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HOW TO START A FIRE WITH A BATTERY

Quick and easy, this one. You’ll need a packet of chewing gum, a battery and ideally a pair of scissors, though at a pinch you could tear it carefully.

Chewing gum usually comes wrapped in a piece of paper-backed foil. You’ll have to try this a few times before you find the width that works, but you want to cut or tear the foil into this sort of shape. Foil on one side, paper on the other.

The electricity in an ordinary AA battery cannot overwhelm the full width of foil – but it can set a narrow strip of paper on fire, where it is in contact with the foil. Test it a few times first, then assemble something flammable, such as a shred of tissue paper or, you know, a small piece of firelighter.

Attach one end of the foil to either terminal of the battery, put it in position and touch the other end to the second terminal. With a little luck, it should burn through the paper layer. Alternatively, try a little wire wool rubbed across the terminals of a 9v battery. We teased out a bit of Brillo Pad.

You may be thinking, with some justification, that if you have the foresight to bring a battery and some chewing gum or steel wool with you, you might as well just bring a box of matches. Wire wool can be lit with those matches to help you start a fire, after all. However, that would be missing the point entirely. The nice thing about this is that you will have learned something interesting. The actual lighting of the fire is fiddly and secondary. And you never know, there might come a time when all you have is a battery and a bit of wrapper – and perhaps a firelighter. That is worth a little forward planning. This page is that forward planning.