"Ignite" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... flames within bounds, and themselves stood posted with their guns, hoping for a shot at wild pig or cheetah, or possibly a lion or leopard. Carew kept guard at the huts, with a few boys to beat off the flames that encroached to any danger points and watch for flying sparks that might ignite the thatch. It was a wonderful sight, and his eyes were full of appreciation as he watched it. The gathering darkness, the lurid flames lighting up with swift brightness the ancient ruins; the high Acropolis Hill on one side, the low granite-strewn kopjes ...
— The Rhodesian • Gertrude Page
... hasten to the hut, and are heard striking a flint and steel. Returning with a lit lantern they ignite a blaze. The private of the Locals and his wife hastily retreat by the light of the flaming beacon, under which the purple rotundities of the heath show like bronze, and the pits like the eye-sockets ...
— The Dynasts - An Epic-Drama Of The War With Napoleon, In Three Parts, - Nineteen Acts, And One Hundred And Thirty Scenes • Thomas Hardy
... half-calcined stone, laid flat and covered with heaps of cinders and all sorts of rubbish. These slabs formed the family hearth, where man prepared his food, with the help of the fire he had learnt to ignite and to ...
— Manners and Monuments of Prehistoric Peoples • The Marquis de Nadaillac
... of men's lives," he said. Then he turned and faced her with a sudden gleam in his eye. "There is one thing yet unexplained—the burning of the Chateau de Vasselot. An empty house does not ignite itself. Explain ...
— The Isle of Unrest • Henry Seton Merriman
... Northern statements about the monitors becoming entangled with obstructions are utterly false, for there were no obstructions in the water to impede them. But he says one of the monitors was directly over a torpedo, containing 4000 pounds of powder, which we essayed in vain to ignite. ...
— A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital • John Beauchamp Jones
... you testify that early in the evening you saw a tramp enter a barn which later in the evening caught fire, your testimony as regards the cause of the fire would be indirect evidence against the tramp. If you can testify that you saw sparks fall from his lighted pipe and ignite a pile of hay in the barn, the evidence which you give ...
— Composition-Rhetoric • Stratton D. Brooks
... electrical element, he devised a means to draw it from the clouds by rods erected on elevated buildings. As this was not sufficiently demonstrative he succeeded at length in drawing the lightning from the clouds by means of a kite and silken string, so as to ignite spirits and other combustible substances by an electric spark similar to those from a Leyden jar. To utilize his discovery of the identity of lightning with electricity he erected lightning-rods to protect buildings, that is, to convey the lightning ...
— Beacon Lights of History, Volume XI • John Lord
... Maraschino, Curacoa, Chartreuse and Brandy in equal proportions until the glass is filled. The ingredients should be poured in one after the other from a small Wine glass, with great care, to prevent the colors from blending. Ignite the Brandy on top, and after it has blazed for a few seconds extinguishing it by placing a saucer or the bottom of another glass over ...
— The Ideal Bartender • Tom Bullock
... sticking out from her nose, on the end of which was one hundred pounds of powder in a copper cylinder provided with four extremely sensitive tubes of lead containing a highly explosive mixture, which would ignite upon contact with a ship's side or bottom and explode ...
— A Little Traitor to the South - A War Time Comedy With a Tragic Interlude • Cyrus Townsend Brady
... cooking was done right in the front trenches. The method is to use a brazier made from an old iron bucket, punched full of holes, in which charcoal or coke is burned. As we seldom had charcoal, it was necessary to start the fire before daylight, using wood to ignite the coke which made no smoke but, with careful nursing, could be made to burn all day. The presence of smoke always drew the fire of rifle grenades, trench-mortar shells and even artillery. It was one of our favorite forms of amusement to locate a cook house and shoot it up; and ...
— The Emma Gees • Herbert Wes McBride
... will also occur. Thus in our present sense, A may be the cause of B even if there actually are cases where B does not follow A. Striking a match will be the cause of its igniting, in spite of the fact that some matches are damp and fail to ignite. ...
— Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays • Bertrand Russell
... flame in the young clergyman's own heart to ignite other souls; but his strong magnetism was perceptible to all, and they did not realise the difference. And meantime the church ...
— An Ambitious Man • Ella Wheeler Wilcox
... magnesium ribbon, also bursts into flame. Pieces of charcoal suspended in a receiver full of oxygen are also set on fire when the invisible focus falls upon them; the dark rays after having passed through the receiver, still possessing sufficient power to ignite the charcoal, and thus initiate the attack of the oxygen. If, instead of being plunged in oxygen, the charcoal be suspended in vacuo, it immediately glows at the place where the ...
— Fragments of science, V. 1-2 • John Tyndall
... observed in the act of piling brushwood upon the fires left by travellers, and though they do not know how to kindle a fire, they have learned how to keep it burning. The tame ones soon learn how to ignite matches, and often do great harm by starting ...
— The Human Side of Animals • Royal Dixon
... Heavy leaped back, stumbled over another girl, and went sprawling. The flames did not touch her, but they did ignite the ...
— Ruth Fielding and the Gypsies - The Missing Pearl Necklace • Alice B. Emerson
... Effective Remedy for.—"Take pieces of ordinary blotting paper and saturate it with a strong solution of saltpetre, then dry the paper. When a paroxysm is felt ignite a piece of the paper and inhale the smoke. This remedy is very good and acts quickly, doing away almost entirely with the distressing ...
— Mother's Remedies - Over One Thousand Tried and Tested Remedies from Mothers - of the United States and Canada • T. J. Ritter
... fires have been caused by chimneys catching fire, and not being quickly extinguished, that the following method of doing this should be made generally known. Throw some powdered brimstone on the fire in the grate, or ignite some on the hob, and then put a board or something in the front of the fireplace, to prevent the fumes descending into the room. The vapour of the brimstone, ascending the chimney, will then effectually ...
— Enquire Within Upon Everything - The Great Victorian Domestic Standby • Anonymous
... apparently not warranted by the provocation. Who can tell how long their feelings had been rankling in their bosoms; how long, or how much they had borne; a single drop will make the cup run over, when filled up to the brim; a single spark will ignite the mine, that, by its explosion, will scatter destruction around it; and may not one foolish indiscretion, one thoughtless act of contumely or wrong, arouse to vengeance the passions that have long been ...
