Action of fire

Although there have been many studies on the mode of action of fire retardants generally, (J 6) the mechanistic behaviour of tin additives is less clear, and may depend on several factors including the ratio of halogen tin in the system. 

In the course of time these three unite, and are changed through the action of fire into a palpable substance, viz., quicksilver, sulphur, and salt. If these three substances be mixed, they are hardened and coagulated into a perfect body, which represents the seed chosen and appointed by the Creator. This is a most important and certain truth. If the metallic soul, the metallic spirit, and the metallic form of body be present, there will also be metallic quicksilver, metallic sulphur, and metallic salt, which together make up the perfect metallic body. 

Koster P, Debets FMH, Strik JJTW (1980) Porphyrinogenic action of fire retardants. Bull Environ Contamin Toxicol 25 313-315... 

Philalethes says, in A Brief Guide to the Celestial Ruby. "The Philosopher s Stone is a certain heavenly, spiritual, penetrative, and fixed substance, which brings all metals to the perfection of gold or silver (according to the quality of the Medicine), and that by natural methods, which yet in their effects transcend Nature.. . Know then that it is called a stone, not because it is like a stone, but only because, by virtue of its fixed nature, it resists the action of fire as successfully as any stone. In species it is gold, more pure than the purest it is fixed and incombustible like a stone, but its appearance is that of very fine powder, impalpable to the touch, sweet to the taste, fragrant to the smell, in potency a most penetrative spirit, apparently dry and yet unctuous, and easily capable of tinging a plate of metal. If we say that its nature is spiritual, it would be no more than the truth if we described it as corporeal, the expression would be equally correct."... 

Conclusion.—The metal which had been destroyed is revivified by the grains of wheat and the action of fire. 

Boerhaave even stated in his Elements of Chemistry that all die vegetables which have grown on the earth since the beginning of the world to the present, and which have putrefied without bemg reduced to ash by the action of fire, and have been consumed in the course of time, have never yielded a single gram of fixed alkaline salt. On the contrary, they have been dispersed in volatile particles. . (7). 

To some chemists phlogiston was fire itself a form of the ancient element. Others, accepting the blurring of the demarcation between elements and alchemical principles , concurred with Becher s definition of terra pinguis-. Metals contain an inflammable principle which by the action of fire goes off into the air. ... 

Asdestas,—This matorial is of frequent use in the laboratory, and in the manufacture of various articles destined to resist the action of fire, such as lamp-wicks, et cetera. Annexed is its composition t—... 

Dioscorides states that nitron occurs as an exudation from the earth, and from certain waters, particularly from certain lakes in Egypt. It varies in color from whitish to reddish. It is of fatty consistency or feel, caustic, and of biting taste. Its activity is increased by heating. When purified, it is white and dissolves in water. Pliny says it is not changed by the action of fire. This would not apply to the nitrate. Very similar to the natural nitron, says Dioscorides, are the ashes obtained by burning plants (potassium carbonates mainly). 

Bitumen, or asphalt, and naphtha are described much as Dioscorides describes them. Maltha is a product of similar character, will take fire and burn even upon water, and can be extinguished only by earth. The uses of bitumen were for medicines for coating the inside of vessels of copper or brass for the purpose of protecting them from the action of fire for staining bronze statues as a cement instead of mortar for buildings, as in the walls of Babylon for varnishing iron and the heads of nails to prevent their rusting. 

Berthelot, op. cit., p. 304. Vincent de Beauvais, Lib. VIII, cliap. XIII, gives as the seven tests for gold solution, the touchstone, density, taste, the action of fire, fusion, sublimation. 

It can be divided into two classes, the pure and the impure. The first is the basis of all the composites, and produces all by the mixture of Water and the action of Fire. The second is the garment of the first it enters as an integral part in the composition of individuals. 

This action of Fire on the humidum does everything in the work, as in Nature, for the generation of the Mixts. Ovid says ... 

Paracelsus mentions this process in his writings, and Rudolf Glauber, who was a later follower of the works of Paracelsus praised it greatly. The roots of Ysopaica go back to the burnt offerings of the ancient temples, the idea being that the most purified essence of a material is driven off to the heavens by the action of fire. Frater Albertus often said "that which is essential is not destroyed by the fire, it is only purified thereby."... 

Because of the (tiny) size of microtraces, they are often unconsciously destroyed for example, they can be accidentally lost or transferred to another substrate, evaporate at elevated temperatures, or destroyed by the action of fire. Their properties might also change. The time elapsed between leaving a trace and its disclosure and securing for examination, as well as atmospheric conditions, are sometimes the cause of chemical and biological breakdown of the trace, or the substrate on which it occurs, making it difficult to carry out analyses. 

The more composed salts of plants and animals could be analyzed in a manner similar to the simple or fossil salts, except that they held a larger proportion of water or earth, which weakened them. The acid spirits, lixivial salts, and essential salts separated from the plants contained different proportions of the acid salt, which determined their solubility. Volatile and fixed alkali salts were produced by the action of fire. The strength or alkaline force of fixed alkali depended on the... 

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