Drill

This is an example of a Neolithic shaft hammer axe...

It is made of stone. A hole was drilled through it, and a shaft is fixed into it. Nothing special...Except how did they drill this hole through a stone without metal drills? 

Well here is how:

Get a stone from which you are going to shape the axe head. Scrape the initial circle where the hole is going to go using a sharp stone harder than the stone for the axe. Then pour some quartz sand on it...This one in the picture has magnetite in too...

Then get a straight smooth hardwood stick. Place it on the sand and start spinning it with your hands...Fast...

The pressure applied with the stick on the sand particles and the spinning of the stick will cause the sand to scrape at the surface of the stone. The abrasive action of the sand  will remove bits of stone...Slowly...Very slowly...

Eventually you will end up with this...Now repeat...Until you finally go through the stone...

These are stills from this great video by Lucian Aver which demonstrates this drilling technique

Now, here is a million dollar question: what happens if you try the same technique used here to drill through stone, to drill through a piece of wood?

Well depends how lucky (or unlucky) you are...If you pick just the right combination of the drill stick and the wooden board, and you continue spinning your drill after all the sand is gone, you get this:

Is this how it happened? Is this how fire was "invented"? I would say 100% definitely...A lucky coincidence 🙂

I can't see any other way in which people were able to arrive to the idea that spinning a stick on a piece of wood will eventually produce fire...

But accidentally producing fire by drilling wood with wood...Almost inevitable...

Some people are saying that no one would rally drill wood with wood. They would drill wood with stone...

Well, almost correct...

If we look at the known primitive drilling methods we see that there are two main types:  

1. Hand held stone or bone drills, basically just sharp narrow pieces of stone (like the one in the middle of the top row) or bone (antler), which were held in the hand and rotated by twisting the hand left and right...

This way of drilling will never produce fire.

2. Stone tipped wooden drills. These were straight wooden sticks with a stone tip inserted into one end.  

The stone tipped drill is held between the two hands and span by quickly rubbing hands together...

There are primarily two sub types of drills of this type. 

The first one uses sharp edged knapped stone tip, which is inserted into a wooden shaft in the same way an arrow tip is inserted into an arrow shaft. Basically this is and arrow with a slightly narrower tip...Pic from https://www.primitiveways.com

This type of drill will never produce fire as the drill shaft will never get in contact with the wood being drilled, and it is this wood on wood friction that ignites the wood being worked.

The second one uses crystal bits which are inserted into hollow wooden shafts, like the ones from elder tree branches. Pic from http://stoneageskills.com

Now this type of drill can easily produce fire. Do you see how the drill tip is narrower than the drill shaft? Imagine drilling into the wood with this drill. Eventually, the tip of the wooden drill shaft will start rubbing against the board. If you are lucky, this might produce enough friction to create a whiff of smoke...And from there on it's "just keep drilling, just keep drilling..."   🙂

The last method is basically exactly the same technique originally described for drilling through the stone. You basically burn a hole with friction.... 

So was this last technique originally wood drilling or fire drilling or... 

One other thing. The oldest evidence for drilling through hard materials (stone, bone, shell) is not more Thant 40,000 years old...So chances that fire drill was invented before that time are well, pretty slim...