Can You Start a Fire with Your Phone?

An experiment (possibly) worth trying

Here at Backpacker, we're working on our next survival issue (coming in October), so I've had my ears open for backcountry disasters and bloody grizzly attacks and all of those skills that we love to know but hope we'll never have to use. Yesterday, I heard one that falls into the latter category. I was climbing Longs Peak with my wife (an interesting journey, given her intense vertigo, but that's a story for another day), when I got to talking with a fellow hiking enthusiast.

He told me that I really ought to put a small wad of steel wool in my survival kit, because apparently you can start a fire by twisting the steel wool into a string and touching either end to the positive and negative receptors on the phone's battery.

Does it work? Dunno yet. Haven't had a chance to hit the grocery store to buy some steel wool (we started for Longs from the house at 1:30 a.m., so I hit the sack right after). But maybe you Daily Dirt readers out there can give it a whirl and let me know. Maybe try it with AA batteries, too. I can't see why that wouldn't also work -- seems the goal is simply to create a short.

Disclaimer: Not having tried this yet, don't sue me if it fries your phone battery. We find that a fair bit of survival "wisdom" is utter hooey. Last week, Kristin tried that trick where you rub a sewing needle on wool and put it in a puddle to determine North. Yeah, right: She got three directions in three tries.

I'll let you know if it works for me.

Jon Dorn