Chemistry

Research Proposals for 2002 - Group D

Fire in Africa

Africa is known as the “cradle of mankind” and archaeological excavations at Taung, Sterkfontein and Swartkrans have helped us to understand the earliest inhabitants of Africa. One of the most important finds has been charred bone remains inside the cave at Swartkrans, which showed that the earliest inhabitants in Africa have mastered the art of fire tending one million years ago. This was much earlier than previously thought and since then, fire has played an extremely important part in the daily lives of the inhabitants of Africa.

As the years went by our forefathers steadily gathered information about every aspect of fire-making and the best wood to use for various purposes eg.

• Cooking
• Iron - and other metals - smelting
• White ash for pigments (rock art), toothpaste, cement etc.

In this project we would like to investigate the knowledge about fire and wood gained by our ancestors and handed down through the generations as folklore and investigate this with modern chemical and physical techniques. In this way we can learn more about our cultural heritage and at the same time learn how to do a research project in a scientific way. This will also expose the group to some aspects of plant chemistry focused mainly on indigenous wood types.

Project design

1. Gather information about beliefs and knowledge about wood, by asking parents, grandparents and other people in the community. This step should also include Internet searches to investigate the availability of related information from other countries.
    
2. Experiment with fire. Each participant chooses a different kind of wood. Using approximately the same volume of wood (measured in plastic bag) the following are some of the aspects to be investigated:
   Temperature profile of fire
   Time in which fire is burnt out
   Colour of flames etc.
   Amount of smoke (pollution)
   Ash residue, what percentage is this of original weight?
   The effect of an oxygen poor atmosphere, etc.
    
3. Physical and chemical tests in lab e.g.
   Density
   Hardness
   Analyse ash
   Literature: find out what kind of substances have been extracted from the specific wood used.
    
4. Integrate steps 2 and 3
    
5. Is the information obtained in step 1 correct, and do we have any scientific explanations for it?
   Air pollution – have we perhaps gained any knowledge to help control this?
    
6. Write a report; prepare an electronic presentation and a poster for Expo.

NB! Keep written and visual (camera) record of everything that is done

Possible excursions:

1. Visit to charcoal factory
2. Gather indigenous wood in veldt and observe the relevant trees in natural habitat.

Participants

• Prof. Peet van Rooyen
• Ms. Linda Prinsloo
• Ms. Monica van der Merwe