Patent Application
20180362872
Not Applicable.
Not Applicable
The invention relates to a solid-fuel fire starter. More particularly, it relates to a fire generating source that can be used to ignite flammable material to generate a self-sustaining fire having particular application in outdoor, camping, sporting, home fireplace, home fire pit, emergency/survival, and military environments.
Emergency fire starters are typically included as equipment for many civilian and military occupations, as well as for recreational outdoor use. In its simplest form, a fire is achieved when the three elements necessary for fire—heat, fuel, and oxygen—are minimally present. As oxygen and fuel sources are readily found in most emergency situations, the remaining necessary element, a heat source, is the chosen carry component for emergency/survival situations. Simply stated, a sustained source of flame is used to supply enough heat of adequate duration to indigenous fuel material, (e.g., wood), to allow for a sustainable fire that would then be maintained by adding additional indigenous fuel.
Currently, many fire starters use tinder compositions that allow for a heat source long enough to ignite indigenous fuel sources under optimal conditions. The principal operation of such fire starters is to use an ignition source like a match or lighter to initiate the burn of the fire starter for a period of time in order to provide a heat source to allow for the sustained ignition of indigenous fuels.
For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 2,622,017 issued to Bramhall et al on Dec. 16, 1952, discloses a fire kindling device, particularly for use in fireplaces, produced from a wax material and having a peripheral wick. Horizontal wick-like layers are also provided to support and separate color producing chemicals in separate layers.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,671,330, issued to Ajello on Mar. 9, 1954, discloses a candle, particularly useful as a roadside flare, a heat source for grilling or cooking, or as a fireplace lighter. Ajello's candle has a cylindrical housing filled with candle wax and an inner cylindrical, slowly combustible inner wall to create a broad cylindrical flame.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,327,505 issued to Brown on Jun. 27, 1967, discloses a solid fuel unit, comprising a molten wax poured into a paper container, for use as a portable heat source particularly adapted for protecting plants from frost damage.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,414,365, issued to Cranston on Dec. 3, 1968, discloses a safety kit for sportsmen that includes, among other things, a match and candle unit. Cranston's candle has a jacket of combustible material.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,186,721, issued to Campana on Feb. 16, 1993, discloses a self-kindling fuel package for starting charcoal briquettes. The combustible container receives fuel, such as a pre-measured charge of charcoal briquettes, an igniter, and a wick.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,830,245 issued to Raddon on Nov. 3, 1998, discloses a portable fuel element made from stacked corrugated cardboard impregnated with paraffin wax, and preferably, having at least one match contained therein. Raddon's fuel blocks also include a wick for lighting the fuel block.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,858,036, issued to Chandaria on Jan. 12, 1999, discloses an artificial fireplace log formed of compressed particulate and a binder. Chandaria's fireplace log is stored in a flammable wrapper that serves as a wick for lighting the artificial fireplace log.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,958,090 issued to Chandaria on Sep. 28, 1999, discloses a fire starter that is an extruded mixture of paraffin wax and sawdust.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,967,769 issued to Thompson on Oct. 19, 1999, discloses a portable, contained, fueled ready to use campfire assembly. The fire resistant container disclosed by Thompson contains a mixture of mineral spirits, paraffin wax, and hardwood chips. The fire resistant container includes a lid for extinguishing the fire contained therein.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,136,053 issued to Sullivan on Oct. 24, 2000, discloses an ignitable fire starting system that includes a rolled up strip of cloth soaked in a liquid fuel having a plurality of matches rolled in the cloth as well. Sullivan discloses that melted paraffin wax can be the liquid fuel.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,755,877, issued to Perlman on Jun. 29, 2004, discloses a combustible fire starting assembly that includes a combustible liquid, free burning, alcohol-based fuel contained within a combustible thermoplastic container.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,216,322 issued to Schweickhardt on Jul. 10, 2012, discloses a solid fuel fire starter having a wicking element constructed from corrugated cardboard with an exposed end for ignition in which the corrugated cardboard is molded with a paraffin wax. The wax molded corrugated cardboard is contained within a non-combustible housing.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,365,907, issued to Mooney et al on Feb. 5, 2013, discloses a survival package that includes, among other things, a wax fire starter with a combustible tube to be used for fire making.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,439,668, issued to Ambroggio on May 14, 2013, discloses a container for holding a combustible, such as a candle, that includes an extinguishing substance adapted to extinguish the candle if a predefined temperature is exceeded. Finally, published U.S. Patent Application No. 2005/0005508 filed by Hayden and published on Jan. 13, 2005, discloses a fire starter made from strips of pressed wood fiberboard dipped in a paraffin solution.
