Lighting and Fire in the Dreamlands

Perhaps the best way to illustrate the often strange relationship between time period and technology in the Dreamlands is by looking at forms lighting. While lighting is more primitive than it is in the Waking World, aspects of it are surprisingly advanced for a quasi-Medieval society.

The first thing that needs to be dispensed with, however, is the notion of magic being used to create industrial-scale lighting. Wizards and sorcerers have more important work than creating magical lighting devices, and those who consent to do so charge extremely high fees for the service. Besides, a 'permanent' light spell is anything but. The word permanent in this case refers to any lighting effect that lasts longer than an hour, and while lifetimes can be as long as weeks, months, or even years, depending upon environmental conditions, they do fade over time.

In the absence of magic, the basis for lighting technology in the Dreamworld is combustion: the liberation of light through the chemical reaction of fuel and oxygen. All other forms of technology are post-1500 and therefore unworkable. The fuel can vary widely, as can the system that contains and controls the combustion, however, some post-1500 fuels and devices are in use because mechanisms or manufacture are extremely simple.

Perhaps the most basic form of lighting is the torch. It consists of a piece of wood with a rag or some other binding soaked in pitch or some other flammable liquid wrapped around one end. Since the point of the wood is to act as a handle rather than a source of fuel, hard, dense wood such as ironwood, cherry, or oak should be used over softer wood such as pine. The length of time a torch will burn depends upon the material used as the fuel, and the amount of light produced is inversely proportional to the time it will burn.

Other simple, torch-like devices include shells or hollowed stones filled with moss or similar material soaked in animal fat or vegetable oil. The rushlight consists of the dried pith of the rush plant soaked in fat or grease. These are generally easier and quicker to make than candles, but do not burn as long, and their quality of light can vary. Nonetheless, they are common in the poorer or more remote regions.

Wax and tallow candles are probably the most common form of lighting in the Dreamlands, simply by virtual of the fact that they are mostly used by rural denizens, and there are more rural citizens than urban. Candles can be made from any form of vegetable wax as well as beeswax, paraffin, and resin gel, and can have fragrant oils and/or dyes added. Beeswax burns the cleanest, but can be more expensive than vegetable wax or paraffin. Wicks are made of cotton braided around a stiff core of paper or lead or zinc wire. The cotton must be treated with a flame-resistant material to slow its burning and is impregnated with wax to act as the initial fuel for igniting the candle. A specific formula of wax produced in the city of Creachabh can burn with such precision that it is used to create candle clocks.

Oil lamps are probably the simplest form of lighting available. Essentially they consist of a terra cotta or metal bowl filled with some form of vegetable or animal oil, though clarified cheese and butter can also be used, with a wick made from some kind of vegetation-based material such as linen or flax. The only elaboration is in the design of the bowl itself; this usually consists of a fuel chamber partially covered by a shoulder with a pouring hole and at least one nozzle into which the wick is inserted. Sometimes a handle is attached. These bowls can be sculpted into almost any form imaginable and are often decorated. Oil lamps not only serve as lighting, but also funerary and votive purposes. These are probably the second most common lighting device in the Dreamlands, being found not just in rural areas, but also villages alongside candles, in town home shrines, and in city temples.

At this point, lighting technology might appear to have reached the 1500-limit, since all known innovations beyond candles and simple oil lamps are all post-1500, specifically post-1750, which ideally should eliminate any accidental crossover. However, it is here that the vagaries of the time period/technology relationship come into play. First of all, a fuel most closely associated with 18th and 19th century lamps, naphtha, was first discovered and used at least 600 years before the 1500-limit. Naphtha is a catchall for a variety of fuels, including kerosene, mineral oil, and paraffin. It is obtained from the distillation of petroleum, coal tar, or peat. The fractionation tends to be crude compared to post-1500 industrial methods, hence the use of the catchall term, but the resulting liquid is quite pure and generally safe to use.

Also, the first practical design of a naphtha lamp was invented by al-Razi, Latinized as Rhazes, in 9th century Baghdad. Later post-1500 innovations such as a flat cotton wick, glass chimney, and wick adjustment mechanism are too simple to be restricted merely by time period. Another post-1500 innovation that is similar to the naphtha lamp is the Argand oil lamp. This uses a tubular wick and a glass chimney to enhance the air flow over the flame, thereby greatly increasing the efficiency of oil burning, creating the light equivalent of six to ten candles. Naphtha and Argand lamps are probably the third most common lighting devices in the Dreamlands, being found in cities, towns, and villages all over.

Lanterns as a group simply consist of a cage containing a lighting source, be it a candle, oil lamp, or naphtha lamp. However, the most sophisticated versions use another post-1500 innovation, the incandescent gas mantle. This is a small, fine-mesh basket woven from silk and impregnated with magnesium hydrate and magnesium acetate. When ignited, the acetate burned, decomposing the hydrate to an oxide that bound to the silk, forming a ceramic covering. Within a lantern fueled by naphtha, the flame heats the mantle until it glows, giving off a great deal of light but little heat. This greatly increases the efficiency of the naphtha combustion. The mechanism made for their use produces a characteristic hissing sound that is unmistakable. The fuel is forced into the combustion chamber using air pressure applied by a small piston pump; hence, the pressure must be reapplied at frequent intervals to keep the lantern operating. Additionally, a net of wire gauze can be used to prevent the flame from igniting flammable gases in the air.