— Journals Of Expeditions Of Discovery Into Central • Edward John Eyre
... I was invited to meet Mr. Coleridge with a zealous Unitarian minister. It was natural to conclude, that such uncongenial, and, at the same time, such inflammable materials would soon ignite. The subject of Unitarianism having been introduced soon after dinner, the minister avowed his sentiments, in language that was construed into a challenge, when Mr. Coleridge advanced at once to the charge, by saying "Sir, you give ...
— Reminiscences of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey • Joseph Cottle
... they were all three in that excruciating state of rawness of the nerves, in which a man has the sensation that his brain is a violent explosive which a single jarring sound or word must ignite and blow ...
— Taquisara • F. Marion Crawford
... approach E'en the dogs quake, as on she moves through blood And darkness and the barrows of the slain. All hail, dread Hecate: companion me Unto the end, and work me witcheries Potent as Circe or Medea wrought, Or Perimede of the golden hair! Turn, magic wheel, draw homeward him I love. First we ignite the grain. Nay, pile it on: Where are thy wits flown, timorous Thestylis? Shall I be flouted, I, by such as thou? Pile, and still say, 'This pile is of his bones.' Turn, magic wheel, draw homeward him I love. Delphis ...
— Theocritus • Theocritus
... by a fairly quiet burning of the escaping gas, which would be over in a very short time, and would not add to the severity of the conflagration unless the generator-house were so close to the residence that the large flame of burning gas could ignite part of the main building. Even if the heat were so great near the holder that the gas dissociated, it is scarcely conceivable that a dangerous explosion should arise. But it is well to remember, that if the generator-house ...
— Acetylene, The Principles Of Its Generation And Use • F. H. Leeds and W. J. Atkinson Butterfield
... never shirked a conflict. His was a vigorous and irascible temperament, compounded of old-fashioned, slow-burning black powder and nitroglycerine—a combination of incalculable destructive power. It was a perilously unstable mixture, tool, at times nothing less than a flame served to ignite it; on other occasions the office force pussy-footed past Carter's door on felt soles, and even then the slightest jar often caused the untoward thing to let go. In either event there was a deafening roar, much smoke, and a deal of damage. O'Reilly felt sure that whatever ...
— Rainbow's End • Rex Beach
... sheet of flame until the air pressure falls too low or the oil is exhausted. The heat given out is terrific in its intensity. A similar method employed by the German troops consists of a liquid substance which is squirted into the trenches. Bombs are then thrown which on explosion ignite the fluid. Yet another sort of projectile took the form of an incendiary bomb or shell which was discharged noiselessly, possibly from a catapult. It bursts on impact, tearing a hole and burning a circle of ground about eight feet ...
— The Story of the Great War, Volume IV (of 8) • Francis J. (Francis Joseph) Reynolds, Allen L. (Allen Leon)
... sufficient to turn off the rain. The spot was almost completely sheltered from the wind, so that we had no fear about lighting a fire. At the same time the wood was already so wet that it cost us some trouble to ignite it. We succeeded at last, and, drawing it close up to the hut, it afforded us warmth and enabled us to dry our ...
— Snow Shoes and Canoes - The Early Days of a Fur-Trader in the Hudson Bay Territory • William H. G. Kingston
... mind and will are to the body what the magneto is to the automobile. As the electric sparks from the magneto ignite the gas, thus generating the power that drives the machine, so the positive vibrations, generated by a confident and determined will, create in the body the positive electromagnetic currents which incite and stimulate all ...
— Nature Cure • Henry Lindlahr
... bit of phosphorus and put it upon a slip of wood and ignite the phosphorus, bright as the blaze is, there drops from it a white ash that coats the wood and makes it almost incombustible. And so when the flaming conviction laid upon your hearts has burnt itself out, it has coated the heart, and it will be very difficult to kindle the light there again. Felix ...
— Expositions of Holy Scripture: The Acts • Alexander Maclaren
... angle, the bed of a small dry lake (with lots of fine grass) or watercourse half a mile wide. When rain has fallen on this country it is difficult to say; most of the herbs and grass and shrubs as dry as tinder and will ignite at once—but is much more open and fit for pasture. At sixteen miles on same bearing crossed the bed of salt lake, now dry and of no great extent, running north and south in an extensive flat; spelled and had a pot of tea. Then on a bearing of 357 degrees for nine and a half miles to camp ...
— McKinlay's Journal of Exploration in the Interior of Australia • John McKinlay
... passion failed to ignite at the heat of another's anger; he only sat limp and helpless in the judge's grasp. Finally he muttered: "I played square enough. It's one of those things that just happen. We couldn't help ourselves. She'll come to you ...
— Heart of the Sunset • Rex Beach
... with nothing worse than burns about the face and hands, and a general shock. The cause of the accident was that an indiarubber tube, fixed temporarily to carry petrol from the tank to the carburettor, had been eaten through and had permitted petrol to leak out, and to ignite, on the hot exhaust pipes ...
— Learning to Fly - A Practical Manual for Beginners • Claude Grahame-White
... penance), and, grinning with sharp teeth, observes: "He speaks in my way now." In the background a young Republican holds ready the match for a barrel of gunpowder, but looks at his watch, waiting the moment to ignite it. ...
— At Home And Abroad - Or, Things And Thoughts In America and Europe • Margaret Fuller Ossoli
... presence of mind enough to strike a second match and ignite the torch, which was fortunately within reach of his hand, and as his companions, roused from their sleep by his sharp cry of alarm, sprang excitedly to their feet, the flaming glare revealed to their astonished gaze a monstrous serpent ...
— The River of Darkness - Under Africa • William Murray Graydon
... but he had to abandon his experiments in Long Island and fly the country, because of a writ which charged him with a conspiracy for carrying on secret communication. In 1830 Hubert Recy published an account of a system of Teletatodydaxie, by which the electric spark was to ignite alcohol and indicate the ...
— Heroes of the Telegraph • J. Munro
... contain free nitric acid. Heat and stir until the solution clears. Decant through a small filter, and wash with hot water, acidulated at first with a little nitric acid if bismuth is suspected to be present. Dry quickly, transfer as much as possible of the precipitate to a watch-glass; burn and ignite the filter paper, treating the ash first with two drops of nitric acid and then with one of hydrochloric, and again dry. Add the rest of the silver chloride and heat slowly over a Bunsen burner until it begins to fuse. Cool ...
