Evening star., 1938-01-06
STARS, MEN AND ATOMS
Notebook of Science Progress in Field,
Laboratory and Study.
BY THOMAS r. HENRY,

In prohibition days some Of the vile
liquor sold by bootleggers used to be
referred to as liquid fire"
To John Paul Jones this would have
been a perfectly plausible description
When the tempestuous sailor gulped
swig of rum aboard the Bon Homme
Richard he thought he was swallowing
fire enclosed in little capsules. For the
naval hero of the Revolution was largely
a self-educated man and he had read
carefully a six-volume book: Nature
Revealed" being discourses on such par
ticulars of natural history as were
thought proper to excite the curiosity
and form the minds of youth.
This work has recently turned up in
the library of St. Johns College at An
napolis. Each volume carries the sigma
ture: John Paul Jones' The books
show signs of having been read over and
over again. especially the chapters deal
ing with astronomy and navigation.
Poring over the volumes one hits
on the long discarded phlogiston theory
of fire 1t was held by the best chem
lists of John Paul Jones day and afforded
a perfect explanation Of how something
cold. like wine, could yet produce heat
in the body. To quote from the old
chemistry:
What seems certain concerning fire:
Fire does not consist. as modern
philosophers commonly pretend, of a
swift motion OF all kinds of matter, but
is real body. It is an element very
different from all other elements. 1t is
a fluid. It is fluid prodigiously elastic
infinitely
mented. It Is q body which can neither
be produced nor destroyed by any natural
cause.
"All such bodies as may be equally
agitated ought to be equally combustible
were a great motion and fire but one and
the same thing. We nevertheless ex-
perience the contrary. The same agita-
ton of the milestone which grinds corn
without producing the last sparkle az
fords an immense quantity Of them, and
will even set the mill on fire, when the
upper stone rubbing Immediately upon
the other, the inflexible surfaces crush
the air intercepted between them, and
having no retreat it accelerates the fire
residing in the air.
Fire is so truly a real body that 1t
dilates all the bodies 1t enters into. An
iron bar, made red hot. becomes little
longer and broader than before. The
iron gauge or measure. which serves as
a standard in some court and In public
markets, does not always agree with It
self. It lengthens half line or even
more in summer time and shortens IN
EXTREMIST cold. The pendulums OF
clocks lengthen a small matter toward
the equator.
Fire is a fluid and its tendency to-
ward spreading everywhere is an effect
of its fluidity. It is because fire is very
penetrating fluid that 1t always en-
deavors to be everywhere on q level, or
in scale Of equilibrium. The fire. by
insinuating itself into bodies. does then
endeavor to spread therein, in an equal
quantity on all Sides and thereby mani
tests it fluidity to us. This huidity of
fire affords an easy means to account
how liquor so full Of fire as wine is
may nevertheless be cooled to such a
degree as to appear as cold as ice. The
secret fire, which with some other prin-
ciples makes up the quantity and strength
of the liquor is as it were Shut up and
enclosed in cases which are able to
bride it in spite of its activity This
essential fire Is not in the interstices of
the wine but in the little masses that
compose it. And when the liquor seems
cool Notwithstanding that internal fire,
1t Is because the air of the cellar, con-
tanning less fire than the outward air,
sheds q less quantity Of 1t through the
pores Of the glass into tho interstdces Of