There are also three other technologies in use that push the limits of lighting in the Dreamland. The city of Tumbutu in the Liranian Desert sits above a subsurface reservoir of petroleum with a high natural gas content. As such, it has easy access to gas, and collects and pipes it throughout the city for lighting, though it restricts its use to municipal lighting rather than providing it for household use. Meanwhile, in Celephaïs and Creachabh, the homes of the knights and the socially prominent, and the palace of King Kuranes are lighted using carbide lamps. These burn acetylene which is produced by reacting calcium carbide with water. Technically, calcium carbide cannot exist in the Dreamlands, because traditional combustion methods cannot produce the amount of heat needed to react lime with coke. In the Waking World electric arc furnaces are used, but these have not been 'invented' yet in the Dreamlands. How the people of Celephaïs accomplish this is a closely guarded secret, but most scholars assume magic is used. Finally, it is rumored that the city of Hazuth-Kleg uses a form of limelight, which involves directing an oxyhydrogen flame at a cylinder of quicklime. These rumors have not been investigated for obvious reasons, however, if they proved to be true it would be a fantastic discovery, since limelight would be even more unbelievable than calcium carbide, the fractionation of water into oxygen and hydrogen being impossible in the Dreamlands.

All of this begs the question: if lighting in the Dreamlands in based on combustion, how is the fire started in the first place?

First of all, there are no friction or safety matches. The only kind of match that exists is a stick of pine heartwood coated with sulfur. Also known as fatwood or pitchwood, pine works best because of the resin impregnating the wood. The sulfur ignites upon contact with any fire, burning hot enough to ignite the wood. The resin then feeds the flame. These pinewood matches make it possible to transfer fire from one source to another.

But a fire must already be burning for this kind of match to work. Households tend to maintain what could be called a pilot fire. Essentially it's similar to a modern pilot light: a small fire kept burning constantly to serve as a source of flame for lighting bigger fires. This can take many forms. For example, many homes have a small shrine containing an eternal flame. This not only honors the Great Ones, but also serves as the source for all other fires in the house. Those that don't have shrines usually keep a fire going in the kitchen hearth. Another option is to keep a small oil lamp burning in a protected location, while another popular solution is the use of slow matches like those for firing matchlock firearms and cannons. These consist of fuses made from cords of hemp, cotton, or flax, or even braided wood bark, chemically treated with potassium nitrate to burn slow and consistent. The idea rate is about one foot an hour; any faster would be a waste of money, while any slower and the match could go out. If tended to at regular intervals, a 15-foot coil of slow match can burn for an entire day. A similar device is a punk, essentially a smoldering stick (bamboo is best) covered in dried manure or compress sawdust; these are often left burning through the night, because they do not need regular tending. Candles, however, are unsuitable because, except for candle clocks, they burn too quickly.

However, the question remains unanswered: how is any fire, including a pilot fire, first lit? There are in fact a number of methods, which fall on either side of the 1500-limit.

Aside from co-opting natural occurrences, namely wildfires, the most basic, and primitive, is friction. Hand drills, bow drills, and pump drills all work the same way: spinning a dull-pointed wooden rod against a wooden board to generate sufficient heat to create a coal that can be placed in a pile of tinder. The only difference being whether the rod is spun by hand, using a bow, or a coil of twine wound around the rod. A fire plow and fire saw instead rely on the proverbial "rubbing two sticks together"; that is, a wooden rod is rubbed against a groove or a notch in a wooden board, using either a plowing or sawing motion to generate heat. These methods are quite common in rural, poor, and remote areas, and among travelers. However, they are somewhat impractical for household use.

Another method from deep antiquity, though not as old as friction, is the use of a hard stone to create sparks by striking it against an iron-bearing rock. Originally performed with quartz and pyrite, this method evolved into the proverbial flint and steel. When carried in the form of a tinderbox—a metal container with a flint nodule, a carbon steel fire striker, and a small quantity of tinder—it can allow anyone to start a fire faster and easier than with a typical friction method. So handy is the tinderbox in fact that people carry it around and use it like a box of matches in the Waking World. In fact, the tinderbox is so widespread it can be found in one form or another throughout the Dreamlands, even in some of the most remote areas.

With optics a well-established technology in the Dreamlands, lenses and concave mirrors and reflectors can be used to focus sunlight onto tinder to ignite it. A more unusual method is a device called the fire piston. It consists of a cylinder sealed at one end and a piston that form an air-tight seal. A bit of tinder is placed at the end of the piston, which is rapidly pushed down into the cylinder. The piston compresses the air inside the cylinder, which heats up adiabatically. If the piston is pushed fast enough, the air will get hot enough to ignite the tinder. It can then be removed and applied to more tinder to start the fire. Though the Dream-design of this device is post-1500, the device itself predates the 1500-limit by thousands of years.