— A Textbook of Assaying: For the Use of Those Connected with Mines. • Cornelius Beringer and John Jacob Beringer
... branches of trees so that he could make a trap in which he eventually caught a bear and killed it. He then cut up the bear and used the skin for blankets and the flesh for food. He also cut sticks and made a little instrument by which he was able to ignite bits of wood and so start his fire. He also searched out various roots and berries and leaves, which he was able to cook and make into good food, and he even went so far as to make charcoal and to cut slips of bark from the trees and draw pictures of the scenery and ...
— Scouting For Girls, Official Handbook of the Girl Scouts • Girl Scouts
... they propose to cultivate, they put out all the fires in the village and light a new fire by rubbing two dry pieces of wood together. Then having kindled torches at it they proceed with them to the jungle and ignite the felled timber and brushwood. The flesh of a cow or buffalo is also roasted on the new fire and furnishes a sacrificial meal.[340] Near the small town of Kahma in Burma, between Prome and Thayetmyo, certain ...
— Balder The Beautiful, Vol. I. • Sir James George Frazer
... that at the moment it occurred the loose wagons were still moving so slowly that he would not have sprung from his engine had he not seen that they were loaded with oil. The very instant the collision took place, however, the fluid seemed to ignite and to flash along the train like lightning, so that it was impossible to approach a carriage when once it caught fire. The fact was that the oil in vast quantities was spilled upon the track and ignited by the fire of the locomotive, ...
— Railway Adventures and Anecdotes - extending over more than fifty years • Various
... chemical union is forced; or, in other words, the nitrogen is compelled to burn and to join in chemical combination with the oxygen with which formerly it was only in mechanical mixture. When nitrogen is burning, its flame is not in itself hot enough to ignite contiguous volumes of the same element;—otherwise indeed our atmosphere, after a discharge of lightning, would burn itself out!—but the continuance of an electric discharge forces into combination just a proportionate quantity of nitrogen. Practically, ...
— Twentieth Century Inventions - A Forecast • George Sutherland
... degrees a groove is formed, which soon deepens as the motion increases in quickness. Soon smoke arises, and the motion is now made as rapid as possible, and by the time the bamboo is cut through not only smoke but sparks are seen, which soon ignite the materials of which the ball beneath is composed. The first tender spark is now carefully blown, and when well alight the ball is withdrawn, and leaves and other inflammable materials heaped over it, and ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 508, September 26, 1885 • Various
... under the lid of the saucepan upon which the chestnuts were laid. Quidd determined to have a good explosion, and took the opportunity, while the chestnuts were being put into his hand, to introduce a packet of gunpowder into the kettle. He thought to run away before it should ignite, but there being a small hole in the paper, the moment it touched the fire the whole went off with a loud explosion. Quidd's hand was shattered to pieces, and he fell stunned with the effects of the powder. He was taken home senseless, ...
— Young Folks Treasury, Volume 3 (of 12) - Classic Tales And Old-Fashioned Stories • Various
... lighted match reached the oil soaked excelsior, but before it could ignite, the cold wind that was roaring down the chimney ...
— The Grammar School Boys Snowbound - or, Dick & Co. at Winter Sports • H. Irving Hancock
... a snake striking his fangs into my flesh. The individual whom I took to be the chief of the little party thereupon led me back to the fire, and thrusting two or three dry twigs into the smouldering ashes, fanned the latter into a blaze with his breath, thus causing the twigs to ignite. Then, using these twigs as a torch, he carefully examined my wounded hand, shook his head as though to indicate that I had no chance, cast the blazing twigs to the ground, and saying a few words to his companions, lay ...
— A Middy of the Slave Squadron - A West African Story • Harry Collingwood
... that, once, in jumping in to put in the friction primer, the back of my left hand touched it, and the skin was nearly taken off. The sponge was entirely worn off the rammer, so "No. 1" stopped sponging out the gun, and only rammed shot home. We fired so fast that the powder did not have time to ignite in the gun. After firing the gun, "No. 4" could hardly get the "primer" in before the gun was loaded, and ready to fire again. So it went on! It was fast and furious work! And the bullets sounded like ...
— From the Rapidan to Richmond and the Spottsylvania Campaign - A Sketch in Personal Narration of the Scenes a Soldier Saw • William Meade Dame
... greet this sentiment. The minds of the listeners, swept away by this gale of declamation, become overheated and ignite through mutual contact; like half-consumed embers that would die out if let alone, they kindle into a blaze when gathered together in a heap.—Their convictions, at the same time, gain strength. There is nothing like a coterie to make these take root. In politics, as in religion, faith generating ...
— The Origins of Contemporary France, Volume 3 (of 6) - The French Revolution, Volume 2 (of 3) • Hippolyte A. Taine
... think or feel He can tell to the world and it hears aright; But it bids the woman conceal, conceal, And woe to the thoughts that at last ignite. She may serve up gossip or dwell on fashion, Or play the critic with speech unkind, But alas for the woman who speaks with passion! For the world is blind—for the world ...
— Poems of Sentiment • Ella Wheeler Wilcox
... that mere red heat is insufficient in itself to ignite fire-damp, actual contact with flame being necessary for this purpose. Bearing this in mind, Spedding, the discoverer of the fact, invented what is known as the "steel-mill" for illuminating purposes. In this a toothed wheel was made to play upon a piece of steel, the sparks thus caused ...
— The Story of a Piece of Coal - What It Is, Whence It Comes, and Whither It Goes • Edward A. Martin
... to the water's edge with barrels of powder and other combustibles. In the midst of the inflammable matter was placed a clockwork mechanism which, on the withdrawal of a peg, would in a fixed time (within some ten minutes or thereabouts) ignite and ...
— The Mayor of Troy • Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
... on the west side of the pit from which to ignite the fuel, a torch lit by fire struck from wood by friction. I did not see the lighting, which occurred Friday morning, thirty-six hours before the ceremony. The ordinance was set for eight o'clock. I swam in the river at five on Saturday, and lay down ...
— Mystic Isles of the South Seas. • Frederick O'Brien
... and debris in the rear of the shed, and extricating with some difficulty a small tin match-box from his saturated clothes, he knelt before the pile and used all of his persuasive powers to induce it to ignite. ...
