The Secret of Everyday Things Fire

- By Jean Henri Fabre
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French naturalist, entomologist and author This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.Find sources: "Jean-Henri Fabre" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (May 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) Jean-Henri FabreBorn21 December 1823 (1823-12-21)Saint-Léons, Aveyron, FranceDied11 October 1915(1915-10-11) (aged 91)Sérignan-du-Comtat, Vaucluse, FranceKnown forSouvenirs Entomologiques (texts on insects and arachnids)Scientific careerFieldsEntomologyAuthor abbrev. (zoology)Fabre Jean-Henri Casimir Fabre (21 December 1823 – 11 October 1915) was a French naturalist, entomologist, and author known for the lively style of his popular books on the lives of insects.[1] Biography[edit] Fabre was born on 21 December 1823 in Saint-Léons in Aveyron, France. Fabre was largely an autodidact, owing to the poverty of his family. Nevertheless, he acquired a primary teaching certificate at the young age of 19 and began teaching in Carpentras whilst pursuing further studies. In 1849, he was appointed to a teaching post in Ajaccio (Corsica), then in 1853 moved on to the lycée in Avignon.[2] Jean Henri Fabre by Nadar Fabre was a popular teacher, physicist, chemist and botanist. However, he is probably best known for his findings in the field of entomology, the study of insects, and is considered by many to be the father of modern entomology. Much of his enduring popularity is due to his marvellous teaching ability and his manner of writing about the lives of insects in biographical form, which he preferred to a clinically detached, journalistic mode of recording.[citation needed] In doing so he combined what he called "my passion for scientific truth" with keen observations and an engaging, colloquial style of writing. Fabre (translated) wrote: Others again have reproached me with my style, which has not the solemnity, nay, better, the dryness of the schools. They fear lest a page that is read without fatigue should not always be the expression of the truth. Were I to take their word for it, we are profound only on condition of being obscure. The Mason Bees published in 1914 His Souvenirs Entomologiques is a series of texts on insects and arachnids. He influenced the later writings of Charles Darwin, who called Fabre "an inimitable observer". Fabre, however, was a Christian who remained sceptical about Darwin's theory of evolution, as he always held back from all theories and systems. His special force was exact and detailed observation, field research, always avoiding general conclusions from his observations, which he considered premature.[3] In one of Fabre's most famous experiments, he arranged pine processionary caterpillars to form a continuous loop around the edge of a pot. As each caterpillar instinctively followed the silken trail of the caterpillars in front of it, the group moved around in a circle for seven days.[4] He further was able to forecast low atmospheric pressure events by observing the behaviours of the caterpillars.[5] He died on 11 October 1915.[6] In the English speaking world, he became known through the extensive translations of his work by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos, carried out from 1912 to 1922. Works[edit] Fabre circa 1913 Library resources about Jean-Henri Fabre Resources in your library Resources in other libraries By Jean-Henri Fabre Online books Resources in your library Resources in other libraries Scène de la vie des insectes Chimie agricole (textbook) (1862) La Terre (1865) Le Ciel (textbook) (1867) - Scanned text on Gallica Le livre d’histoires, récits scientifiques de l’oncle Paul à ses neveux. Lectures courantes pour toutes les écoles (textbook) (1869) - High definition PDF file Catalogue des « Insectes Coléoptères observés aux environs d'Avignon » (1870) Les Ravageurs (1870) Les Auxiliaires, récits de l’oncle Paul sur les animaux utiles à l’agriculture (1873) High definition PDF file Aurore (textbook) (1874) Scanned text on Gallica Botanique (textbook) (1874) L'Industrie (textbook) (1875) Les Serviteurs (textbook) (1875) Sphériacées du Vaucluse (1878) Souvenirs entomologiques – 1st series (1879) – Scanned text on Gallica Etude sur les moeurs des Halictes (1879) Le Livre des Champs (1879) Lectures sur la Botanique (1881) Nouveaux souvenirs entomologiques – 2nd series (1882) – Scanned text on Gallica Lectures sur la Zoologie (1882) Zoologie (textbook) (1884) Souvenirs entomologiques – 3rd series (1886) – Scanned text on Gallica Histoire naturelles (textbook) (1889) Souvenirs entomologiques – 4th series (1891) – Scanned text on Gallica La plante : leçons à mon fils sur la botanique (livre scolaire) (1892) – Scanned text on Gallica Souvenirs entomologiques – 5th series (1897) – Scanned text on Gallica Souvenirs entomologiques – 6th series (1900) – Scanned text on Gallica Souvenirs entomologiques – 7th series (1901) – Scanned text on