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A diagram of the four elements for a 1472 edition of “De natura rerum”

For millennia natural philosophers, alchemists, and finally scientists closely studied nature and struggled to answer the simple question: “What is fire?” Some took a purely secular approach, examining fire and matter from a mechanical or chemical point of view. Others hoped that by studying how parts of the world fit together they could better understand the mind of the divine being who created it and may guide its workings still. A classic idea, independently devised in many cultures around the world, imagined that matter is made up of a small number of elementary substances, one of which is fire.

Antoine Lavoisier conducting an experiment

Jim Gasperini explores the long journey to understanding fire as a physical phenomenon: how we got from the notion of fire as an element to the modern conception of combustion. He shows how our modern understanding finally emerged from a dramatic competition among English, Swedish, and French scientists in the late eighteenth century.

Jim Gasperini is the Institute’s webmaster and former Vice-President of its Board. This presentation is based on a chapter from his book, Fire in the Imagination: from the Burning Bush to Burning Man. See more about Jim’s background and his work in progress at https://jimgasperini.com.