"Ignite" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... 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 of fire and air in its composition, ...
— Ten Books on Architecture • Vitruvius
... 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 coiled half on ...
— The River of Darkness - Under Africa • William Murray Graydon
... 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 that the smoke while passing over the bright fire towards the bridge will be ignited, but only a very ...
— The Stoker's Catechism • W. J. Connor
... deity, Pales presides over husbandry and the fruitfulness of herds. Her festivals, the Palilia, were celebrated on the 21st of April, the day on which the city of Rome was founded. During this festival it was customary for shepherds to ignite a mass of straw, through which they rushed with their flocks, believing that this ordeal ...
— Myths and Legends of Ancient Greece and Rome • E.M. Berens
... 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 ...
— Things To Make • Archibald Williams
... him in their native burg, he was attached to her when she was no more than a kiddie. Then, when they grew up, he came East and she went abroad, and they lost sight of each other. But, as I say, that one glimpse of her was enough to ignite the old flame. You must have seen yourself how frankly, openly he showed his ...
— Martha By-the-Day • Julie M. Lippmann
... too, that by some miracle the cannon could not be got to fire on the town. They say it was loaded and ready, but that the powder would not ignite when the torch was put to it," said ...
— La Vendee • Anthony Trollope
... desire toiling up the well-stair, he 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 was similar to, ...
— The Sketches of Seymour (Illustrated), Complete • Robert Seymour
... itself to me at all. The box evidently contained some curious mechanism. It might be more curious than comfortable. Possibly some agreeable little device in clockwork. The tick, tick, tick suggested clockwork which had been planned to go a certain time, and then—then, for all I knew, ignite an explosive, and—blow up. It would be a charming solution to the puzzle if it were to explode while I stood there, in my nightshirt, looking on. It is true that the box weighed very little. Probably, as I have said, the whole affair ...
— The Lock And Key Library - Classic Mystery And Detective Stories, Modern English • Various
... 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 • Alexandre Dumas, Pere
... the mail train especially stated 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 ...
— Railway Adventures and Anecdotes - extending over more than fifty years • Various
... 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 in the parent ...
— The Economic Aspect of Geology • C. K. Leith
... damp matches before they could get flame enough to ignite the whisk stick which Tom held ready, but when they succeeded they "commandeered" the broken door as a "warr measurre," to quote Archer, and kindled a fire just inside the doorway where they believed that the smoke, mingling with the mist, would not be ...
— Tom Slade with the Boys Over There • Percy K. Fitzhugh
... blow it away as fast as it is produced, this gas may be ignited by a match, when the plant is growing in the open air. But this is very seldom the case, for the air must be very quiet, and the plant very productive, for enough gas to be found around it to ignite when a ...
— Round-about Rambles in Lands of Fact and Fancy • Frank Richard Stockton
... 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. ...
— Theocritus • Theocritus
... very beautiful; and, like all her country-women, was ardent in her affections. The few days that she was on board the schooner with her father, during the time that the Enterprise convoyed the Spanish vessel into port, were quite sufficient to ignite two such inflammable beings as Clara d'Alfarez and Edward Templemore. The monk had been left on board of the leaky vessel; there was no accommodation in the schooner for him or the duenna, and Don Felix de Maxos de Cobas de ...
— The Pirate and The Three Cutters • Frederick Marryat
... in the open air, on a windy day. The convenience of lucifers in obtaining a light is very great, but they have two disadvantages: they require that the air should be perfectly still, while the burning sulphur is struggling to ignite the stick; and, again, when the match is thrust among the wood, the sticks upon which is has to act, have not been previously warmed and consequently, though one or two of them may become lighted, the further progress of the fire ...
— The Art of Travel - Shifts and Contrivances Available in Wild Countries • Francis Galton
... 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 ...
— Reminiscences of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey • Joseph Cottle
... no 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; and after that the ...
— The Coral Island - A Tale Of The Pacific Ocean • R. M. Ballantyne
... upon the 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. The Ghat was open to the sky, so that the ventilation was ...
— Due West - or Round the World in Ten Months • Maturin Murray Ballou
... 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 by ...
— Mischievous Maid Faynie • Laura Jean Libbey
... after having given a final coat of marble colour to our pasteboard productions. I am about to tumble into my hammock, when my progress is arrested by a strange sound which seems to emanate from an adjoining chamber. I re-ignite my extinguished lamp, and take a peep into the studio. Something is certainly moving in that apartment. I summon my companion, who joins me, and we enter ...
— The Pearl of the Antilles, or An Artist in Cuba • Walter Goodman
... breathed a cautious prolonged sigh of relief "You'd better light a fresh one, hadn't you?" he asked, observing with a kind of contemptuous tolerance the old man's efforts to ignite a cigar which had more than once unrolled like a carpenter's shaving in his unaccustomed fingers, and was now shapelessly defiant of both draught and suction. Tavender laughed to himself silently as he took a new cigar, and puffed ...
