For the ignition of briquets and charcoal for grills up till now ignescent fluid has been the dominating and sole accepted ignition aid for producing in an acceptably short time embers for broiling. Among the drawbacks of ignescent fluid are the hazards of the ignition procedure. At times, ignescent fluid has been confused with other fluids and caused severe burns in children and in some known instances children have been poisoned by drinking the fluid. In addition, the ignescent fluid is bulky and generally difficult to bring along. It sometimes also imparts obtrusive flavours to the food being broiled. The use of ignescent fluid is also expensive.
To light a fire in fireplaces, furnaces, and suchlike, one normally uses newspaper leaves and the like, in conjunction with wood chips. This is a time-consuming method. Ignition aids known as `fire lighters` may also be used. A method for producing fire lighting aids was described in SE-A-No. 41 897, in 1914. According to this method, paper, sulphite or sulphate pulp, is impregnated with a combustible substance which is either liquid or solid, such as resin, resin dissolved in some combustible substance such as spirits, turpentine, raw or refined petroleum, tar, or some other suitable substance. After being impregnated, the paper or the pulp is rolled onto spindles, and fire lighting aids then prepared from the strips, whether wet or dry, the final product being in the form of small reels. According to SE-A-No. 96 174 fire lighters are produced from lumbering or wood mill debris, which is cut into chips, defibrated, mixed with water to achieve a suitable consistency and lastly formed into a plate, which is dewatered by pressing and then dried. This plate is dipped in molten paraffin, stearin, or tallow or a mixture of these at a temperature of 80.degree.-100.degree. C. After drying, the plate is cut into pieces of a certain width and length. Before being impregnated, the plate is provided with grooves, to facilitate the cutting of the plate into small square blocks.
A drawback which is common to these and other known fire lighting aids is that the area of combustion is small, the product thus having to be ignited at a very small area. Therefore, it is not at all uncommon to fail at the ignition of these products, even if the burning time may be long. In addition, the positioning of the lighter is critical, for instance when lighting a fire on a grill, since the lighter, being very small, may easily fall down through the grid.
Another known lighting aid consists of cubes of a brittle material which easily crumbles and has a strong odour, so that the product must be carefully packed and gently handled.
Paraffin impregnated cellulose pulp is a better lighting aid. The area of combustion of this product in relation to its volume is greater, and hence the product burns more intensely and over a larger area. Even though its burning time is shorter than that of a more compact product of the same volume, the fire or the bed of briquettes or coal to be ignited is lit more effectively and more safely. Another desirable property of the lighter is that it is free of tackiness. Nor should it crumble when broken, as is the case if not all paraffin has become absorbed into the pulp. At the same time it must be water-repellent and inflammable. These demands have caused considerable manufacturing problems.