Gallica Souvenirs entomologiques – 8th series (1903) Souvenirs entomologiques – 9th series (1905) Souvenirs entomologiques – 10th series (1909) Fabre's Book of Insects retold from Alexander Teixeira de Mattos' translation of Fabre's Souvenirs entomologiques Scanned book Oubreto Provençalo dou Felibre di Tavan (1909) Text on Jean-Henri Fabre, e-museum La Vie des insectes (1910) Mœurs des insectes (1911) Les Merveilles de l'instinct chez les insectes (1913) Le monde merveilleux des insectes (1921) Poésie françaises et provençales (1925) (final edition) La Vie des araignées (1928) Bramble-Bees and Others Scanned book, Project Gutenberg full text The Life of the Grasshopper. Dodd, Mead, and company, 1917. ASIN B00085HYR4 Insect Adventures. Dodd, Mead, 1917. Selections from Alexander Teixeira de Mattos' translation of Fabre's Souvenirs entomologiques, retold for young people. The Life of the Caterpillar. Dodd, Mead, 1919. ASIN B00089FB2A Field, Forest, and Farm: Things interesting to young nature lovers, including some matters of moment to gardeners and fruit-growers. The Century Company, 1919. ASIN B00085PDU4 Full text This Earth of Ours: Talks about Mountains and Rivers, Volcanoes, Earthquakes, and Geysers & Other Things. Albert & Charles Boni, 1923. ASIN B000EHLE22 The Life of The Scorpion. University Press of the Pacific, 2002 (reprinted from the 1923 edition). ISBN 0-89875-842-4 The Glow-Worm and Other Beetles. Dodd, Mead, 1919. ASIN B000882F2K The Mason Bees (Translated) Garden City, 1925. [1] ASIN B00086XXU0; Reprinted in 2004 by Kessinger Publishing; ISBN 1-4179-1676-1; ISBN 978-1-4179-1676-4 Scanned book, Project Gutenberg full text Curiosities of Science. The Century Company, 1927. ASIN B00086KVBE The Insect World of J. Henri Fabre. Introduction and Interpretive Comments by Edwin Way Teale; foreword to 1991 edition by Gerald Durrell. Published by Dodd, Mead in 1949; Reprinted by Beacon Press in 1991; ISBN 0-8070-8513-8 The Life of the Spider (1912) (Translated) preface by Maurice Maeterlinck Scanned book, Wikisource full text The Life of the Fly. (Translated) Fredonia Books, 2001. ISBN 1-58963-026-2; ISBN 978-1-58963-026-0 Scanned book The Hunting Wasps. University Press of the Pacific, 2002. ISBN 1-4102-0007-8; ISBN 978-1-4102-0007-5 More Hunting Wasps Scanned book Project Gutenberg full text The Wonders of Instinct: Chapters in the Psychology of Insects. University Press of the Pacific, 2002. ISBN 0-89875-768-1; ISBN 978-0-89875-768-2 Scanned book, Project Gutenberg full text Social Life in the Insect World Scanned book, Project Gutenberg full text Insect life Scanned book Legacy[edit] The site of his birth, at St Léons, near Millau is now the site of Micropolis, a tourist attraction dedicated to popularising entomology and a museum on his life. His last home and office, the Harmas de Fabre in Provence is similarly a museum devoted to his life and work. His insect collection is preserved in the Musée Requien in Avignon.[citation needed] The French post office commemorated Fabre in 1956 with a stamp depicting a portrait of him.[7] The 1951 biographical film Monsieur Fabre is devoted to his life. Blood of the Mantis, a 2009 fantasy novel by the British author Adrian Tchaikovsky is dedicated to Fabre.[8] Fabre appears as the only major human character in a Caper story parody set on his property in Matthew Bennardo's short story "The Famous Fabre Fly Caper".[9] References[edit] ^ Going, Charles Buxton. (1935). "Henri Fabre, Educator and Naturalist". The American Scholar. Vol. 4, No. 1, pp. 100-108 ^ Autié, Dominique; Astorg, Sylvie (1999). Jean Henri Fabre: maisons, chemin faisant (in French). C. Pirot. p. 57. ISBN 978-2-86808-136-0. Avignon , les bruits de la ville Nommé professeur adjoint de physique et de chimie au lycée d ' Avignon en janvier 1853 , Fabre songe d ' abord à louer une maison à Villeneuvelès ^ Grant, Susan T. (1976). "Reflections: Fabre and Darwin: A Study in Contrasts", BioScience. Vol. 26, No. 6. pp. 395-398- Yavetz, Ido. (1988). "Jean Henri Fabre and Evolution: Indifference or Blind Hatred?", History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences. Vol. 10, No. 1. pp. 3-36.- McCarthy, John Daly (1915). "Jean-Henri Fabre: A Great Catholic Scientist", Catholic World. Vol. 100, pp. 662-670 ^ Fabre, The Life of the Caterpillar, Chapter III "The Pine Processionary: The Procession". ^ Fabre, The Life of the Caterpillar, Chapter IV. "The Pine Processionary: Meteorology". ^ "Henri Fabre Dies In France At 92; Noted Entomologist Was Described by Victor Hugo as "The Insects' Homer."" (PDF). New York Times. 12 October 1915. Retrieved 1 October 2012. Henri Fabre, the entomologist, is dead. He was born in France in 1823. Henri Fabre, whom Victor Hugo described as "The Insects' Homer," ... ^ Fabre commemorative postage stamp Archived 11 March 2007 at the Wayback Machine ^ Tchaikovsky, Adrian (2010). Blood of the Mantis. ISBN 978-1-61614-199-8. ^ "The Famous Fabre Fly Caper" Biographies[edit] G.V. Legros, (Bernard Miall, translator), Fabre, Poet of Science. T. Fisher Unwin, 1913. (Reprinted by University Press of the Pacific, 2002, ISBN 0-89875-945-5; ISBN 978-0-89875-945-7) Scanned book E.L. Bouvier, "The Life and Work of J.H. Fabre". Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution, 1916, pages 587–597. Augustin Fabre, The Life of Jean Henri Fabre. Dodd, Mead, 1921. Scanned version on the Internet Archive Percy F. Bicknell, The Human Side of Fabre. The Century Company, 1923. Eleanor Doorly, The Insect Man, William Heinemann, 1936 External links[edit] Works by or about Jean-Henri Fabre at Wikisource Quotations related to Jean-Henri Fabre at Wikiquote Data related to Jean-Henri Fabre at Wikispecies Media related to Jean-Henri Fabre at Wikimedia Commons Works by Jean-Henri Fabre at Project Gutenberg Works by or about Jean-Henri Fabre at Internet Archive Works by Jean-Henri Fabre at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks) Jean-Henri Fabre: e-museum The Amazing World of the Insects of Jean-Henri Fabre Micropolis In English The museum and birth house of Jean-Henri Fabre In French vteNatural historyPioneeringnaturalistsClassicalantiquity Aristotle (History of Animals) Theophrastus (Historia Plantarum) Aelian (De Natura Animalium) Pliny the Elder (Natural History) Dioscorides (De Materia Medica) Renaissance Ulisse Aldrovandi Gaspard Bauhin (Pinax theatri botanici) Otto Brunfels Hieronymus Bock Andrea Cesalpino Valerius Cordus Leonhart Fuchs Conrad Gessner (Historia animalium) Frederik Ruysch William Turner (Avium Praecipuarum, New Herball) John Gerard (Herball, or Generall Historie of Plantes) Enlightenment Robert Hooke (Micrographia) Marcello Malpighi Antonie van Leeuwenhoek William Derham Hans Sloane Jan Swammerdam Regnier de Graaf Carl Linnaeus (Systema Naturae) Georg Steller Joseph Banks Johan Christian Fabricius James Hutton John Ray (Historia Plantarum) Comte de Buffon (Histoire Naturelle) Bernard Germain de Lacépède Gilbert White (The Natural History of Selborne) Thomas Bewick (A History of British Birds) Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (Philosophie zoologique) 19th century George Montagu (Ornithological Dictionary) Georges Cuvier (Le Règne Animal) William Smith Charles Darwin (On the Origin of Species) Alfred Russel Wallace (The Malay Archipelago) Henry Walter Bates (The Naturalist on the River Amazons) Alexander von Humboldt John James Audubon (The Birds of America) William Buckland Charles Lyell Mary Anning Jean-Henri Fabre Louis Agassiz Philip Henry Gosse Asa Gray William Jackson Hooker Joseph Dalton Hooker William Jardine (The Naturalist's Library) Ernst Haeckel (Kunstformen der Natur) Richard Lydekker (The Royal Natural History) 20th century Martinus Beijerinck Abbott Thayer (Concealing-Coloration in the Animal Kingdom) Hugh B. Cott (Adaptive Coloration in Animals) Niko Tinbergen (The Study of Instinct) Konrad Lorenz (On Aggression) Karl von Frisch (The Dancing Bees) Ronald Lockley (Shearwaters) Topics Natural history museums (List) Parson-naturalists (List) Natural History Societies List of natural history dealers vteZoology Outline Branches Anthrozoology Arthropodology (Arachnology (Acarology) Carcinology Entomology (Coleopterology Lepidopterology Melittology Myrmecology Orthopterology) Myriapodology) Biological anthropology Bryozoology Cnidariology Ethnozoology Ethology Helminthology Herpetology (Batrachology Ophiology Testudinology) Ichthyology Malacology (Conchology Teuthology) Mammalogy (Cetology Cynology Felinology Hippology Primatology) Nematology Neuroethology Ornithology Parasitology Paleozoology Planktology Zooarchaeology Animal groups Porifera Ctenophora Placozoa Cnidaria Xenacoelomorpha Ambulacraria Chordata Aschelminthes Arthropoda Platyhelminthes Mollusca Annelida Animal anatomyAnimal morphologyHistology Tissues Epithelial tissue Muscular tissue Nervous tissue Connective tissues Mineralized tissues Molecular anatomy Anatomy and morphology Mammalian anatomy and morphology Human Dog Elephant Cat Bird anatomy Fish anatomy Shark anatomy Spider anatomy Insect morphology Animal physiologyGeneral physiology Respiration Respiratory system Breathing Gas exchange Respiratory pigment Cellular respiration Vascular system Blood Lymph Blood vessels Arteries Veins Capillaries Heart Water vascular system By species Insect physiology Fish physiology Zoologists Karl Ernst von Baer Georges Cuvier Charles Darwin Jean-Henri Fabre William Kirby Carl Linnaeus Konrad Lorenz Thomas Say Jakob von Uexküll Alfred Russel Wallace History Pre-Darwin Post-Darwin Timeline of zoology Category Authority control databases International FAST ISNI VIAF National Norway Spain France BnF data Catalonia Germany Italy Israel Belgium United States Sweden Japan Czech Republic Australia Greece Korea Netherlands Poland Portugal Vatican Academics International Plant Names Index CiNii Artists Scientific illustrators MusicBrainz RKD Artists People Deutsche Biographie Trove Other SNAC IdRef Portals: Biography France Insects