— The Market-Place • Harold Frederic
... 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 ...
— The Rhodesian • Gertrude Page
... and is banished and beggared and his kith and kin with him. The holy man is harboured by our good Cistercian brothers of Pontigny, where he makes hay and reaps and see visions. He is hounded thence. These things ignite wars, and thereout come conferences. Thomas will not compromise, and even Louis fretfully docks his alimony and sends him dish in hand to beg; but he, great soul, is instant in excommunication, whereafter come renewed brawls, fresh (depraved) ...
— Hugh, Bishop of Lincoln - A Short Story of One of the Makers of Mediaeval England • Charles L. Marson
... 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 ...
— Heart of the Sunset • Rex Beach
... 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 ...
— Tobacco; Its History, Varieties, Culture, Manufacture and Commerce • E. R. Billings
... 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 ...
— Across Coveted Lands - or a Journey from Flushing (Holland) to Calcutta Overland • Arnold Henry Savage Landor
... 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 animals around ...
— Scouting For Girls, Official Handbook of the Girl Scouts • Girl Scouts
... nitric acid; 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
... gloom on Jimmie's freckled face, because it had been his fault: "But we won't worry about it. If it comes to it I believe I know how to make a fire without matches. I've seen an Indian do it, and even succeeded myself once with a bow, a pointed stick and some tinder to ignite. Besides, long before a dozen days we expect to be out ...
— Motor Boat Boys Mississippi Cruise - or, The Dash for Dixie • Louis Arundel
... loosely enough to permit currents of air to pass through it, because it will not burn readily if it is closely packed. Light the fire by inserting a flame from below. When this is done, the flame will rise and ignite the kindling, and this, in turn, will cause the coal to take fire. When the fire is burning well, close the dampers g and i so that the fuel will not burn too rapidly and the heat will surround the oven instead of passing up the chimney; also, before too much of the first supply ...
— Woman's Institute Library of Cookery, Vol. 1 - Volume 1: Essentials of Cookery; Cereals; Bread; Hot Breads • Woman's Institute of Domestic Arts and Sciences
... the sentiments therein expressed, and I trust that our Government will respond unhesitatingly to the proposition in behalf of humanity and civilization. The use in warfare of explosive balls, so sensitive as to ignite and burst on striking a substance as soft and yielding as animal flesh (of men or horses), I consider barbarous and no more to be tolerated by civilized nations than the universally reprobated practice of using poisoned missiles, ...
— A Refutation of the Charges Made against the Confederate States of America of Having Authorized the Use of Explosive and Poisoned Musket and Rifle Balls during the Late Civil War of 1861-65 • Horace Edwin Hayden
... identa. Identify identigi. Idiocy idioteco. Idiom (a peculiar expression) idiotismo. Idiom (general sense) idiomo. Idiot idiotulo. Idle senokupa. Idleness senokupeco. Idol idolo. Idolatry idolservado. Idolize amegi, adori. If se. Ignis fatuus erarlumo. Ignite ekbruligi. Ignoble malnobla. Ignominy malnobleco. Ignorance nescio. Ignorant of, to be nescii. Ignorant malklera. Ignore neobservi. Ill malbono. Ill malbone. Ill, to be malsani. Ill-bred maledukita. Illegal mallegxa. Illegible nelegebla. Illegitimate nelauxlegxa. ...
— English-Esperanto Dictionary • John Charles O'Connor and Charles Frederic Hayes
... been found very reliable, and capable of acting as often as 400 times per minute, which the Otto ignite is quite incapable of doing. By this cycle the advantages of compression are gained and one step nearer to the steam engine is attained, that is, an impulse is given for every revolution ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 484, April 11, 1885 • Various
... dashed forward, with eyes shut, through the midst, and 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 ...
— A Book of Golden Deeds • Charlotte M. Yonge
... 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 ...
— The Voice of the City • O. Henry
... of which the wall could have been undermined, if I had been furnished with proper workmen." But all his efforts, in both these schemes, proved ineffectual. The red hot balls lodging in the solid timbers of the roof, only charred, and did not ignite the beams; and falling down, were caught up in iron ladles brought out of the Duke of Atholl's kitchen, and thrown into water. Disappointed in this attempt, Lord George removed his few field-pieces to a nearer position on the south side of the Castle, where, however, ...
— Memoirs of the Jacobites of 1715 and 1745 - Volume III. • Mrs. Thomson
... tested the probability of the achievement of Archimedes in setting fire to the ships of Marcellus with mirrors and the sun's rays. He constructed a composite mirror of a hundred and twenty- eight plane mirrors, and with it he was able to ignite wood at two hundred and ten feet. However, I shrewdly suspect that, even if this story is true, they are using hydrogen or acetylene flares over there. But none of these things would be feasible in your case. You'd ...
