Hello all,
This is something I've been wanting to do for ages - a paper / electronic version of our Fire Science Theater presentations.
It's like the prequel to Rocket Mass Heater design, but it can take you in so many other directions too.
I just committed to actually doing it as a booklet, to support our friend Calen putting his rocket mass heater instructional DVD on the front burner. (Yay!)
So I'm putting the first draft of this book out by January 22, as a little something for the
Kickstarter fundraiser for that DVD.
It's The Art of Fire, or more specifically, the art of Clean Fire.
Here's the table of contents as it stands:
I) Preparations:
Stone: the hearth
Water: the antidote
Iron: the tools
II) Makings:
Wood: the fuel
Heat: the spark
Air: the flow
...The Fire Triangle
III) Forms:
Grid, V, tipi, lights, smokers,
cookstoves, fireplaces, heaters
IV) Spirit and Practice:
Fire in the soul
I promised 20 pages, but it's looking like twice that. Already 36. I could use some help winnowing out what's essential, especially from those who've attended workshops with us.
What's critical for a book about clean fire? (Dry wood, and a non-combustible hearth... Analysis of combustion? Or just simple how-to?)
What's not? (Should I omit the primitive stove design and Rumford fireplace? How much detail is appropriate about spiritual/religious fires?)
Should I include references, or make it simple and self-contained?
What are your pet insights and pet peeves about fire making? Why does clean fire matter?
Ever try to teach someone about this stuff?
What have been your most powerful insights or memories around fire?
Any especially rewarding personal practices or habits you've developed?
If you're willing to be quoted in the book, please make that clear - or I'll contact you to make sure. Mostly I'm just hoping for a good discussion, to serve as a kind of straw poll and inform my editing choices.
If you have a photo or piece of art that you'd like to contribute, feel free to post it here, or ideally a web-sized version or a link.
Especially if you've got good photos from our Fire Science Theater lectures, I would appreciate access and permission. I could use an image of the Combustible Chimney demo, for example, and the Swedish Candle. And if you don't mind sharing the most vivid memories from that experience, that would be very useful feedback for us as presenters and for me writing this book.
I will cite all contributors whose work I use - photographer credits, your website or professional credentials, or an anonymous thanks in the preface, your choice.
I am not offering compensation at this time, although I can send a courtesy copy of the finished work to contributors whose work is used.
Calen Kennet's offered me some snapshots of bow-drill and primitive fire, woo-hoo! (He's the videographer on the DVD, and the photographer for one of our most popular rocket mass heater designs: the
Bonny 8 Convection Bench.)
And Kiko Denzer (author of the Earth Oven book) has lent me some of his fire-related earthen plaster art. Thanks to both.
If you want a copy of this Art of Fire booklet, you can
- pre-order a PDF with a $10 contribution,
- or a paper copy (plus the DVD) for a larger contribution,
in the next few weeks through the Kickstarter fundraiser for the DVD.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/673303251/rocket-stove-instructional-dvd
Once the pre-sales are over, we'll post the booklet for sale online, and I may do a give-away through Paul's daily-ish email.
And of course, this thread could blossom into a rich resource in itself.
thanks for any thoughts on this, sooner the better!
- Erica W
(Here's a few more of the photos we have in hand, in our website's clunky attempt to get at these ideas:
http://www.ErnieandErica.info/firescience)