Tags: combustion, fire
Categories: Alternative conceptions
An example of an historical idea suggested by a scientist that would now be considered as an alternative conception.
"It is curious to find that Boyle had considerable influence at any rate in one of his errors, because he had noted the increase of weight when substances were burned and he had explained it by the suggestion of fire-particles which insinuated themselves into the minute pores of the burned matter, and which he regarded as having weight but as being able to pass through the glass walls of a closed container."
Herbert Butterfield (1957) The Origins of Modern Science 1300-1800 (New Edition: Revised and enlarged). G. Bell and Sons Ltd., London.
