In the history of chemistry, fire air was postulated to be one of two fluids of common air. This theory was positioned in 1775 by Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele. In Scheele’s Chemical Treatise on Air and Fire he states: “air is composed of two fluids, differing from each other, the one of which does not manifest in the least the property of attracting phlogiston, whilst the other, which composes between the third and forth part of the whole mass of the air, is peculiarly disposed to such attraction.” These two constituents of common air Scheele called Foul Air (“verdorbene Luft”) and Fire Air (“Feuerluft”); afterwards these components came to be known as nitrogen and oxygen, respectively.
Famous quotes containing the words fire and/or air:
“The fire is the main comfort of the camp, whether in summer or winter, and is about as ample at one season as at another. It is as well for cheerfulness as for warmth and dryness.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“More beautiful and soft than any moth
With burring furred antennae feeling its huge path
Through dusk, the air liner with shut-off engines
Glides over suburbs”
—Stephen Spender (1909–1995)