Even in state-of-the-art fire starters, however, quite often the heat/time ratio is insufficient to allow indigenous fuels to reach self-sustained burn phase. In ideal fire conditions, any number of simple methods may work to build a self-sustained fire. In practical outdoor applications—especially in survival situations—indigenous fuels are typically not in a condition to allow for crossover from assisted ignition from the fire starter to a self-sustained burn; this is due to size and moisture content of the readily available indigenous fuels. Moreover, environmental conditions must also be considered. In the windy/rainy conditions that are often found in a survival setting, generating enough heat to achieve crossover to a self-sustained burn becomes virtually impossible using known standard fire-starters. In these state-of-the-art fire-starting devices, the heat/time ratio is simply insufficient to be relied upon to satisfactorily perform in the range of conditions to be expected in the field. Hence, in the known prior art fire-starters, it is often necessary for the user to seek from the environment, indigenous fuel that is dry, small, and of enough quantity to allow crossover to self-sustained burn for the predominantly available fuel, whatever its size and moisture content. Eliminating this need to procure dry tinder in adequate supply to produce a fire that reaches the self-sustain phase is a challenge many products attempt to address; however, nothing suitable has yet been proposed and developed.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a fire starter that is simple in design and usage, compact, reliable, and overcomes the drawbacks of conventional fire starters, as described above. That objective includes eliminating the need to procure adequate supplies of dry timber, under survival conditions, to succeed. A further object is to provide a fire starter survival tool that is compact and simple and does not require special additional materials, yet can reliably achieve a self-sustaining fire using only indigenous fuels under most outdoor conditions—notably, in a survival situation in which the ability to start a fire is crucial to sustain life.
In accordance with one aspect of the invention, and as will be described in greater detail below, a cup-based fire starter is comprised of a paper cup of a selected shape and size adapted to hold hot liquid wax without leaking. The fire starter of the present invention further includes at least one wick and dry tender material carried at the top surface of the hardened wax. In practice, lighting the wicks and surface tinder on the cup allows the hardened wax inside to quickly complete its first phase transition, when the solid wax transitions to the liquid state in the cup. The wicks and surface tinder continue to heat the wax, approaching the second transition from the liquid phase to the vapor phase and combustion. The fire starter kit of the present invention produces a flame between 12-18″ high that will consistently burn with intensity for 12-15 minutes. This size flame, supported by surface tinder allows indigenous fuel, gathered under most outdoor/survival conditions, to ignite and support a self-sustaining fire.
The above-mentioned features of the invention will become more clearly understood from the following detailed description of the invention read together with the drawings in which:
Adapting the cup not to leak molten wax during operation is an important feature due to the phase transitions that the hardened wax within the cup will undergo in the course of normal operation. Phase transition or phase change is the transformation of a thermodynamic system from one phase or state of matter to another. A solid changing to a liquid, or a liquid achieving a boiling/vapor point, illustrates this principle. For the purposes of the present invention, the phase transition for wax is important. Wax (paraffin cited, but the principle applies for all waxes) transitions from a solid to a liquid between 115-154 degrees F.; this is the melting point of wax. The next transition for paraffin wax is from a liquid to a gas, at 248-370 degrees F.; this is paraffin wax's boiling/vapor point. It is equally important to understand the physical characteristics of paper as these two elements of the design have overlapping properties that together allow this device to function. Paper burns at between 424-475 degrees F. and also conducts heat much more readily than other products, say plastic or Styrofoam. At standard atmospheric pressure, a liquid cannot exceed the boiling point until all the liquid has vaporized. Thus, at standard atmospheric pressure, wax cannot exceed 248-370 degrees F. until all the liquid wax is vaporized. Because this temperature is below the burning-point for paper, 424-475 degrees F., and because paper is able to conduct heat, the paper cup will remain intact even though it is on fire. This is because the melted and vaporizing wax inside the cup controls the temperature at its phase transition point, which is far below paper's ignition, or burn temperature. In other words, the paper cup will sustain the flame without being consumed as long as liquid wax remains that is being transitioned from its liquid phase to its vapor state. This phenomenon, as will be understood by those skilled in the art, is what allows a candle's wick to support the flame without being consumed.
With reference to the
In practice, lighting the wicks 40 and surface tinder 50 on the cup 20 allows the hardened wax 30 inside to quickly complete its first phase transition, in which the solid wax 30 transitions to liquid and a layer of molten wax 60 forms in the cup 20. The wicks 40 and surface tinder 50 continue to heat the molten wax 60, approaching the second phase change. The tinder 50 provides additional surface area for maintaining molten in the heat of the flame long enough to vaporize and combust. Vaporized wax is highly flammable and a fire starter constructed in accordance with the present general invention, holding approximately 2 oz. of paraffin wax, will produce a flame 70 between 12-18″ high that will consistently burn with intensity for 12-15 minutes. This size flame, supported by surface tinder 50 which supports sustained burning of the vaporized wax fuel without itself being consumed, allows indigenous fuel, gathered under most outdoor/survival conditions, to ignite and support a self-sustaining fire. And, by using a paper, or otherwise combustible, material for the cup 20, the cup 20 and the tinder 50 will be consumed by the flame after the wax fuel has been completely consumed, thus eliminating the need to retrieve and dispose of the non-combustible container of certain prior art devices. Further, the fire starter kit according to various embodiments of the present general invention provides a fire starter that is simple in design and usage, compact, reliable, and overcomes the drawbacks of conventional fire starters, as described above. That objective includes eliminating the need to procure adequate supplies of dry timber, under survival conditions, to succeed in building a self-sustaining fire.
While the present invention has been illustrated by description of several embodiments and while the illustrative embodiments have been described in detail, it is not the intention of the applicant to restrict or in any way limit the scope of the appended claims to such detail. Additional modifications will readily appear to those skilled in the art. The invention in its broader aspects is therefore not limited to the specific details, representative apparatus and methods, and illustrative examples shown and described. Accordingly, departures may be made from such details without departing from the spirit or scope of applicant's general inventive concept.
