need tender to 'catch' and burn. This takes time.

If your characters are not travelling with lit torches already - then they could be carrying some variation of a fire pot.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_pot

Snick · Jan 7, 2012

If the torches had been soaked in a foamable liquid, then flint and steel would be fine; if they hadn't been then it would take a few minutes. The other way we used to do it was to have someone carry some hot coals. The coals woud start a decent fire within s few seconds.

blacbird · Jan 7, 2012

Snick said:
If the torches had been soaked in a foamable liquid, then flint and steel would be fine; if they hadn't been then it would take a few minutes. The other way we used to do it was to have someone carry some hot coals. The coals woud start a decent fire within s few seconds.

The only flammable liquid likely to be available would be pitch from some form of tree sap. It doesn't light very quickly, would be tough to do with a flint spark.

But it would be likely they wouldn't even enter such a dark place without a lit torch. So why not have them equipped with flame when they go in?

caw

Deleted member 42 · Jan 7, 2012

Peat was customarily used as a heating/cooking source, and as a light source.

Snick · Jan 7, 2012

blacbird said:
The only flammable liquid likely to be available would be pitch from some form of tree sap. It doesn't light very quickly, would be tough to do with a flint spark.

But it would be likely they wouldn't even enter such a dark place without a lit torch. So why not have them equipped with flame when they go in?

caw

I was thinking that the heads of the torches could have been soaked with vegetable oil (linseed, sunflower,or whatever) or with animal fat, which was easy to come by, or with the pitch that you suggested. All were readily available.

You are right that it would have been more reasonable to have torches before they entered, but there were unlit torches just inside the entrance, so it didn't make any difference.

SquareSails · Jan 7, 2012

Thanks for the tips.

I watched a guy on Youtube light a fire with flint/steel/char cloth in less than a minute, so I chose flint and a char cloth on one of the torches and used that one to light the others (they were soaked in pitch and ready for lighting).

BTW, the torches in the underground prison weren't lit when discovered because the prison's resident demon requires all lights to be extinguished when not required - the light burns his "skin."

blacbird · Jan 7, 2012

Snick said:
You are right that it would have been more reasonable to have torches before they entered, but there were unlit torches just inside the entrance, so it didn't make any difference.

My point was that, even if there were unlit torches inside, they'd likely have entered with illumination from their own torches, with which they could have lit the unlit ones. I'm not quite sure why you consider this an important obstacle. Seems like a relatively meaningless detail to me.

Have them enter with their torches, which only makes sense, and piss off the demon real good.

caw

SquareSails · Jan 8, 2012

Yeah, that's what I did. I had them grab the torch they could see just inside the door (daylight) and take it outside to light with flint/char cloth. They used this one to enter the prison and light the rest.

They didn't have torches with them because they found the prison by accident. Nobody expected they'd need a torch. Fire, yes (thus, the flint), but torch, no.

Thanks again for the helpful tips.

Lighting Torches Quickly in 12th C. Ireland

Arranger Of Disorder

Deleted member 42