— The Treasure-Train • Arthur B. Reeve
... 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 ...
— Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine • George M. Gould
... 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 centre of infection, ...
— My Contemporaries In Fiction • David Christie Murray
... than unburnt wood, William laid them in order for burning, in a position as free from water as he could find; and after stripping the flakey bark off some tea trees (the inner part of which is generally dry and exceedingly inflammable), he speedily managed, as only bushmen can, to ignite a fire; and had it in a cheerful blaze, as the rain subsided and the occupant of the hut made his appearance. Somewhat refreshed by the genial warmth of the fire, and the prospect of having some tea and something to eat, William soon forgot his fatigue and late dangers; ...
— Fern Vale (Volume 1) - or the Queensland Squatter • Colin Munro
... Bearwarden prepared 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 gunpowder could ...
— A Journey in Other Worlds - A Romance of the Future • John Jacob Astor
... 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 ...
— Young Folks Treasury, Volume 3 (of 12) - Classic Tales And Old-Fashioned Stories • Various
... 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 began ...
— Elusive Isabel • Jacques Futrelle
... "There's a dollar, Regan. Try Scotch for a change. It's better for you than these cheap blends. And don't breathe toward a lamp, or you'll ignite." ...
— The Auction Block • Rex Beach
... last in an incredible manner he destroyed the whole Roman fleet by conflagration. By tilting a kind of mirror toward the sun he concentrated the sun's beams on it; and as the thickness and smoothness of the mirror cooeperated to ignite the air from these beams he kindled a great flame, all of which he directed upon the ships that lay at anchor in the path of the fire, and he consumed them all. Marcellus, therefore, despairing of capturing the city on account of the inventiveness of Archimedes ...
— Dio's Rome, Volume 1 (of 6) • Cassius Dio
... flame; a glow of light held at arm's length by the recreant follower of Destiny illuminating a tableau which shall end the ignominious chronicle—a maid with unkissed, curling, contemptuous lips slowly lifting the lamp chimney and allowing the wick to ignite; then waving a scornful and abjuring hand toward the staircase—the unhappy Tansey, erstwhile champion in the prophetic lists of fortune, ingloriously ascending to his just and certain doom, while (let us imagine) half within the wings stands the imminent figure of Fate jerking wildly ...
— Roads of Destiny • O. Henry
... furniture and valuables to the amount of two hundred thousand crowns were destroyed, and lighted torches were applied to the costly hangings of the apartments, which soon caused the carved and gilded woodwork to ignite; while a portion of the mob at the same time attacked the house of Corbinelli his secretary; and soon the two residences presented only a mass of bare and blackened walls. M. de Liancourt, the ...
— The Life of Marie de Medicis, Vol. 2 (of 3) • Julia Pardoe
... 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, it was ...
— History of the Donner Party • C.F. McGlashan
... had lighted my fire was not one at which I wished to camp, but once having a fire, I could carry a burning brand and ignite another in some more convenient situation. I was not long in selecting a spot close under a rock, where I soon had a fire blazing up. I thus had warmth, although I was still destitute of wholesome food; and, indeed, ...
— In the Rocky Mountains - A Tale of Adventure • W. H. G. Kingston
... shells. One shell fell into the garden, making a hole six feet deep; the next crashed through a house on the opposite side of the road and set it on fire. The danger was two-fold, for we knew our hospital, which was a cardboard sort of thing, would ignite like matchwood, and if it fell we should not be able to get out of the cellars. Some people on our staff were much against our making use of a cellar at all for this reason. I myself felt it was the safest place, and as long as we ...
— My War Experiences in Two Continents • Sarah Macnaughtan
... to be 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 it could go! What did that point ...
— The Castaways • Harry Collingwood
... 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
... 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
... 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 ...
— Nature Cure • Henry Lindlahr
... before the 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
... two or three times. Twist more sheets of paper into loose ropes and place them around the base of the candle. When the candle flame reaches the encircling strip, it will be ignited and in turn will ignite the surrounding paper. The size, heat, and duration of the resulting flame will depend on how much paper you use and how much of it you can ...
— Simple Sabotage Field Manual • Strategic Services
... and moreover the amount of composition to burn a stipulated time could not easily be gauged. The shell was, therefore, fitted with a hollow forged iron or copper plug, filled with slow-burning powder. It was impossible to ignite with certainty this primitive fuze simply by firing the gun; the fuze was consequently first ignited and the gun fired immediately afterwards. This entailed the use of a mortar or a very short piece, so that the fuze could be easily reached from the muzzle ...
— Project Gutenberg Encyclopedia
... ranchers reached the scene of the grass fire toward which they were riding, they caught the smell of the burning fodder. That it was only grass which was aflame they had known before this, for that was all there was to ignite in that section of the valley. There were no buildings as yet, tents taking their place. Though Bud and his father planned to erect substantial structures ...
