Let us pause for an instant to admire this strange terminology, so
spontaneous and withal so sensible, which is, in a measure, the language
of a new force. "Advance ignition," for instance, is a most adequate
term, and we should find it vastly difficult to express more tersely and
clearly what it was needful to say. The ignition is the inflammation of
the explosive gases by the electric spark. And this explosion can be
hastened or retarded in accordance with the requirements of the motor.
When the "advance ignition" valve is opened, the spark springs forth
some thousandth part of a second before the moment when it would
logically produce itself; in other words, before the piston, attaining
the end of its journey, shall have completely compressed the gas and
utilized all the energy of the previous explosion. One would think, at
first, that this premature explosion would counteract the ascending
movement. Far from it; experience proves that one benefits by the
infinitesimal time that the inflamed gases take to dilate themselves; as
also probably by other causes no less obscure. In any event, we find
that the pace of the machine is curiously accelerated. It is a device,
like the glass of wine to the labourer, to procure a spell of abnormal
strength. But whence does the term come, and who is its father? Whence
do these words spring forth, at the given moment, to fix in life
creatures of whose existence we were yesterday unaware? They escape
from the factory, foundry or warehouse; they are the last echoes of that
anonymous, universal voice that has given a name to trees and flowers,
to bread and wine, to life and death; and fortunately it usually happens
that by the time the pedant has begun to regard and question, it has
become too late to make any change.