Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1870-11-09
Miseella,eous.
LIGHTING THE FIRE.

plain the reasons of the operations they
perform, or the appearances they perceive
in stove, CRATE, or fireplace. y very SIM
pie yet interesting little lecture could be
made about lighting the fire. Let US see,
madam, whether we can tell you some
things YOU will be glad to know.
You have before you i'll the. CRATE
newspaper, loosely, crumpled, upon which
are a few splinters of pine, and upon these
some larger sticks. In your hand is a lu-
citer match. You mean to ignite the end
of the match, and set fire to the paper,
which will set fire to the splnters, which
will set fire to the wood. Then you will
put on the blower, and when the whole is
in a roaring flame, you will add coal,
which will form the other end of the series
of combustibes begun by the chemical
substance forming little knob on the end
Of your match. Quite a complex matter,
isn't it 1t reminds one OF the nursery
legend, in which "the rope began to hang
the butcher the butcher began to Kill the
OK etc, ETC., until finally ''the kid began
to CO. which was all the old woman want
ed (No offense to you, madam, by this
comparison y When your little girl asked
you the other day why you needed to use
matches, and kindling, and blower, and all
! that, you told her not to be silly, but to use
| her eyes. and she would find out !; but you
T. felt little ashamed to reflect that you
| didn't know yourself. Now, in this private
manner, so as not to wound your feelings,
we propose to tell you that, and more too.
Burning is a chemical process that is,
it changes not merely the forms but the
elements of the substances involved. One
| ofthese are invariably the oxygen ofthe air.
This invisible atmosphere which we breathe
consists principally of two gases, mixed
together. One is oxygen, and the other
nitrogen. If you could separate them, and
measure them in quart dippers, you would
find about quart of oxygen for every gal
Ion of nitrogen This oxygen unites with
Il great many elements, forming what we
call oxides acids.
The other substance necessary to COM
bustion is called the fuel, and must con-
tain one or more Of those elements with
which oxygen can unite. Ordinary. fuels
contain two such substances-hydrogen
and carbon-at least, paper and wood and
soft coal do Charcoal and anthracite are
nearly pure carbon, all but the ashes. a
good many other things will burn, how
ever. Iron, for instance, burns like tinder,
if it is ignted in pure oxygen; though in
-
burns quite slowly. Still, your CRATE bars
do burn up, you know, in the course OF
time, and would do so much faster, if YOU
did not keep up supply of other fuel
which the oxygen prefers. 1t is lucky for
Us all that there is so little oxygen in the
air, and that it will not readily unite with
| the most substances, except at higher than
ordinary temperatures, otherwise we
| should all be carried off by that ugly and
| incurable disease, spontaneous combustion.
Now, every substance has its own par
| ticular temperature at which it will unite
rapidly with oxygen. Phosphorus isn't
| long about it, tell you. Just the little
heat you get up by friction on the end of
your match wakes up the phosphorus. AS
| for paper and wood, they are composed OF
| the same substances, and one would think
| they ought to burn equally well. But here
another point must be considered. Paper
burns more easily than wood. because it is
more fra gile in texture, and hence its COM
poncnt parts are more easily heated to the
| required point. For the same reason,
| splinters and shavings burn better than
sticks; and, indeed, thin shavings better
| than paper, if the latter has had printing
ink and other substances spread over it,.
Solid Jumps Of coal are still harder to heat
to the burning point. If You should try to
get one a-burning by applying to the cor
ner of it one match after another, you
would find the rest ot the lump drawing
away the heat as fast as you could supply
it. You therefore put paper or shavingS
at the bottom, to catch fire readily. Then
you lay wood above them, because, being
more substantial, it will burn longer. and
therefore afford a longer contact OF flame
to heat the coal As You know very well,
the paper would not do without the wood,
nor the solid wood without paper or shay
ings.
But this union of oxygen and fuel which
we call combustion, although it requires
heat before it will take place, produces
more heat when it does take place 9th
erwisc, you see, your ingenious little ar
rangement of material would not work.
You get up Il small amount OF heat by
friction, which starts the combustion of the
phosphorus on your match. That combus-
ton produces an amount of heat sufficient
to set the body of the match ON fire. This
amount in turn suifices to ignite the paper,
and each burning portion OF the paper has
! plenty of heat to set the adjacent portion
on fire. So it goes on until the cold, black
coal is glowing and blazing; and all this
has been done by the scratching OF the
match. You remember the story OF the
little match-girl, who scratched all her
matches Just to watch them flame and to
warm her hands for an instant over the
blaze, and then died in the coldwinter nj ght
Yet every one of those matches might
have lit great fire like yours. Where
does the heat come from which enables Il
substance once heated by you to certain
point to pay you back thousand-told on
your investment? 1t is as though you en-
ployed one man to unlock prison door,
and out jumped a crowd of liberated cap
tiyes to do your bidding. 1t is as though
this heat were imprisoned or hidden in the
silent fuel, and sprang forth the moment
its kindred flame drew back the bolt. In
fact, these figures are nearer the truth than
you can, at this stage of our pleasant con-
versation, perfectly understand. But it is
now time tor you to talk !; and as it would
rot be polite to print, like vulgar inter-
| vi N