— The Boy Ranchers on the Trail • Willard F. Baker
... fireworks did not go off. Why they did not go off I cannot explain; nobody ever COULD explain. The laws of nature seemed to be suspended for that night only. The rockets fell down and died where they stood. No human agency seemed able to ignite the squibs. The crackers gave one bang and collapsed. The Roman candles might have been English rushlights. The Catherine wheels became mere revolving glow-worms. The fiery serpents could not collect among them the spirit of a tortoise. ...
— The Second Thoughts of An Idle Fellow • Jerome K. Jerome
... that was needed to ignite the electrically charged air. A wild cry of triumph went up from this band of jackals only too willing to fatten their bellies at the cost of another man's ruin, and one director, in his enthusiasm, rose ...
— The Lion and The Mouse - A Story Of American Life • Charles Klein
... by which he "drove" the engine. His fur-lined gauntlets scorched and shrivelled as he grasped the bar; the fire seized upon his hair and garments with an exultant roar. He held fast. He must get the passengers off the floorless bridge that might ignite at any moment. He must check the engine as soon as he cleared the last pier, or the cars would take fire before they could be uncoupled. He shut his eyes from the maddening heat and glare, and drove straight on. Not so fast as to hurry the ...
— The Little Gold Miners of the Sierras and Other Stories • Various
... engagement, 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 ...
— The Emma Gees • Herbert Wes McBride
... 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 ...
— Captains of Industry - or, Men of Business Who Did Something Besides Making Money • James Parton
... was provided with a long spar 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
... until we meet it face to 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 him that those whom he felt to be wrong should ...
— Americans and Others • Agnes Repplier
... contained an immense quantity of the 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 from the ...
— Beacon Lights of History, Volume XI • John Lord
... the small cavity in the shell with an explosive which will not ignite prematurely, and yet will burst the shell properly after it has passed through the armor, the problem will be solved. Wet or paraffined gun-cotton can be made sluggish enough to satisfy the first condition; but at present the difficulty is to ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 794, March 21, 1891 • Various
... reach them, when they flash up and add their force to the fiery hurricane. It is almost unbelievable, too, the way a crown-fire will jump. Huge masses of burning gas will be hurled forth on the wind and ignite the trees two and three hundred yards distant. Fortunately, fires of this type are not common, most of the blazes one is likely to encounter being ground fires, which are principally harmful in that they ...
— The Boy With the U. S. Foresters • Francis Rolt-Wheeler
... spluttered for an instant, died down, crawled around to the windward side of the stick, crawled back again, and then flared up gloriously. At first the dry twigs refused to ignite, but presently one caught the blaze, then another, and directly Sandy was obliged to draw his face ...
— Boy Scouts in Northern Wilds • Archibald Lee Fletcher
... 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 her ...
— The Wreck of the Titan - or, Futility • Morgan Robertson
... in his cloak without injury (Cambro-British Saints, pp. 30, 319). Elsewhere we hear of flames which do not consume, as in the burning bush of Moses, and probably in imitation of it (Exod. iii, 2). Thus the magic fire that delivered Samthann from a forced marriage appeared to ignite a whole town, which, however, suffered no injury (VSH, ii, 253). The fall of fire from heaven in answer to prayer is most likely imitated from 1 ...
— The Latin & Irish Lives of Ciaran - Translations Of Christian Literature. Series V. Lives Of - The Celtic Saints • Anonymous
... a fitful doze, to find herself choking from smoke. The boards of the floor were too hot for endurance. Between their cracks thin wavery slices of smoke were pouring upward into the room. The leaves had begun to ignite the floor-boards and the lower part of ...
— Further Adventures of Lad • Albert Payson Terhune
... 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 ...
— Our Soldiers - Gallant Deeds of the British Army during Victoria's Reign • W.H.G. Kingston
... this voluble 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 ...
— The Road to Mandalay - A Tale of Burma • B. M. Croker
... that he might drag it after him from place to place. The musket was fired with a match, which the soldier lit from a cumbrous pocket fire-carrier. The harquabuse was a lighter gun, which was fired without a rest, either by a wheel-lock (in which a cog-wheel, running on pyrites, caused sparks to ignite the powder), or by the match and touch-hole. Hand firearms were then common enough, and came to us from Italy, shortly after 1540. They were called Daggs. They were wheel-locks, wild in firing, short, heavy, and beautifully wrought. Sometimes they carried more than one barrel, and in some cases ...
— On the Spanish Main - Or, Some English forays on the Isthmus of Darien. • John Masefield
... 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
... 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 wrongs of the ...
— The Dream Doctor • Arthur B. Reeve
... increased tenfold. I puffed despairingly at my unlit cigar. No miracle occurred to ignite it. I looked longingly at the electric lights and the ...