— Miss Mink's Soldier and Other Stories • Alice Hegan Rice
... and disagreeable form of mental disorder, But it is not the physician's business to sow disease, and any treatise on hysteria which is thrown into a captivating popular form, and makes hysteria look like an interesting and romantic thing, will spread the malady as surely as a spark will ignite gunpowder. This at least is not a mere matter of opinion, but of sound scientific fact, which no student of that disorder which Mr. Hardy has so masterfully handled will deny. In this respect, then, the book is a ...
— My Contemporaries In Fiction • David Christie Murray
... one or two failures to get the fuel to ignite, in spite of his pouring a lot of oil on it, so as to neutralise the effect of the damp, "I'll burn thet durned old kiver of my chest ez got busted t'other day in the fo'c's'le; fur it ain't no airthly good, ...
— The Island Treasure • John Conroy Hutcheson
... crackling at the bottom gave proof that the living embers underneath were taking effect. When satisfied of this, she put out her lamp, took up the furnace, and, though it was still hot from recent use, placed one hand over the draft, that the fire might not ignite too rapidly, and crept out of the cellar. Any person awake in the house, might have traced the dark progress of this woman by a faint crackle, and the sparks that shot now and then up through the black mass of coal, which was kindling so fast, that the ...
— Mabel's Mistake • Ann S. Stephens
... on experiments with the Leyden jar, made an electrical battery, killed a fowl and roasted it upon a spit turned by electricity, sent a current through water and found it still able to ignite alcohol, ignited gunpowder, and charged glasses of wine so that the drinkers received shocks. More important, perhaps, he began to develop the theory of the identity of lightning and electricity, and the possibility of protecting buildings by iron rods. ...
— The Age of Invention - A Chronicle of Mechanical Conquest, Book, 37 in The - Chronicles of America Series • Holland Thompson
... over," yelled Jenkins, running forward. The destroyer swung to the southward, showing her stern to the battle-ship, and increasing her speed as the engine-room staff nursed the oil feed and the turbines. Black smoke—unconsumed carbon that even the blowers could not ignite—belched up from the four short funnels, and partly hid ...
— The Wreck of the Titan - or, Futility • Morgan Robertson
... from one bank to the other. Bullets and shell fell like hail on the spot occupied by the Emperor. A shell struck the walls of a powder-magazine not far from him, and scattered the pieces around his head, but fortunately the powder did not ignite. A few moments after another shell fell between his Majesty and several Italians; they bent to avoid the explosion. The Emperor saw this movement, and laughingly said to them, "Ah, coglioni! non fa male." ["Ah, scamps! ...
— The Private Life of Napoleon Bonaparte, Complete • Constant
... collected a few things and laid them on a pile of shavings in the middle of the cabin, and the oil-lamp with which he was to ignite the ...
— Peter and Jane - or The Missing Heir • S. (Sarah) Macnaughtan
... serious disturbances had occurred during the day, especially in Yorkville, to which Acton was compelled to send a strong force. The mob also attempted to burn Harlem bridge, but the heavy rain of the night before had made it so wet that it would not ignite. Down town, likewise, mobs had assembled before the Western Hotel and other places, but were dispersed before they had inflicted any damage. Almost the last act in the evening was an attack on the house of Mr. Sinclair, one of the owners ...
— The Great Riots of New York 1712 to 1873 • J.T. Headley
... the mine, Ayrault brought out a pickaxe, two shovels, and the battery and wires with which to ignite the explosive. They made their preparations within one hundred feet of the Callisto, or much nearer than an equivalent amount of ...
— A Journey in Other Worlds - A Romance of the Future • John Jacob Astor
... pyres, built up of unsawed cord wood in cob style, raised to the height of four feet, the fire being applied to a small handful of specially combustible material at the bottom. The whole was so prepared as to ignite rapidly, and in a very few moments after the torch was applied to it, the pile was wreathed in the devouring element. The atmosphere was impregnated with offensive odors, and one was fain to get on the windward side of the smoking mass. ...
— Due West - or Round the World in Ten Months • Maturin Murray Ballou
... incased. In all parts of America, where this tree grows in plenty, it is employed for posts and fence-rails, as it is one of the most durable woods in existence. It is a great favourite also for kindling fires, as it catches quickly, and blazes up in a few seconds, so as to ignite the heavier logs of other timbers, such as the oak and ...
— Popular Adventure Tales • Mayne Reid
... by the simple experiment of placing flesh in spirits for a long time and then trying to burn it. Liebig and others found that flesh soaked in alcohol would burn only until the alcohol was consumed. That various substances ignite spontaneously is explained by chemic phenomena, the conditions of which do not exist in the human frame. Watkins in speaking of the inflammability of the human body remarks that on one occasion he tried to consume the body of a pirate given to him by a U. S. Marshal. He built ...
— Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine • George M. Gould
... the dreary prison-house, they attempted to kindle a fire. Their matches were wet and useless. Their flint-lock gun would give forth a spark, but without some dry material that would readily ignite, ...
— History of the Donner Party • C.F. McGlashan
... with face, hands, hair, and clothes singed and burnt, he made his way to the magazine, in time to tear away, and throw to a distance from the powder, the mass of paper in which the cartridges were packed, which was just about to ignite, and appearing at the window, with loud shouts for water, thus showed the possibility of penetrating to the magazine, and floods of water were at once directed to it, so as to drench the powder, and thus save ...
— A Book of Golden Deeds • Charlotte M. Yonge
... preparation should be kept hot by being suspended over a lamp, while dipping the wood or tapers. Colour the mixture by adding a little vermillion, lamp black or prussian blue; be careful not to ignite ...
— Young's Demonstrative Translation of Scientific Secrets • Daniel Young
... this way," Archie Graham explained to the young engineer of No. 999. "I was just watching a chance for washouts or snowstorms to get on a train diving into the danger. Those red bombs are my invention. I shoot them from a gun. I can send them a mile or gauge them to go fifty feet. They ignite when they drop, and by sending out a lot of them they are bound to land somewhere near the train you aim at. The engineer is bound to take notice, just as you did, of the glare, and that's where they beat the fusees and save the running ...
