Taissumani, April 8

Bill Lishman of Adventure Canada demonstrates how William Scoresby Jr. used light refracted from broken pieces of ice to produce heat and create fire.

The whaler William Scoresby was fascinated by ice, by its beauties, its composition and its dangers. “Of the inanimate productions of the Polar Seas,” he wrote, “none perhaps excite so much interest and astonishment in a stranger as the ice in its great abundance and variety.”

Scoresby was not the first to observe that the ice that sailors called fresh-water ice was capable of concentrating the rays of the sun in the same way as a convex lens of glass can, to produce heat and eventually fire.

This fresh-water ice of the sailors was not what we consider fresh-water ice today; rather it was the ice from fields, ice floes and ice bergs. The small pieces used to create fire, he said, were distinguished by their black appearance when floating in the sea; they were transparent when removed from the sea and taken into the air. This ice was fragile but hard; the edges of a broken piece could cut like glass.

Scoresby wrote of how he often astonished the sailors on his ships by lighting their pipes using nothing but a piece of this transparent ice. “With a lump of ice, of by no means regular convexity, I have frequently burned wood, fired gunpowder, melted lead, and lit the sailors’ pipes, to their great astonishment, all of whom… eagerly flocked round me, for the satisfaction of smoking a pipe ignited by such extraordinary means.”

In forming the lens for this apparent magical feat, Scoresby roughed it out with a small axe, next scraping it with a knife, and finally polishing it with nothing but the warmth from his hand.

He would hold the lens, once formed, in a gloved hand, to perform the lighting. The sailors were equally impressed by the fact that the ice remained firm although the rays emanating from it were hot enough that they would burn an exposed hand in a few seconds.

The experiment of creating fire from ice was first recorded by a European doctor, John Daniel Major in 1671. Scoresby, a voracious reader, may have read about Major’s accomplishment. But he may just as easily have discovered the technique himself through his innate curiosity about everything to do with ice.

In 1864, Jules Verne, the originator of modern science fiction writing, appropriated Scoresby’s methods in “The Desert of Ice.”

Captain Hatteras, in an attempt to reach the North Pole, had been abandoned with a few loyal men by mutinous crewmembers. Hatteras had wood for a fire but no means to ignite it. The ship’s doctor hit upon an idea and explained, “We want to make the sun’s rays converge to a common focus, and ice will do as much good as crystal.”

As Scoresby had prescribed, the doctor first found a piece of fresh-water ice. From there, the description follows Scoresby’s method exactly – “…he began to smooth it with a hatchet; then he equalized the surface still further with his knife; then he polished it with his hand, and he obtained soon a lens as transparent as if it had been made of the most magnificent crystal… The sun was shining brightly; the doctor held the lens so that the rays could be focused on the tinder, which took fire in a few seconds.”

Like Scoresby’s sailors, the doctor’s companions were astonished.

I have not read or heard that Inuit ever discovered this ingenious method of creating fire. It is known, however, that they discovered what may be considered the opposite of this method. Some Inuit used a concave piece of ice as a window in a winter or spring snowhouse, to diffuse light and spread it more broadly to light more of the interior of the domicile.

If any readers know of examples where Inuit used Scoresby’s method of employing a convex piece of ice to create fire, I would be pleased to hear of it.

Taissumani recounts a specific event of historic interest. Kenn Harper is a historian, writer and linguist who lives in Iqaluit. Feedback? Send your comments and questions to kennharper@hotmail.com.