— Tales From Bohemia • Robert Neilson Stephens
... only gradually cooling. This is the sixth day I've taken the waters of Aix-la-Chapelle ... and I'm beginning to be so sulphurous all over, that, if anybody was to rub against me suddenly, I should ignite and go off with a bang. I've written to my friend Box an account of it. I haven't seen Box for some years; but as I particularly wish him to remain in England just now, I've commenced a correspondence with ...
— Happy-Thought Hall • F. C. Burnand
... 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
... communication of flame from the cylinder to the receptacle. In the upper end of the 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
... time in his eyes to gaze, When the dream already had vanished; Oh Love, why dost thou two lovers unite, With thy burning torch their hearts ignite, When their bliss so soon ...
— The Trumpeter of Saekkingen - A Song from the Upper Rhine. • Joseph Victor von Scheffel
... this light, and, still more, to have your path illuminated thereby, implies the present activity of some of the higher human sensibilities; and to be so organized as to be able to embody in words, after having imagined, personages, conditions, and conjunctions whence this light shall flash on and ignite the sensibilities of others, implies, besides vivid sympathies and delight in the beautiful, a susceptibility to the manifestations of moral and intellectual life which is enjoyed only by him in whom the nobler elements of being are present in such intensity, ...
— Essays AEsthetical • George Calvert
... 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 ...
— Ran Away to Sea • Mayne Reid
... 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 retaliate in kind ...
— Remarks • Bill Nye
... and cut down the scrub in those patches of jungle which 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 gases escape from a hollow in the ground ...
— Balder The Beautiful, Vol. I. • Sir James George Frazer
... or death to be able to produce fire. The back of a 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, ...
— Getting Gold • J. C. F. Johnson
... town 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, ...
— The Private Life of Napoleon Bonaparte, Complete • Constant
... bodies, that our knowledge of their existence is almost entirely limited to the moment of their destruction, that is, to the period when, drawn within the sphere of the Earth's attraction they become luminous and ignite. ...
— COSMOS: A Sketch of the Physical Description of the Universe, Vol. 1 • Alexander von Humboldt
... see them at Philae. They ignite and bound into brilliance like sparks of meeting metal and flint. Ah, but the ...
— The Yoke - A Romance of the Days when the Lord Redeemed the Children - of Israel from the Bondage of Egypt • Elizabeth Miller
... 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 me that." ...
— The Isle of Unrest • Henry Seton Merriman
... all his arrangements; the gunner and Jerry Bird each carried match-boxes in waterproof cases, and small torches which they could easily ignite, so that the moment they stepped on shore they could proceed on their expedition. A sense of the importance of the work to be accomplished made Jack enjoy it, otherwise an act of incendiarism would not have been to his taste. The gunner and Jerry Bird, it must be confessed, ...
— The Three Commanders • W.H.G. Kingston
... If you ignite a jet of oxygen-nitrogen in an atmosphere of hydrogen-methane, you get a flame that doesn't differ much from the flame from a hydrogen-methane jet in an oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere. A flame doesn't particularly care which way the electrons jump, ...
— Unwise Child • Gordon Randall Garrett
... to light his pipe, he tucks the smoldering cotton lightly into his roll of tobacco; a few draws are sufficient to ignite the pipeful. If an out-of-door fire is desired the cotton is first used to ignite a dry bunch of grass. Should the fire be needed in the dwelling, the cotton is placed on charcoal. Blowing and care will produce a good, blazing wood fire in a ...
— The Bontoc Igorot • Albert Ernest Jenks
... who cherishes no reverence for the wind, gets children that fall away prematurely from the womb of his spouse. Those men who do not pour libations on the blazing fire find that the fire, when they do ignite it for such rites as they wish to perform, refuses to eat their libations[544]. Those men who drink the milk of kine whose calves are very young, never get children for perpetuating their races.[545] Such men see their children, die ...
— The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 4 • Kisari Mohan Ganguli
... would be safer if you were a bird, John," asserted Mrs. Ross, with an uneasy smile. "Birds have no motors to fail them, no fire to ignite and burn them up, as our present airplanes. How many of your own unfortunate associates can lay their untimely deaths to either one of these causes! It was only the last time you were here that you were telling Paul ...
— Around the World in Ten Days • Chelsea Curtis Fraser
... a dry brush until nearly dry, then light the fuel, as a little heat will facilitate the polishing. When the wood is burning briskly, place a shovelful or two of rather small pieces of coal upon the wood, and, as they ignite, gradually add more, until there is a clear, bright body of fire, remembering, however, never to fill the stove above the fire bricks; then partly close the direct draft. When wood or soft coal is used, the fuel may be added at the same ...
— Science in the Kitchen. • Mrs. E. E. Kellogg
... 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 fly at night the immensity ...
— Night Bombing with the Bedouins • Robert Henry Reece
... small amount of heat before they will burn, while others require much heat. Different materials, then, require different degrees of heat to burn. The phosphorus and other substances on the tip of a match ignite readily. The heat that is developed by rubbing the tip over some surface is sufficient to make the phosphorus burn. The burning phosphorus and other substances heat the match stick to the temperature at which it begins to burn; the burning match stick applied ...