— Ralph on the Overland Express - The Trials and Triumphs of a Young Engineer • Allen Chapman
... the following very simple way of avoiding the disagreeable smoke and gas which always pours into the room when a fire is lit in a stove, heater, or fireplace on a damp day: Put in the wood and coal as usual; but before lighting them, ignite a handful of paper or shavings placed on top of the coal. This produces a current of hot air in the chimney, which draws up the smoke and gas ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 530, February 27, 1886 • Various
... charge as described above, in its original wrapper, shall be fired, each with 1 pound of clay tamping, at a gallery temperature of 77 F., into a mixture of gas and air containing 8 per cent. of methane and ethane. An explosive will pass this test if all ten shots fail to ignite ...
— Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers, vol. LXX, Dec. 1910 • Herbert M. Wilson
... not a union of the human gases with oxygen and other substances as they pass out of the excretory system. By what force do parts of the engine of life move? If by the motor power of electricity, how fast must the heart or life current run to ignite the gasolene of the body and set a person on fire and burn ...
— Philosophy of Osteopathy • Andrew T. Still
... that several tiers of lumber near the wharf would ignite from the flames sweeping from the barge. If one or two piles caught, the whole ...
— The Young Firemen of Lakeville - or, Herbert Dare's Pluck • Frank V. Webster
... incinerate, set fire to, brand, consume, flash, kindle, set on fire, cauterize, cremate, ignite, ...
— English Synonyms and Antonyms - With Notes on the Correct Use of Prepositions • James Champlin Fernald
... purified for the purpose. The process is this: Several fires, if possible originally lighted by some natural cause, such as lightning, are brought in vases. Over one of these fires is placed a flat perforated tray of metal on which small pieces of very dry sandal-wood are made to ignite by the mere action of the heat, but must not actually come in contact with the flame below. From this fire a third one is lighted in a similar manner, and nine times this operation is repeated, each successive fire being considered purer than its predecessor, and the result ...
— Across Coveted Lands - or a Journey from Flushing (Holland) to Calcutta Overland • Arnold Henry Savage Landor
... felt he knew not what; and, with a heart palpitating with the apprehension that his proffered service might be rejected (poor deluded mortal!), he begged he might assist her. With a glance that he thought sufficient to ignite the insensible carbon, she accepted his offer. Happy Matthew!—he grasped the handles her warm red-hands had touched!—Cold-blooded, unimaginative beings may deride his enthusiasm; but after all, the sentiment he experienced ...
— The Sketches of Seymour (Illustrated), Complete • Robert Seymour
... rather damp, and I had to strike a full half-dozen or more before I succeeded in persuading one to ignite, and while thus employed I was struck for the first time by the coincidence between the condition of affairs on the skipper's shelf and that in the cabin—every loose article had in each case found its way right over to starboard, as far as ...
— The Castaways • Harry Collingwood
... Beethoven. The music of Haydn and Mozart defers to its hearer. It seeks deliberately to enlist his activity. It relies for its significance largely upon his contribution. The music itself carries only a portion of the composer's intention. It carries only enough to ignite and set functioning the auditor's imagination. To that person is reserved the pleasure of fathoming the intention, of completing the idea adumbrated by the composer. For Haydn and Mozart did not desire that the listener assume a completely passive attitude. They had too ...
— Musical Portraits - Interpretations of Twenty Modern Composers • Paul Rosenfeld
... meerschaum and a corps of friends equally well piped. If the seceders have no time to ignite the weed, we are quite ready, and a great deal more willing, considering the late frightful rise in Lynchburg, to do it for them. I can answer for burning one pound a day myself. What do you think of it? It isn't traitorous in me, is it, ...
— Continental Monthly, Vol. I., No. IV., April, 1862 - Devoted To Literature And National Policy • Various
... England and is frequently named by early authors.[50] Tobacco when prepared for use was made into long rolls or large balls which often answered for the tobacconist's sign. What we now call cut tobacco was not as popular then as roll. Smokers carried a roll of tobacco, a knife and tinder to ignite their tobacco. At the close of the Sixteenth Century tobacco was introduced into the East. In Persia and Turkey where at first its use was opposed by the most cruel torture it gained at length the sanction and approval of even the Sultan himself. Pallas gives the following ...
— Tobacco; Its History, Varieties, Culture, Manufacture and Commerce • E. R. Billings
... appear frequently to be needed by persons anxious to come to God and unable to discover the manner of achieving it, would seem to be supplied by this contagion, as though a human spark were often wanted to ignite the spark in another, which done, the Divine Fire springs up and rapidly grows ...
— The Romance of the Soul • Lilian Staveley
... geese, the languishing cooing of doves, the braying of donkeys, the chatter of irresponsible sparrows—these were in my mind's ear as I read. "Suffering Sappho!" I exclaimed to myself. "Is this the divine fire that is supposed to ignite genius and make it practical ...
— The Voice of the City • O. Henry
... slow burning of iron. It develops heat, and, if the heat be preserved, a high temperature may be thus attained. The destruction of the first Atlantic cable was probably due to heat developed in this way. Other metals are still more combustible than iron. You may ignite strips of zinc in a candle flame, and cause them to burn almost like strips of paper. But we must now expand our definition of combustion, and include under this term, not only combustion in air, but ...
— Six Lectures on Light - Delivered In The United States In 1872-1873 • John Tyndall
... with nervous excitement, he knelt beside the farther end of the fuse, and with trembling hands attempted to ignite it by a spark struck from flint and steel. Again and again the spark flew aside, but at length there came a slight flash ...
— At War with Pontiac - The Totem of the Bear • Kirk Munroe and J. Finnemore
... meeting could not be pronounced a success. Crowds were there, and the people were waiting to be caught on fire; but the right spark had not been struck. It only wanted a little to rouse the whole audience to white heat; the train was laid, the powder was set, but no one seemed able to ignite the match. People looked at one another doubtfully. The youths who had been expected to enlist remained cold and almost jeeringly critical. Then the Admiral ...
— All for a Scrap of Paper - A Romance of the Present War • Joseph Hocking
... geared wheels fitting together, a lever or two. My man twists a handle. On the instant the machine leaps into frenzied life. The carburetter sprays its vapour into the explosion chamber, the magnet flashes its sparks to ignite it, the cooling water bathes the hot walls of the cylinders—a thing of nerves, and ganglions, and tireless muscles is panting eagerly at your service. You move this lever, you press your foot lightly on this pedal; the engine transfers its power to the wheels; you move. The carriage with ...
