Art and Science Combustion via Art by Abraham Tamir in BJSTR
Abstract
Combustion, burning or fire is the sequence of exothermic
chemical reactions between fuel and an oxidant accompanied
by the production of heat and conversion of the chemical species
to new ones. Combustion supplies most of the energy required
by human civilization where the visible result is fire and flames
usually consisting of hot gases and light. The phenomenon of fire is
mentioned already in the Bible in Genesis 15:17 as follows:”When
the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a
blazing torch appeared and passes between the pieces.” Probably
the earliest reasonably scientific attempt to explain combustion
was that of Johannes Baptista van Helmont (1580-1644), a Flemish
Physician and Alchemist. He observed the relationship among
a burning material, smoke and flame and said that combustion
involved the escape of a “wild spirit” from the burning material. In
1667, Johann Joachim Becher (1635-1682), a German alchemist
and physician, proposed the phlogiston theory. According to it there
exist fire-like elements called “Phlogiston” that is contained within
combustible bodies and are released during combustion. The theory
was an attempt to explain processes such as combustion and the
rusting of metals, which are now understood as oxidation. It was
the great French chemist Antoine Laurent Lavoisier (1743-1794)
who rejected traditional thinking and framed a new definition of
combustion that was widely accepted.
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