— School and Home Cooking • Carlotta C. Greer
... possessed of. I endeavoured, but I fear without success, to explain to the old gentleman the nature of fulminating substances, and though he listened with patience, he was evidently still in the dark, when I presented him with the contents of my match-box and shewed him how to ignite them; his gratitude was manifest, as he walked off highly pleased with his toy, which I hope may not ...
— A Peep into Toorkisthhan • Rollo Burslem
... 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
... the table 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 to atoms, ...
— Taquisara • F. Marion Crawford
... a radiator, a magnet, some 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 ...
— The Princess Passes • Alice Muriel Williamson and Charles Norris Williamson
... took him so long to kindle his blaze. He found a place sheltered from the wind, whittled many shavings from dead wood, and used his flint and steel until his hands ached, coaxing forth the elusive sparks and trying to make them ignite the wood. They died by hundreds, but, after infinite industry and patience, they took hold, and he sheltered the tiny and timid blaze with his body, lest it change its mind and go away after all. Though it sank several times, it concluded finally to stay and grow, and, having decided, it showed ...
— The Eyes of the Woods - A story of the Ancient Wilderness • Joseph A. Altsheler
... been made 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 ...
— Mystic Isles of the South Seas. • Frederick O'Brien
... phosphorus," replied Dorn. "When the moisture evaporates it will ignite—set fire to any dry substance.... That is a trick of the I.W.W. to burn ...
— The Desert of Wheat • Zane Grey
... 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 called for ...
— All for a Scrap of Paper - A Romance of the Present War • Joseph Hocking
... 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 glides to ...
— Tropic Days • E. J. Banfield
... take up with him, being put down at the end of Bloomsbury Buildings, fearing the rattle of wheels in that quiet cul-de-sac would disturb the old Larks. Having found the door, and spent five minutes by the hinges—searching for the key-hole, he gets within; and spends five more—trying to ignite an extinguisher;—cautiously stealing to bed, throwing his paletot over the top banister, and the contents of its pockets down the well-staircase, to the awakening ...
— Christmas Comes but Once A Year - Showing What Mr. Brown Did, Thought, and Intended to Do, - during that Festive Season. • Luke Limner
... ignite a torch at the lantern and poke it into one pot after another. Flames began to burn, blue and green and yellow, and lurid smoke rolled to the deck-beams overhead. Amid this glare and reek of combustibles, Blackbeard waved his torch and ...
— Blackbeard: Buccaneer • Ralph D. Paine
... would 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 ...
— The Romance of the Soul • Lilian Staveley
... 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 ...
— The Old Wives' Tale • Arnold Bennett
... the last groups of people were passing; the last sweet, eerie tones of the concert were rising in the gathering twilight. Soon the last families would have taken their refuge in the ships, waiting for Nehmon to trigger the fire bombs to ignite the beautiful city after the ships started on their voyage. The concerts were over; there would be long years of aimless wandering before another home could be found, another planet safe from the Hunters and their ships. Even then it would be more years before the ...
— The Link • Alan Edward Nourse
... village, bringing with him wherever he goes sorrow and terror. Men perceive that life is cheap and that it can't last long. Desperation has severed every bond between masters and servants, creditors and debtors, superiors and inferiors. It needs but one spark to ignite the whole mass. That spark has ...
— The Day of Wrath • Maurus Jokai
... most deeply and worthily upon life. "Well!" cry they, "what shall we do?" "Ignoramus, ignorabimus!" says agnosticism. "React upon atoms and their concussions!" says materialism. What a collapse! The mental train misses fire, the middle fails to ignite the end, the cycle breaks down half-way to its conclusion; and the active {127} powers left alone, with no proper object on which to vent their energy, must either atrophy, sicken, and die, or else by their pent-up convulsions and excitement ...
— The Will to Believe - and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy • William James
... when her 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 ...
— Kitty Trenire • Mabel Quiller-Couch
... make it hollow;—you know why, because I want to get air to it and into it, and therefore I make it hollow—and then take a few iron-filings and drop them into the flame, you see how well they burn. That combustion results from the chemical action which is going on when we ignite those particles. And so we proceed to consider these different effects, and ascertain what iron will do when it meets with water. It will tell us the story so beautifully, so gradually and regularly, that I think it ...
— The Chemical History Of A Candle • Michael Faraday
... cooking our suppers with part of it, we had not anticipated any trouble with the rest. The snow which had fallen upon it had not improved it, and so, as we lighted match after match, we were at first disgusted, and then alarmed, at finding that the poor stuff persistently refused to ignite. Of course we had to take our hands out of our big fur mits when trying to light the matches. Before we had succeeded in our attempts to start the fire our hands began to chill, and soon they were so powerless that we were not able ...