— The Princess Passes • Alice Muriel Williamson and Charles Norris Williamson
... Remove the tube cultivation from its rack or jar with the left hand and ignite the cotton-wool plug by holding it to the flame of the Bunsen burner. Extinguish the flame by blowing on the plug, whilst rotating the tube on its long axis, its mouth directed vertically upward, between the thumb and fingers. (This operation is termed "flaming the ...
— The Elements of Bacteriological Technique • John William Henry Eyre
... the house is enchanted," cried Bob; "d—— me, I never seem to step without being on a barrel of gunpowder, ready to ignite with the touch of my foot. I have made some cursed blunder again, and don't seem to know where ...
— Real Life In London, Volumes I. and II. • Pierce Egan
... nodded approvingly. He did understand that metaphor. A burning match will not ignite pure wool; threads ...
— All-Wool Morrison • Holman Day
... most earnestly the work of a poor, unlettered, but gigantic brother in the ministry. Surely there is water enough connected with that controversy to quench any unholy fire that differences of opinion might ignite. George Cokayn appears to have possessed much a kindred spirit with John Bunyan. Some of his expressions are remarkably Bunyanish. Thus, when speaking of the jailor, 'who was a most barbarous, hard-hearted wretch; yet, when God came to deal with him, he was soon tamed, and his heart ...
— The Works of John Bunyan • John Bunyan
... cylinder or of the piston shield are provided electrodes which give an electric spark, or a platinum wire which is rendered incandescent by a current from an inductor or other source of electricity to ignite the combustible charge of the cylinder. After the engine has been for some time at work, the heat at the upper part of the cylinder may suffice for effecting ignition without provision of other means for ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 324, March 18, 1882 • Various
... the existence of particular aerial fluids in the inaccessible regions of luminous meteors, of falling-stars, bolides, and the Aurora Borealis; how can we conceive why the whole stratum of those fluids does not at once ignite, but that the gaseous emanations, like the clouds, occupy only limited spaces? How can we suppose an electrical explosion without some vapours collected together, capable of containing unequal charges of electricity, in ...
— Equinoctial Regions of America • Alexander von Humboldt
... if he had a friend—one he could trust—who would steal in there some night while the family were away, and scratch a match on the leg of his breeches, or on the breeches of any other gentleman who happened to be present, and hold it where it would ignite the alleged house, and then remain near there to see that the fire department did not meddle with it, he would confer a great favor on one who would cheerfully ...
— Remarks • Bill Nye
... of acetylene is lower than that of coal gas, being about 900 degrees Fahrenheit as against eleven hundred degrees for coal gas. The gas issuing from a torch will ignite if allowed to play on the tip ...
— Oxy-Acetylene Welding and Cutting • Harold P. Manly
... twenty-four hours to get the seven fires up after cleaning. Here is another method for consuming the smoke, but is a very wasteful one; four or five shovelfuls of small smoky coals are thrown on or near the dead-plate, where they remain until they become sufficiently heated to ignite, and are then pushed on to the bars by the rake, and a similar quantity again thrown on the dead-plate, and when ignited pushed on to the bars as before, and so it is continued. It is expected ...
— The Stoker's Catechism • W. J. Connor
... show me a place that the black bear is using," Paul continued, "I'll fix my camera in such a way that when Bruin pulls at a bait attached to a cord he'll ignite the flashlight cartridge, and take ...
— The Banner Boy Scouts Snowbound - A Tour on Skates and Iceboats • George A. Warren
... fire, v. ignite, kindle; (Slang) discharge, dismiss; inflame, irritate, arouse, excite, incite; animate, quicken, vitalize, enthuse, inspirit; ...
— Putnam's Word Book • Louis A. Flemming
... be no question about Des Esseintes' choice, but unquestionable difficulties still arose. If red and yellow are heightened by light, the same does not always hold true of their compound, orange, which often seems to ignite and turns to nasturtium, to ...
— Against The Grain • Joris-Karl Huysmans
... night the sea is as tetchy as petrol. Trailing fingers are terminals which ignite living flames, and the propeller of the little boat creates an avengeful commotion of light which trails far astern. Blobs of light are cast off from her bows as she rounds the familiar sandspit and ...
— Tropic Days • E. J. Banfield
... word his career incarnated had become indispensable to the English tongue—the apotheosis of humbug; Marmontel, dear to our novitiate as royal leaders; and near to the original Pamela; Chateaubriand's ancestor the Marshal; Bisson going below to ignite the magazine, rather than "give up the ship;" and the battered war dog, with a single eye and leg, beneath whose fragmentary portrait is inscribed that Mars left him ...
— Gifts of Genius - A Miscellany of Prose and Poetry by American Authors • Various
... as directed under 9, or the total ash obtained as directed under 7, with 25 cc. of 10-percent hydrochloric acid (sp. gr. 1.050) for 5 minutes, collect the insoluble matter on a Gooch crucible or an ashless filter, wash with hot water, ignite and weigh. ...
— All About Coffee • William H. Ukers
... should have no difficulty in making them myself in large numbers, if it were necessary. Most contain a tiny dry battery, which sends a current along a bell or copper wire at the running-down moment, the clocks being contrived to be set for so many days, hours, and minutes, while others ignite by striking. I arranged in rows in the covered van those which I had prepared, and passed the night in an inn near the Barracks. I had brought candle-sticks from London in the morning, and arranged the furniture—a settee, chest-of-drawers, basin-stand, table, and a number of chairs—in three-quarter-circle ...
— The Purple Cloud • M.P. Shiel
... until they catch on fire. Just when the conflagration threatens to become general she stops using the polisher and proceeds to cool down the ruins by gently burnishing your nails against the soft, pink palm of her hand. You like this better than the other way. You could ignite yourself by friction almost any time, if you got hold of the right kind of a chamois skin rubber, but this is quite different and highly soothing. You are beginning to really enjoy the sensation when she roguishly pats the back of your hand—pitty pat—as a signal ...
— Cobb's Anatomy • Irvin S. Cobb
... pocket knife, or an old file with a fragment of flint, quartz, or pyrites struck smartly together over the remains of a burnt piece of calico, will in deft hands produce a spark which can be fanned to a glow, and so ignite other material, till ...
— Getting Gold • J. C. F. Johnson
... meteorites of Dhurmsalla could have fallen with no great velocity, but the sound from them was tremendous. The soft substance that fell at the Cape of Good Hope was carbonaceous, but was unburned, or had fallen with velocity insufficient to ignite it. The tremendous report that it made was heard over an area more than ...