One other device that is clearly post-1500 is the permanent match, also known as the everlasting match. It better qualifies as a lighter. It consists of a metal can containing naphtha with a strip of flint attached to the outside, and a carbon steel rod that screws into the top of the tank. The rod contains a wick and its tip is pointed. When the tip is submerged in the naphtha, the wick absorbs the liquid. To use, the rod is removed and the tip is struck against the flint strip, generating sparks. The sparks ignite the wick, creating a flame, which can be used to ignite a pile of tinder. The wick can then be extinguished and the rod reinserted into the can. A vulcanized natural rubber gasket is often used to reduce or eliminate naphtha evaporation between uses. The simplicity of the device and the existence of the components make its existence possible in a pre-1500 setting. It is so easy to use, even compared to a tinderbox, that it has displaced the latter in many locations, though mostly just in cities and towns.

Regardless of how the tinder is ignited, however, the reason most fires fail to catch is impatience. Care must be taken to nurture the coal or spark into a flame, and then the flame into a tiny fire. This takes time, and even then the fire must be built up slowly with every increasing sizes of tinder, kindling, and finally the main fuel before it can be pretty much left on its own.

The choice of tinder can also be an important factor. While any dry finely-shredded fibrous material can be used, the best results are achieved with charcloth and amadou. Charcloth is a swatch of vegetable-based cloth that has been treated in a manner similar to making charcoal, thereby reducing it to char. Amadou is a spongy substance prepared from bracket fungus. Both are slow burning but have a low ignition temperature, making them idea for catching friction coals or sparks. They can then be added to a pile of additional tinder that can consist of any dry, finely shredded, easily combustible material. However, tinder that burns too quickly is wasteful.

A method that can be used in conjunction with charcloth, especially when dry wood is scarce, is the feather stick. This consists of a dead branch cut from a tree, stripped of bark, and its dry heartwood shaved into attached thin strips. However, another very simple post-1500 innovation has become widespread. Called firestarter, it consists of a mixture of sawdust and wax or paraffin compressed into a block. Some formulations saturate the sawdust with naphtha as well. It can be cut to various sizes, it ignites easily, burns for long time, and gives off sufficient heat to catch larger pieces of kindling and fuel without the need for intermediate and smaller pieces of kindling and tinder.

Fuel is also a concern. In wooded areas, there is generally sufficient wood to keep a modest fire going until morning, though the degree of seasoning (dryness) may vary considerably. In places where wood is scarce, other materials can be burned, such as dried peat (emphasis on the word dried), dried manure (especially of grazing animals such as zebras, yak, and camels), dried grain, dried agricultural waste (such as husks and stalks), even domestic refuse (household trash). Otherwise fuel will have to carried for the journey. That usually isn't necessary, since most destinations are either close enough to reach in one day's travel or there are rest facilities of various sorts in between. However, in wilderness or remote areas that have no intermediate facilities travelers must journey with their own portable fuel.

Wood can be transported this way, but it's not as energy dense as other alternatives. Large deposits of bituminous coal in the Faulklyn and Dolinar Hills and anthracite in the Caucaesion Hills, along with deposits of lesser grades in other locations, make coal fairly plentiful and cheap. Bituminous coal especially is prized since it can be pyrolyzed to coke on a large scale, using ovens on site at the mines. These same ovens can also be used to create charcoal, however, easy access to plentiful quantities of coal has relegated charcoal making to small-scale local endeavors. Which no doubt has saved many trees. Coke, charcoal, and soft coal, as well as dried peat, can then be compressed into briquettes for easy transport, whereas anthracite can be shaped into small blocks like any hard stone. The nature of these fuels, however, precludes using ordinary tinder to ignite them. They would either need an accelerant, such as naphtha (the Dream-equivalent of lighter fluid), to increase the efficiency of the tinder, or a long, hot burning tinder such as firestarter. Nonetheless, more energy can be carried with a certain mass of briquettes than can be with the same mass of wood.

There is also an alternative method to lighting a fire without using firestarters or tinderboxes. This involves carry coals from a previous fire to use to start the next one. Though not always practical, it makes starting a fire easier, since the heat needed to ignite tinder is already at hand, speeding up the process as well. Similarly, a punk or slow match can be carried, but the method of transport is the same. The coal is wrapped in a bed of dry plant material which is then contained in a wooden, terra cotta, or metal carrier. As long as the bedding is replaced over long periods, a coal can be kept smoldering for a considerable length of time, often days, sometimes even weeks, though longer in dry weather than wet. For the vast majority of travelers, however, the coal only needs to be preserved long enough to make it to the end of the day, and a new one can be used for the next day, and so forth. Suitable bedding plants include birch bark, tobacco, and sage, though any plant that burns slowly would work.