— By Canoe and Dog-Train • Egerton Ryerson Young
... 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
... can subject to our observations. Farther, if we admit 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 air, the mean temperature of which is perhaps 25 degrees below the freezing ...
— Equinoctial Regions of America • Alexander von Humboldt
... small station on one of the transcontinental lines winding among the mountains far above the level of the sea, the burning rays of the noonday sun fell so fiercely that the few buildings seemed ready to ignite from the intense heat. A season of unusual drought had added to the natural desolation of the scene. Mountains and foot-hills were blackened by smouldering fires among the timber, while a dense pall of smoke entirely hid the distant ranges from view. Patches of sage-brush and ...
— At the Time Appointed • A. Maynard Barbour
... and expect them to remain as spotless as snow, is the most wretched absurdity of our day. Society brings fire to the tow, the brand to the powder, and then lifts its hand to hurl its anathema in case they ignite. ...
— What Can She Do? • Edward Payson Roe
... 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 ...
— The Banner Boy Scouts Snowbound - A Tour on Skates and Iceboats • George A. Warren
... did in order to let our eyes become accustomed to the obscurity. Then, when we could see sufficiently, we swam to a shelving rock, and landed in safety. Having wrung the water from our trousers, and dried ourselves as well as we could under the circumstances, we proceeded to ignite the torch. This we accomplished without difficulty in a few minutes; and no sooner did it flare up than we were struck dumb with the wonderful objects that were revealed to our gaze. The roof of the cavern just above us seemed to be about ten feet high, but grew higher as ...
— The Coral Island • R.M. Ballantyne
... as I was able to judge, a rat could scarce have quitted the building undetected. Yet that Fu-Manchu had, in some incomprehensible manner and by some mysterious agency, produced those abnormal flames, I cannot doubt. Did he voluntarily ignite ...
— The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu • Sax Rohmer
... flame, incinerate, set fire to, brand, consume, flash, kindle, set on fire, cauterize, cremate, ignite, scorch, singe. ...
— English Synonyms and Antonyms - With Notes on the Correct Use of Prepositions • James Champlin Fernald
... proportion to size and velocity. We accept that the icy 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 seventy miles ...
— The Book of the Damned • Charles Fort
... spark ignite a greater conflagration. In 1856 a native junk named the "Arrow," sailing under a British flag, was seized for piracy, her flag hauled down and her crew thrown into prison at Canton. On demand of Sir ...
— Beacon Lights of History, Volume XIV • John Lord
... 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
... 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 bees ...
— From the Rapidan to Richmond and the Spottsylvania Campaign - A Sketch in Personal Narration of the Scenes a Soldier Saw • William Meade Dame
... at a little after four, and until dark, when rain fell, we raced with numbers of prairie fires; some great walls of smoke and flame, others mere narrow strips of fire, all travelling in straight lines, and not interfering with each other. A tiny spark from the engine would ignite a fresh spot, and before our car had passed it had begun its race with the others. The driver, who was a new hand, and ignorant of the road, dashed over it at a breakneck pace, the cars swaying from side to side like a ship in a storm. ...
— A Trip to Manitoba • Mary FitzGibbon
... the top, and burns at first but slow. See, now, the wind has blown it to a flame; And soon the log-heap fire's no longer tame! Dry sticks and chips, in all the openings placed, Will prove the time spent on them was not waste. The embers, falling, make these soon ignite; And now the heap, from end to end, is bright! With pale or ruddy flame; the smoke ascends Thick, black and curling, as its way it wends Toward the sky. Now twenty heaps are fired And form a sight I often have admired. The heat becomes ...
— The Emigrant Mechanic and Other Tales In Verse - Together With Numerous Songs Upon Canadian Subjects • Thomas Cowherd
... themselves in arranging the dwelling. Kali, having found on the river-side a flat stone the size of a sieve, placed it in the trunk, heaped burning coals upon it, and afterwards continually added more fuel, watching only that the decayed wood on the inside did not ignite and cause the conflagration of the whole tree. He said that he did this in order that "nothing should bite the great master and the bibi." In fact it appeared that this was not a useless precaution, for as ...
— In Desert and Wilderness • Henryk Sienkiewicz
... evaporating dish 100 cc. H{2}O and evaporate to dryness over the sand bath. Ignite the solids. If the solids blacken when ignited, the water ...
— Human Foods and Their Nutritive Value • Harry Snyder
... 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 burning, ...
— Journals Of Expeditions Of Discovery Into Central • Edward John Eyre
... harmonious relations between the two did not suffer by it. But two respectable men, Mancherji Kharshedji Seth, of the Shahanshahi sect, and Dhanjisha Manjisha, of the Kadmi sect, managed literally to ignite the powder in spite of their benevolent intentions. In order to get some enlightenment Dhanjisha Manjisha sent to Persia at his own expense a priest from Bharooch, Kavas Rustam Jalal. Born at Bharooch in 1733, this man was well versed in the Arabic ...