— The Book of the Damned • Charles Fort
... o'er the parching flame there glows A flame, which may from some chance cause ignite, (All while the whistling, puffing Boreas blows), Fanned by the wind sets all the growth alight, The shepherd's group, lying in their repose Of quiet sleep, aroused in wild afright At crackling flames that spread both wide and high, Gather their goods and ...
— The Development of the Feeling for Nature in the Middle Ages and - Modern Times • Alfred Biese
... the man, "I'll putty up the leak and you see if you kin swab out the boat. I wouldn't dare try and ignite her again with so much ...
— Wyn's Camping Days - or, The Outing of the Go-Ahead Club • Amy Bell Marlowe
... face, and cannot escape from its charm. It is then that we begin to understand the attitude of Goethe, and Talleyrand, and Pitt, and Sir Robert Peel, who saved themselves from being consumed by resolutely refusing to ignite. "It is folly," observed Goethe, "to expect that other men will consent to believe as we do"; and, having reconciled himself to this elemental obstinacy of the human heart, it no longer troubled ...
— Americans and Others • Agnes Repplier
... his eager hand, and pressed on without uttering a syllable. Never shall I forget the expression of his countenance as he received the casket. The fierce, wild, exulting flash of his dark sunken eye, whose reddish blackness seemed suddenly to ignite and burn like heated iron. There was something demoniac in its glare, and it haunted me in my dreams ...
— Ernest Linwood - or, The Inner Life of the Author • Caroline Lee Hentz
... the place, and showing that the Afghans were manning them in expectation of an escalade. All this time the British engineers were quietly piling their powder-bags at the Cabul gate. It was a work that required great courage, and it was done well; but at first the powder failed to ignite, and Lieutenant Durand was obliged to scrape the hose with his finger-nails. Again the port-fire was applied. The powder exploded. The noise of the explosion was almost overpowered by the roaring of the guns and the rushing ...
— Our Soldiers - Gallant Deeds of the British Army during Victoria's Reign • W.H.G. Kingston
... man may be a good mechanic, may have even built locomotives, and yet, if he is not a good "shovel-man," if he does not know how to manage his fire, he will never rise to distinction in his profession. The great secret is to build the fire so that the whole mass of fuel will ignite and burn freely without the use of the blower, and so bring the engine to the train with a fire that will last. When we see an engine blowing off steam furiously at the beginning of the trip, we must not be surprised if the train reaches the first station behind time, since it indicates ...
— Captains of Industry - or, Men of Business Who Did Something Besides Making Money • James Parton
... was not on fire; but it might have been. She had left on the table at the foot of Chirac's bed a small cooking-lamp, and a saucepan of bouillon. All that Chirac had to do was to ignite the lamp and put the saucepan on it. He had ignited the lamp, having previously raised the double wicks, and had then dropped into the chair by the table just as he was, and sunk forward and gone to sleep with his head lying sideways on the table. He had not put the saucepan on the lamp; he had ...
— The Old Wives' Tale • Arnold Bennett
... condition of things, and conjured us both to entire quiet and composure, and, if possible, to absolute silence. The safety of five hundred people, he said, depended on our discretion; the ship might not ignite for days, if at all, he thought, so carefully had the air been excluded from the cotton by the process of tight calking, so as to seal it almost hermetically; indeed, the fire might be wholly extinguished by the pumps, which were constantly at ...
— Miriam Monfort - A Novel • Catherine A. Warfield
... lady had enlisted the mutual sympathy of these young people; she had laid, so to speak, a match; whether a mutual liking would ignite it or not was uncertain—but the prospect ...
— The Road to Mandalay - A Tale of Burma • B. M. Croker
... entrance without heavier implements than those they had in their possession. On ascertaining that this was not practicable, they began to fire at the roof of the dwelling-house, and at those of the out-offices, with the hope that some portion of the wadding, when lighted, might ignite them. In this, after repeated attempts and failures, they were ultimately successful. A cow-house that stood detached from the other buildings, and, in point of proximity, nearest the gate, at length caught the flame, and in a few minutes began to ...
— The Tithe-Proctor - The Works of William Carleton, Volume Two • William Carleton
... a comparatively pure state is difficult to ignite, owing to its great resistance to heat. At about 7,000 degrees it will fuse, and pass into a vapor which causes the ...
— Electricity for Boys • J. S. Zerbe
... on a small scale is to fill a tin—which must have folded, not soldered, joints—with small coal, punch a hole in the bottom, and place it lid downwards in the fire. Gas soon begins to issue, but, owing to the quantity of moisture and impurities present, it will not ignite until some minutes have elapsed. The flame, when it does make its appearance, is very smoky and gives little light, because, in addition to the coal gas of commerce, there are present ammonia gas, sulphuretted hydrogen, ...
— Things To Make • Archibald Williams
... with the oven-fork, breaking it open, and Yanson ran away into the fields. He was caught an hour later, kneeling down behind the corner of the barn, striking one match after another, which would not ignite, in an attempt to ...
— The Seven who were Hanged • Leonid Andreyev
... are so damp that it will probably take some time to ignite them, and there's no use waiting to see that," he muttered. "I will be well on my way to the railway station ...
— Mischievous Maid Faynie • Laura Jean Libbey
... mother was out and Betty and Tony had gone for a drive with Dr. Yearsley, Anna betook herself to the garden with some of her most loathed garments under her arm, and a box of matches in her pocket. A bonfire on a summer's day is easy to ignite, and there was just sufficient breeze to fan the flame to active life, so Anna was in the midst of her work of destruction almost before she realized it. But, while waiting for her mother to depart, Anna had forgotten that the time was hurrying on towards Betty's and Tony's return. In fact, ...
— Kitty Trenire • Mabel Quiller-Couch
... in my mountain region, when I suddenly discovered that shale existed in very considerable quantities, and I thereupon conceived the idea of demonstrating to the blacks that, not only was the Bible narrative a true one, but that it was quite possible to ignite stone; and I would even show them how it ...
— The Adventures of Louis de Rougemont - as told by Himself • Louis de Rougemont
... things—such as boxes and bales—and the fire has not yet been able to get at it? I knew that a barrel of powder, even when thrown into the midst of a red-hot fire, takes a considerable time to explode. An intense heat must be generated in the wood before the powder inside will ignite; and, for this reason, the barrel must be a good while exposed to the fire. Perhaps the flames had not yet reached it? Was this the reason why the ...
