Chemistry in daily life : popular lectures / by Dr. Lassar-Cohn ; translated by M.M. Pattison.

  • Lassar-Cohn, Dr., 1858-1922.
Date:
1896
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Chemistry in daily life : popular lectures / by Dr. Lassar-Cohn ; translated by M.M. Pattison. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    the metallurgy of iron, we shall have occasion to learn something more fully of these methods in connection with the processes for manufacturing that metal. The question as to how combustible material is set on fire, how the burning is generally started, has still to be answered. Nowadays it is very easy: we use matches; but matches came into use only about sixty years ago. The question must always remain un- answered as to whether primitive man became ac- quainted with fire by rubbing pieces of dry wood together, or by obtaining it from a tree which had been ignited by a lightning-flash. It is certain that fire can be obtained by rubbing together pieces of wood; and travellers have found this method in use among distant tribes in the present century. The method, however, requires the wood to be drier than we ever find it in its natural state in our climate. The difficulty of getting fire anew, and, therefore, the immense im- portance of maintaining the fire which had been started, explain the fact that all the older races looked on the hearth, where this supreme possession was maintained continuously, as a sacred place. The process of obtaining fire by allowing the sparks produced by striking a piece of steel and a flint together to fall on to tinder or dry fungus was discovered in the later Middle Ages. Since the beginning of this century isolated attempts were made to devise a method for getting fire, which could always be conveniently applied, by employing some one of the processes—and there are many of them—in use in chemical laboratories. The results of these attempts were but small, the methods themselves