Otherwise known as fire. Having a functioning fireplace has been an aspirational fantasy of mine since I was young. Back then the closest thing to cold climate I could travel to was Baguio or Tagaytay. The places we stayed at featured fireplaces but it just wasn't "cold enough" to be worth the bother of making a fire. Well? It's middle of winter in the Blue Mountains, let's fire it up!
It's my third winter with a fireplace now so I've tried all sorts of ways to start fires and sustain fires. Some work better than others, there are many abandoned methods once I find better ones.
What I have distilled it down to is a complex understanding of chemistry, physics, biology, electro-magnetic radiation, bernoulli, venturi, laminar and turbulent flows -it's a fucking rabbit hole.
The simple equation is
FUEL + OXYGEN + HEAT = FIRE.
In my specific use case that would be
WOOD + AIR + HEAT = FIRE
What do we mean by HEAT? Specifically the temperature identified as the kindling point of the material ie. fuel. Rubbing your hands together can get warm but not enough to set fire to anything, we need a match or a lighter. These are good for lighting birthday candles, gas barbecues, or joints. However, holding a lighter under a log is not going to do anything. You need a big fire to start a big fire. What keeps this from becoming a Catch-22 is that it is possible to turn a small fire into a big fire. All it needs is a gradual or stepped increase in the supply of fuel. The best part is that the initial burn increases the heat energy which allows the consumption of more fuel which then burns and makes more heat. When you understand this, it gets scary watching bushfires or building fires.
It's hard to control fire once it's got away. From this perspective, I can imagine fire as an energy being we humans somehow domesticated. We can spawn these beings at will to serve our needs, whether it is to drive a steam train, or candle-light to read by.
I've decided to name each fire that I ignite at my fireplace. Fire "Steve" was born late last night. I made a thin bed twigs for a base. I covered it with shredded and crumpled newspaper. I held it down with chunks of charcoal left over from the previous fire (thanks fire "Bernard" 21-24 July 2023). I then layer more twigs over the top making sure to use the skinniest twigs first and saving the thicker branches for later. At this stage no twigs are thicker than my finger. Using a lighter I ignited random corners of newspaper that I could get to. Soon all the newspaper was alight. This flareup in turn ignites the layer of tiny twigs, which then ignites the layer above. As the fire grows I add more and bigger sticks of wood. The fire gets fed bigger fuel as soon as the energy is sufficient to ignite larger and larger pieces of wood. If I do this well, I can get the fire to the stage I call the "log-eater", that's when I know that the fire is hot enough it will consume a new log as soon as there's room to chuck one in.
I thought that we could express the formula as
CARBON + OXYGEN + HEAT = MORE HEAT + CARBON DIOXIDE + CARBON
In this context I imagine CARBON atoms are solid particles that tend to form crystalline structures like diamonds and coal or cellulose (wood).
I imagine OXYGEN as a gas particle always looking for something to react with, even if it's just another OXYGEN atom (O2 and Ozone wave hello to everyone). Reaction can take a long time like rust (Fe + O), or rapid burn (C+O2). OXYGEN is a promiscuous reactant but is surprisingly faithful when attached to a pair of HYDROGEN (H2O).
So CARBON is like "the catch" and OXYGEN are like "the suitors".
OXYGEN: Hey you, want to become one with me ?
CARBON: Can't you see I'm an integral part of this structure?
OXYGEN: Can you feel the excitement? I'm ready to bond. Come on.
CARBON: Oh wait it is getting hot in here, but I'm not sure I'm ready to leave my crystal.
OXYGEN: OH it's really hot now, come on you can have two of us even!
CARBON: OH my YES! Let's.
For a brief moment ,they have the craziest union particles can have and release electro-magnetic radiation in the form of heat(infra-red) and light (visible spectrum). The exhausted combined particles of CARBON DIOXIDE (CO2) float away as smoke taking some heat along with it. I picture CARBON with an OXYGEN on each arm stumbling out of the club.
I tried my best to not ascribe specific gender types in my analogy, if it upsets you, try reversing the gender assignment and see if that works better. Or you can just imagine it all as just one gender.
What then blew my mind was that plants use the CO2 to make food by photosynthesis. Using the electromagnetic energy of the sun to process H2O and CO2 to form carbohydrates and releasing O2 back.
Throughout the life of fire "Steve" he may need to be re-kindled, like when left overnight and is on embers. A few twigs and kindling and "Steve" is ready to be raised to log-eater status. On occasion I may leave it for too long and need to resuscitate.
Eventually though, all fires must die. When that happens, Steve's remains will be used to help birth the next fire.
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