We Make A Fire (1948)

[Music] Saturday turned out bright and sunny we went on a picnic Tommy Helen George and [Music] I we wanted to make a fire so Helen and George went to gather wood and I went for some fresh [Music] water Tommy of course tried to be helpful but he was headed for [Music] trouble [Music] to start our fire George crumpled paper because paper catches fire easily then he put on some Twigs Twigs get hot and burn more quickly than bigger [Music] branches then still bigger pieces because it takes even more heat to start them burning George piled them Loosely so plenty of air could get to the [Music] fire and finally George struck the match really he didn't strike the match he rubbed it because rubbing makes the match hot enough to catch fire rubbing things together makes heat you don't believe it do you Tommy well try it for yourself rub your hands together Tommy that's it rub them hard and fast that's it makes them hot doesn't it long ago before matches were invented the Indians rubbed two pieces of wood together to make fire [Music] the pilgrim fathers made fire by rubbing flint and [Music] steel our own fire needed more wood so George put on [Music] logs and of course Tommy wanted to [Music] help too many logs May smother a fire by shutting off the air you see three things are needed for fire heat as from a match something to burn like paper and wood and lots of [Music] air and Tommy didn't believe that either so we decided to prove it to Tommy that air is necessary for fire first we found some jars and cleaned them in a brook an old canle from our napsack burish the [Music] [Music] fire [Music] what about that [Music] Tommy so then we decided to find out what would happen with different amounts of [Music] air in the smallest jar with the least air the flame went out first then the middle size jar and the flame in the big jar with the most air lasted longest of course our fire had plenty of air and the best part of the picnic was putting the fire to [Music] work [Music] the rest of us were too busy eating to notice what Tommy was [Music] doing [Music] and then like lots of things just when you think everything is [Music] fine I sent Tommy for water and Helen and George for sand to smother the [Music] flames [Music] in no time at all we had the fire under [Music] control Tommy himself knew he'd done a dangerous [Music] [Music] [Music] thing one tree can make a million matches one match can destroy a million [Applause] trees one small match and then a fire soon it's out of control it spreads through the forest from the grass to the trees it leaps from tree to tree a raging GI driving all living things from their homes leaving behind it a land empty and useless for animals and for man almost always from somebody's carelessness with one small [Music] match before going home we cleaned up we wanted to leave the table and grounds the way we found them George scattered the smoldering wood so there wouldn't be anything to [Music] burn put on Sand to shut out the air finally I put on the rest of the water to cool the wood so it couldn't [Music] burn we all had a lot of fun all right and all of us learned a little more about our oldest and best friend a friend that can be our worst enemy [Music] fire [Music] [Applause] [Music]