Starting a Fire with a 9volt Battery & Steel Wool or Gum Wrapper

Starting a fire with a battery is one of the most basic things you should learn if you want to make sure that you can survive or just have fun. Getting a nice fire going can get you out of a lot of different kinds of trouble. Luckily, there are quite a lot of different ways how you can start one using random items.

If you are reading this to teach children, make sure you explain to them the dangers of fire!

In this article, we’ll show you how to start a fire with a battery. It might not seem like it, but with the stored power batteries contain, they can definitely light something up. Here are a few quick techniques that you can try to start a fire with batteries:

1. Using an Incandescent light bulb

1. Grab a 9v battery, incandescent light bulb, available or your choice of tinder, and whatever stuff that you want or can use as firewood. The 9V batteries are readily available from old items such as smoke detectors.

2. Break the glass of the bulb to access the tungsten filament inside. Don’t remove it from the base of the bulb.
3. With your tinder nearby, touch the base of the light bulb to the positive and negative terminals of the battery. Do this carefully.
4. Carefully touch the filament to your tinder and it should instantly catch fire.

2. Using a steel wool

1. Grab any kind of battery that is at least 3v in power, a steel wool, some tinder, and stuff you can set on fire.

2. Touch the steel wool fibers to the positive and negative terminals of the battery. This will immediately produce a flame.

3. Place the fiery wool steel into your tinder then stoke to your desired size.

3. Using a battery and a paper-lined foil gum wrapper

1. Grab a D-cell battery, some metallic gum wrapper, tinder, and stuff that you can set on fire.
2. Cut the gum wrapper into a relatively long strip that will reach the negative and positive terminals of the battery with a narrow center point.
3. Touch the wrapper’s foil side to the negative and positive terminals and hold them in place. A fire will soon start in the middle of the strip.
4. Transfer the foil gum wrapper to your tinder and stoke the fire to create a bigger one that you can use for whatever purpose you have in mind.

4. Using a metal staple or paperclip

1. Get a D-cell battery, a staple, a cutter or small knife, some tinder, and firewood or other stuff that are flammable enough for getting a fire going.
2. Hold your battery with the negative terminal on the side up. Grab your cutter and peel of a little of the plastic covering at the tip of the negative end. This will expose a small amount of positively charged area of the battery.

3. Grab the staple and touch it on the negative terminal while also touching some of the exposed part of the battery. A fire should instantaneously be created.

4. Grab some tinder and make the fire bigger according to your needs.

How It Works

You can easily create a fire using a battery because batteries contain a good amount of energy. Tapping into that by creating a weak circuit and not giving the energy any direction to go will result in a nice fire.

All you need is a conductor that will grab the energy from the battery and that’s pretty much it. It will set itself on fire quite easily so you just then need some tinder to create a bigger fire.

Add more flammable items to the mix and you’ll have a good size fire in no time.

Important Tips to Successfully Create a Fire Using a Battery

Aside from using the right flammable material to ignite a fire from a battery, you should also remember the following things to ensure that you’ll successfully create the fire you need:

• Have some tinder or kindling nearby. If you can position the battery and the other materials you need to use to create a fire right on top of the tinder, it would prevent the loss of energy in the process and will let you make use of the fire that the battery will create right away.

• Be careful in handling the battery and the other material you’re going to use to create a fire. These things can get quite hot, so to keep yourself safe, don’t directly touch items made of metal. You might end up throwing away the material you’re using to make fire. If you’re in an emergency and with scarce supplies, such a knee-jerk reaction can be costly.

Storing 9V batteries haphazardly in a drawer for example is a hazard. The positive and negative terminals can come in contact through a metallic object and start a fire unintentionally. Hence, make sure you keep your batteries safely (including the old ones).