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Gum Wrapper Fire Starter


guys something just happened which
absolutely blows my mind one of my quick
Clips just went over 10 million views
it’s absolutely incredible now this is a
video showing a concept where you can
take a double a battery and a gum
wrapper and use it to start a survival
fire it’s a really cool idea I first saw
in householdhacker and yes it actually
does work now here’s the challenge while
reading through the comments I noticed a
lot of you were having trouble with this
at home because it was either burning
your fingers or wasn’t lighting off at
all so the purpose of this video is to
dive into even more detail so you fully
comprehend how it works and then we’ll
use that technique to start a fire out
in the desert today now the trick to
actually getting this to work lies
within the gum wrapper itself so I
stopped by the grocery store and picked
up three different packs of gum so we
can compare what we’re looking for is a
wrapper that has a shiny metallic
exterior but a textured fibrous interior
something like this and you’re also
going to need a double-a battery which
you should be able to find in all
different kinds of electronic equipment
including flashlights now you probably
know by now that a battery has a
positive end and a negative end and if
you use something conductive to connect
the two ends electricity will begin to
flow if we think of electricity like
water then the voltage coming out of the
battery is like the pressure of the
electricity and the conductor that we’re
using is like the tube or the piping
that takes the water to where we need to
go if we use a thick pipe like this the
energy can flow relatively freely and
nothing really happens it’s just going
to get the battery really hot and burn
your fingertips
ouch but if we make the size of the pipe
thinner the electrical pressure and
resistance build up to the point where
they actually generate a significant
amount of heat and it is a little bit of
a balancing act because too thick and it
won’t light off at all too thin and it
just burns in half we’re trying to find
that sweet spot where it goes up in
flames every time
now what I found works best for me is to
take one of your gum wrappers and cut it
lengthwise into thirds
this will make three different igniters
when you’ve got those pieces cut trim it
in from the sides to form an hourglass
shape so the part in the middle is about
the same thickness as the blade on your
pair of scissors if you’ve done it right
it should look something like this now
here’s how to get your improvised
igniter to work take your fourth finger
and rest it underneath one end of the
igniter so that the foil is facing up
then take the bottom of your double-a
battery and press it down into your
finger so it holds the foil in place and
use your thumb and forefinger to hold
the battery straight up like this
now this last part happens pretty quick
we’re going to take the top piece of
foil and press it to the top of the
battery with our thumb and hold it
vertically until it bursts into flame
when I made my quick clip I use this big
five gun it works really well for me and
I’ve got to work almost every single
time but it doesn’t make me wonder how
other guns might compare so I picked up
some juicy fruit and Orbitz just to see
if there’s any difference opening up
here and the first thing I noticed this
actually got a paper exterior here
there’s no shiny metallic side to that
at all it’s just paper and if we open
that up
it’s just paper as well so just based on
that observation I do not think that
juicy fruit is going to work we need a
shiny conductive metallic surface and
paper is not going to do the job now to
be fair I’m going to cut this up and try
it anyway because we can’t really be
sure the results until we put it to the
test all right here we go contact and
noting our hypothesis is confirmed paper
is non conductive no success with juicy
fruit we’re going to try orbit next and
here’s the reveal yeah these are just
covered in paper as well so pretty sure
those are not going to work
probably better put them to the test
just to be sure but I already know
they’re not going to work and these ones
a little bit too short they probably
won’t reach the battery terminals anyway
whoo barely if you get it to reach but
barely that’s as good as it gets no
reaction
all right orbits doesn’t work not gonna
save your life very interesting guys we
have been able to confirm that only the
gum wrappers with the foil on the
outside seemed to work as organizers so
that’s not all if you want to get these
things to work there are two more things
you need to know first first of all the
way you hold your battery actually makes
a huge difference if your igniter makes
contact while your battery is being held
horizontally most of the heat will
dissipate upwards reducing your chances
of this thing actually igniting at all
but when you hold your battery
vertically the heat transfers up into
the material greatly increasing your
chances of ignition if you’re one of the
people burning your fingertips when
trying this the other thing that’s good
to know is rip off little pieces of your
gum or pieces of the cardboard box you
can use these pieces as insulation to
protect your fingertips when the foil
makes contact so now that we have this
technique mastered let’s go ahead and
gather up some dry grass and sticks and
see if we can use it to start a fire
I went up in no time flat use it cool
guys let’s put the gum wrappers away and
talk about what we’ve learned so far we
found that in order to get this
technique to work we needed to use
wrappers that had foil on the outside
and some kind of a fibrous material on
the inside we also discovered that one
wrapper could be used to make at least
three different igniters we cut these
wrappers into an hourglass shape and saw
just how important it was to leave the
right thickness in the middle because
when the bridge is too thick it doesn’t
light off and when it’s too thin it just
snaps apart cutting them to the width of
one blade on our pair of scissors seemed
to be just about perfect we found that
if we hold our igniters horizontally the
heat dissipates upwards and they’re less
likely to go off but if we hold them
vertically the heat is captured into the
material where they go off nearly every
time finally we learned that at the ends
of the battery are heating up and
burning your fingers you can simply rip
off pieces of gum or cardboard from the
box itself to use as insulation to
protect your fingers from any burns as a
side note I did try ripping about eight
gum wrappers into igniters but
unfortunately I wasn’t able to get any
of them go out that’s it for this
experiment guys thanks for joining me
for this video and I’ll be looking for
you the next one talk to you then I went
up in no time flat
first try except that
[Music]
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