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phlogistonmore about phlogiston

phlogiston


  1  definition  found 
 
  From  Webster's  Revised  Unabridged  Dictionary  (1913)  [web1913]: 
 
  Phlogiston  \Phlo*gis"ton\,  n.  [NL.,  fr  Gr  ?  burnt,  set  on 
  fire,  fr  ?  to  set  on  fire,  to  burn,  fr  ?,  ?,  a  flame, 
  blaze.  See  {Phlox}.]  (Old  Chem.) 
  The  hypothetical  principle  of  fire,  or  inflammability, 
  regarded  by  Stahl  as  a  chemical  element. 
 
  Note:  This  was  supposed  to  be  united  with  combustible 
  (phlogisticated)  bodies  and  to  be  separated  from 
  incombustible  (dephlogisticated)  bodies,  the  phenomena 
  of  flame  and  burning  being  the  escape  of  phlogiston. 
  Soot  and  sulphur  were  regarded  as  nearly  pure 
  phlogiston.  The  essential  principle  of  this  theory  was 
  that  combustion  was  a  decomposition  rather  than  the 
  union  and  combination  which  it  has  since  been  shown  to 
  be 




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