Ignis mutat res. Fire transforms matter; fire leads to chemical reactions, to processes such as melting and evaporation. Fire makes fuel burn and release heat. Out of all this common knowledge, nineteenth century science concentrated on the single fact that combustion produces heat and that heat may lead to an increase in volume; as a result, combustion produces work. Fire leads, therefore, to a new kind of machine, the heat engine, the technological innovation on which industrial society has...