— Les Parsis • D. Menant
... fortunate enough to escape 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 ...
— Learning to Fly - A Practical Manual for Beginners • Claude Grahame-White
... understand the description), phosphoric tapers seem to have been sulphur matches with a little piece of phosphorus enclosed in glass fixed on the top of the match, the idea being that you had only to break the glass and expose the phosphorus to air for it to catch fire immediately and ignite the sulphur. If this was the notion (although I am not sure), it is not easy to understand how the phosphoric tapers were worked. The second invention for the purpose of utilizing phosphorus for getting fire was by scraping with a ...
— The Story of a Tinder-box • Charles Meymott Tidy
... emphasis again. With a quick movement he put his glasses on his nose, and taking a cigarette from a beautiful box, he put the end of it at the flame of one of the candles burning on the desk. He seemed perfectly calm; but behind his eyeglasses steel sparks flew, and the cigarette did not ignite, held by fingers which trembled somewhat. Turning from the desk to the ...
— The Argonauts • Eliza Orzeszko (AKA Orzeszkowa)
... conductivity. [effects of heat 2.] thermal expansion; coefficient of expansion. V. heat, warm, chafe, stive[obs3], foment; make hot &c. 382; sun oneself, sunbathe. go up in flames, burn to the ground (flame) 382. fire; set fire to, set on fire; kindle, enkindle, light, ignite, strike a light; apply the match to, apply the torch to; rekindle, relume[obs3]; fan the flame, add fuel to the flame; poke the fire, stir the fire, blow the fire; make a bonfire of. melt, thaw, fuse; liquefy &c. 335. ...
— Roget's Thesaurus
... other would ever have made me think of winter—of something austere and silent for you to ignite." ...
— Red Fleece • Will Levington Comfort
... and whose fall had made the gap in the hedge. Then he cut a long, slender willow stick, slit it at one end, and inserted his match in the cleft. He could thus stand a long way back out of harm's way and ignite the priming. The report that followed was so loud the very woods rang again, the birds fluttered with fear, and even the fox, bold as he was, shrank back from ...
— Wood Magic - A Fable • Richard Jefferies
... who busy themselves about the amelioration of no matter what,—the communists, the humanitarians, the philanthropists, you understand,—all these people are our advanced guard. While we are storing gunpowder, they are making the tinder which the spark of a single circumstance will ignite." ...
— Unconscious Comedians • Honore de Balzac
... and stooping until his long body was bent almost double, verified the elevation. At each gun stood the assistant gunner, waiting to pull the lanyard that should ignite the fulminate by means of a serrated wire. And the orders were given in succession, ...
— The Downfall • Emile Zola
... coal for storing. It is not subject to spontaneous ignition, and for this reason is unlimited in the amount that may be stored in one pile. With bituminous coals, however, the case is different. Most bituminous coals will ignite if placed in large enough piles and all suffer more or less from disintegration. Coal producers only store such coals as are least liable to ignite, and which ...
— Steam, Its Generation and Use • Babcock & Wilcox Co.
... fish, in a cup of coffee, and in one of those apologies for cigars which the government furnishes, dear at a cent—the cigar with a straw in it, as if it were a julep, which it needs five minutes to ignite, and then will furnish occupation for a whole evening! Is it a hard lot, that of the fishermen and the mariners of the Adriatic? The lights are burning all night long in a cafe on the Riva del Schiavoni, ...
— Baddeck and That Sort of Thing • Charles Dudley Warner
... men 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 Dynasts - An Epic-Drama Of The War With Napoleon, In Three Parts, - Nineteen Acts, And One Hundred And Thirty Scenes • Thomas Hardy
... epicure! Can we ring the bells backward? Can we unlearn the arts that pretend to civilize, and then burn the world? There is a march of Science; but who shall beat the drums for its retreat? Who shall persuade the boor that phosphor will not ignite? ...
— The Best Letters of Charles Lamb • Charles Lamb
... are best to use after lighting the tinder; they ignite easily and burn quickly, such as pine, spruce, alder, birch, soft maple, balsam-fir, and others. When the kindling is blazing put on still heavier wood, until you have a good, steady fire. Hard wood is better than soft when the fire is well going; it burns longer and can usually be depended upon ...
— On the Trail - An Outdoor Book for Girls • Lina Beard and Adelia Belle Beard
... for naval use, but the military arm is also provided with anti-balloon guns, which have great range and can throw a three-pound shell at any high angle. Some of these guns use incendiary shells, intended to ignite the gas in dirigibles. There is another type that explodes shrapnel. In addition to these, rifle fire is apt to be effective, in case of ...
— A History of The Nations and Empires Involved and a Study - of the Events Culminating in The Great Conflict • Logan Marshall |