— Ran Away to Sea • Mayne Reid
... perhaps the outside tubes were filled with spirits of turpentine. When it is placed in position, it is so arranged that the acid in the center tube is uppermost and will thus gradually soak through the cotton wool and cause great heat and an explosion by contact with the potash. That would ignite the powder in the next tubes, and that would scatter the blazing turpentine, causing a terrific explosion and a widespread fire. With an imperative idea of vengeance, such as that manuscript discloses, either for his own wrongs as an artist or for the fancied ...
— The Dream Doctor • Arthur B. Reeve
... doubt, on the beach," said he, "but they are of no use at all without a steel. However, we must try." So saying, he went to the beach, and soon returned with two flints. On one of these he placed the tinder, and endeavoured to ignite it; but it was with great difficulty that a very small spark was struck out of the flints, and the tinder, being a bad, hard piece, would not catch. He then tried the bit of hoop iron, which would not strike fire at all; ...
— The Coral Island - A Tale Of The Pacific Ocean • R. M. Ballantyne
... of rubbing two pieces of dry wood together, producing fire by friction. This could be accomplished by persistent friction of two ordinary pieces of dry wood, or by drilling a hole in a dry piece of wood with a pointed stick until heat was developed and a spark produced to ignite pieces of dry bark or grass. Another way was to make a groove in a block of wood and run the end of a stick rapidly back and forth through the groove. An invention called the fire-drill was simply a method of twirling rapidly in the hand a wooden drill which was in contact with dry wood, ...
— History of Human Society • Frank W. Blackmar
... course of this lecture on electricity, during which some of the well-known manifestations of electricity were being shown, it occurred to Ludolff to attempt to ignite some inflammable fluid by projecting an electric spark upon its surface with a glass rod. This idea was suggested to him while performing the familiar experiment of producing a spark on the surface of a bowl of water by touching it with a charged glass rod. He announced to his audience the ...
— A History of Science, Volume 2(of 5) • Henry Smith Williams
... permitted the sputtering flame to ignite the paper, and thoughtfully watched the blaze destroy it. The last tiny scrap dropped on the floor, burned out, and he crushed the ashes under his heel. Then he ...
— Elusive Isabel • Jacques Futrelle
... pardon me, sir," began a resonant voice, which I instantly remembered, even before the short, square figure stepped over the threshold into the full light, "but I have just discovered that I have no match with which to ignite my gas. If I ...
— The Holladay Case - A Tale • Burton E. Stevenson
... that fire, that's certain," thought the young hunter, and he made haste to use his tinder-box. But grass and bushes were too wet to ignite, and in a few minutes he had to give ...
— On the Trail of Pontiac • Edward Stratemeyer
... is best treated in exactly the same way as a residuum in water analysis. It is a common thing to ignite the residuum, and to put the loss down, if any, to water. This ought not to satisfy an accurate observer, since organic matter, carbonates—especially in presence of silica—will easily add to the loss. The best plan is to heat a small portion very cautiously, and note ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 623, December 10, 1887 • Various
... the guns, the "flaming onions,"—i.e., strings of phosphorus balls shot up to light the sky and to ignite any inflammable substance with which they come in contact,—and the black puffs of smoke from the bursting shells add a weird and startling brilliancy to the surroundings. No matter how many times a man may ...
— Night Bombing with the Bedouins • Robert Henry Reece
... Admiral (Lord Nelson), as to the origin of the fire, we might adduce many instances of ships in the cotton trade having been on fire in the hold during a great part of their voyage from China, owing to the cargo having been wet when compressed into the ship. Hemp has been known to ignite from the same cause; and the dockyard of Brest was set on fire by this means in 1757. New painted canvas or tarpaulin, laid by before it is completely dry, will take fire; and two Russian frigates were ...
— Narratives of Shipwrecks of the Royal Navy; between 1793 and 1849 • William O. S. Gilly
... more brittle, and breaks with a cubical or conchoidal fracture. It is higher in fixed carbon, lower in volatile matter and water. A variety of bituminous coal, called cannel coal, is characterized by an unusually high percentage of volatile matter, which causes it to ignite easily. This material has a dull luster and a conchoidal fracture. It is composed almost entirely of the spores and spore cases, which are resinous or waxy products, of such plants as lived ...
— The Economic Aspect of Geology • C. K. Leith
... room to see if everything was in order: this room was full of barrels of powder, and a fuse ready prepared wanted but a spark to set the whole on fire. Bothwell withdrew, then, to the end of the garden with Balfour, David, Chambers, and three or four others, leaving one man to ignite the fuse. In a moment this man ...
— CELEBRATED CRIMES, COMPLETE - MARY STUART—1587 • ALEXANDRE DUMAS, PERE
... larch, known only to the people of the towns on the banks of the river Po and the shores of the Adriatic, is not only preserved from decay and the worm by the great bitterness of its sap, but also it cannot be kindled with fire nor ignite of itself, unless like stone in a limekiln it is burned with other wood. And even then it does not take fire nor produce burning coals, but after a long time it slowly consumes away. This is because there is a very small proportion of the elements ...
— Ten Books on Architecture • Vitruvius
... gunpowder in a fireproof building. Only a few days ago several native huts had been burnt; such an accident might endanger our station, therefore I should construct an earthen roof over a building of strong palisades. I explained that should the whole of the ammunition explode, it might ignite ...
— Ismailia • Samuel W. Baker
... on a far errand: Grune is another: Rutowski's Saxon Camp (now become Cantonment) is a third. Three Currents instinct with fire and destruction, but as yet quite opaque; which have been launched,—whitherward thinks the reader? On Berlin itself, and the Mark of Brandenburg; there to collide, and ignite in a marvellous manner. There is their meeting-point: there shall they, on a sudden, smite one another into flame; and the destruction blaze, fiery enough, round Friedrich and his own ...
— History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Vol. XV. (of XXI.) • Thomas Carlyle
... transformed nebulous and floating ideals and imaginings into hope and resolution, that burned away barriers and revealed truth. By its very nature influence is determined as much by the receiver as by the inspirer, and if a light is applied to a torch, the torch, too, must be prepared to ignite, or ...
— The Brownings - Their Life and Art • Lilian Whiting |