The Secret of Everyday Things Fire

1 “We do not know how man first procured fire. Did he take advantage of some blaze started by a thunderbolt, or did he kindle his first firebrand in the crater of a volcano? No one can tell. Whatever may have been its source, man has enjoyed the use of fire from the earliest times; but as the means of relighting it if it went out were very imperfect or even lacking altogether, the utmost care was taken to maintain it, and a few live coals were always kept over from one day to the next.
 
2 “So calamitous would have been the simultaneous extinction of the fires in all the dwellings that, in order to guard against such a disaster, the priesthood took fire under its special protection. In ancient Rome, many centuries ago, an order of priestesses called Vestals was charged with the guarding of the sacred fire night and day. The unfortunate one who let it go out was punished with horrible torture: she was buried alive!”
 
3 “Did they really bury her alive for letting the fire go out?” asked Jules.
 
4 “Yes, my boy. This terrible punishment inflicted on the keepers of the fire shows you the importance they attached to keeping at least one hearth alight so that others could be kindled from it.”
 
5 “One of our matches that we buy at a cent a hundred,” said Claire, “would have saved the life of the careless Vestal.”
 
6 “Yes, to abolish those barbarous severities it needed only a match, a thing which unfortunately was at that time unknown.
 
7 “Many centuries passed before it was discovered how to procure fire easily. In my young days, when I was about your age, keeping coals alive to be used for relighting the fire next day was still the rule in the country. In the evening before the family went to bed, the embers were carefully covered with hot ashes to prevent their burning out and to keep them alive. If, despite this precaution, the hearth was cold next morning, someone had to hasten to the nearest neighbor’s to borrow some fire, that is to say, a few live coals, which were carried home in an old wooden shoe to keep the wind from blowing them away.”
 
8 “But I should think the old wooden shoe would have caught fire,” said Emile.
 
