Have You Cottoned-On Yet?

My 'Countdown' supermarket receipt lists 100g Vaseline @ $5.89 - 200x cotton balls Made in India @ $2.50 - & 80x Help at Hand Make-up Pads (pure cotton-Made in India@ $2.50

Now you well might smear a little Vaseline onto each of your cotton-balls for use as fire starters and put them into some sort of screw-top jar or zip-lock plastic baggie - but I reasoned that the disc shaped cotton make-up pads might nicely peel apart to let me smear a wee glob of the petroleum distillate inside with my knife blade and squeeze shut again neatly & cleanly .. yes - I reckon that these clean non-sticky campfire starters work-out at around 10 cents each .. packing nicely into my antique copper lidded "Tinder Box".

When checking a batch of (cotton) Denim char-cloth - I just now thought I should try see what sort of char those pure cotton balls from India might make ... the key feature has to be how well they might catch a spark and form a nicely glowing ember, - and so this proved to be .. except the hot well charred cotton balls cooked very easily and needed sealing from the air least they rapidly self-oxidised .. when spilled fresh from the charring can they wanted to self ignite and glow cheerfully until only ash remains. - Hmm - better sealing & properly screw lidded retort vessels needed.

Possibly ...

Vegetable Lamb Of Tartary.

Many Northern Europeans in earlier days believed that cotton came from vegetable lambs that grew on the ends of tree branches .. but they found God rapidly after restoring English Royalty & then the British East India Company saved India from independence .. As Donnie Trump said - "The population of Britain is very dense."

Even the best of tinder needs decent kindling to start your woodland camp fire - if you are trying to use a wet cabbage ..  you'll be in for a cold evening.

Marty K.