9 “No, for care was taken to put a layer of ashes in first. I have told you how some children would put a few ashes in the hollow of their hand, and on the ashes lay live coals. They carried fire thus just as you would carry a handful of sugarplums.
 
10 “The layer of ashes arrested the heat of the embers and prevented it's reaching the hand. Remember what I have already told you about the poor conducting power of ashes, their refusal to transmit heat, a characteristic they have in common with all powdery substances. The little fire-borrowers knew that well enough.”
 
11 “But who taught them to do it that way?” asked Emile.
 
12 “The great teacher of all things, necessity. Caught without shovel or wooden shoe, some one of them, knowing this peculiarity of ashes in arresting heat, made use of the ingenious device I have described, and his example was sooner or later followed by others.
 
13 “Fire-producing devices are, as a rule, based on the principle that heat is generated by friction. We all know that we can warm our hands by rubbing them against each other.”
 
14 “That’s what I always do in winter when my hands are frozen from making snowballs,” said Jules.
 
15 “That is one of the oldest illustrations of the effect of friction, and I will add another. Hold this round-headed metal button by the shank and rub it briskly on the wood of the table; it will become warm enough to produce a decided feeling on the skin.”
 
16 Claire took the button, rubbed it on the wood of the table, and then applied it quickly to her hand, uttering a little cry of surprise and even of pain as she did so.
 
17 “Oh, how hot the button is, Uncle!” she exclaimed. “If I had rubbed any longer I should have scorched my hand.”
 
18 “It is by similar means that certain savage tribes procured and still procure fire. They twirl very rapidly between their hands, a slender stick of hard wood with its pointed end inserted in a cavity hollowed in soft and very inflammable wood. If the friction is brisk enough and the operation properly carried out, the soft wood catches fire. This process, I admit, would fail of success in our hands for lack of skill.”
 
19 “For my part,” said Marie, “if I had nothing but a pointed stick and a piece of wood with a hole in it for lighting a fire, I should despair of ever managing it.”
 
20 “I should not even try it,” Claire confessed, “it seems so difficult, although the button that I rubbed came near burning me.”
 
21 “What would be impossible for us is mere play for the natives of Australia. The operator sits on the ground, holding between his feet the piece of wood with the little hole, and twirling the pointed stick rapidly between his hands. He soon obtains a spark with which he kindles a few dry leaves.
 
22 “Even in our own country you may see, in any wood-turner’s shop, this friction process employed successfully. To obtain the brown ornamental lines on certain objects turned in a lathe, the operator presses with some force the point of a bit of wood on the piece in rapid rotation. The line thus impressed by friction begins to smoke in a few moments, and soon becomes carbonized.
 
23 “I pass on to other methods of producing fire. Iron and steel, especially the latter, if rubbed against a very hard stone give out sparks made by tiny scales of metal that become detached and are sufficiently heated to turn red and burn in the air. Thus the scissors-grinder’s revolving stone, although constantly moistened with water, throws out a shower of sparks under the steel knife or other tool that is being sharpened. In like manner, the cobblestone struck by the horse’s iron shoe emits sudden and brilliant flashes.
 
24 “The common flint-and-steel apparatus acts in the same way. It consists of a piece of steel that is struck against the edge of a very hard stone called silex or flint. Particles of steel are detached from the metal and, made red-hot by the friction, set fire to the tinder. This latter is a very combustible substance obtained by cutting a large mushroom into thin slices and drying them, the mushroom being of the kind known as touchwood, which grows on tree trunks.” 

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GRADE:7

Word Lists:

Friction : the resistance that one surface or object encounters when moving over another

Calamitous : involving calamity; catastrophic or disastrous

Ash : the powdery residue left after the burning of a substance

Firebrand : a person who is passionate about a particular cause, typically inciting change and taking radical action

Tinder : dry, flammable material, such as wood or paper, used for lighting a fire

Inflammable : easily set on fire

Ember : a small piece of burning or glowing coal or wood in a dying fire

Combustible : able to catch fire and burn easily

Priestess : a female priest of a non-Christian religion.

Arresting : striking; eye-catching

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Additional Information:

Rating: A Words in the Passage: 1205 Unique Words: 482 Sentences: 91
Noun: 411 Conjunction: 83 Adverb: 51 Interjection: 2
Adjective: 85 Pronoun: 84 Verb: 214 Preposition: 159
Letter Count: 5,250 Sentiment: Positive Tone: Neutral (Slightly Formal) Difficult Words: 246
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