[Illustration: The ROLLO BOOKS by JACOB ABBOTT. NEW YORK: T. Y. CROWELL
& CO.]
[Illustration: SO HE TOOK UP A SMALL COAL OF FIRE.—Page 97.]
ROLLO’S PHILOSOPHY.
[FIRE.]
[Illustration]
THE ROLLO SERIES
IS COMPOSED OF FOURTEEN VOLUMES, VIZ.:
Rollo Learning to Talk.
Rollo Learning to Read.
Rollo at Work.
Rollo at Play.
Rollo at School.
Rollo’s Vacation.
Rollo’s Experiments.
Rollo’s Museum.
Rollo’s Travels.
Rollo’s Correspondence.
Rollo’s Philosophy—Water.
Rollo’s Philosophy—Air.
Rollo’s Philosophy—Fire.
Rollo’s Philosophy—Sky.
A NEW EDITION, REVISED BY THE AUTHOR.
[Illustration]
NEW YORK
THOMAS Y. CROWELL & CO.
PUBLISHERS
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1855, by
PHILLIPS, SAMPSON & CO.,
In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the District of
Massachusetts.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
PREFACE.
The main design in view, in the discussions which are offered to the
juvenile world, under the title of THE ROLLO PHILOSOPHY, relates rather
to their effect upon the little reader’s habits of thinking, reasoning,
and observation, than to the additions they may make to his stock of
knowledge. The benefit which the author intends that the reader shall
derive from them, is an influence on the cast of his intellectual
character, which is receiving its permanent form during the years to
which these writings are adapted.
The acquisition of knowledge, however, though in this case a secondary,
is by no means an unimportant object; and the discussion of the several
topics proceeds accordingly, with regularity, upon a certain system of
classification. This classification is based upon the more obvious
external properties and relations of matter, and less upon those, which,
though they are more extensive and general in their nature, and,
therefore, more suitable, in a strictly scientific point of view, for
the foundations of a system, are less apparent, and require higher
powers of generalization and abstraction, and are, therefore, less in
accordance with the genius and spirit of the _Rollo_ philosophy.
As teachers have, in some cases, done the author the honor to introduce
some of the preceding works of this class into their schools, as reading
books, &c., considerable reference has been had to this, in the form and
manner of the discussion, and questions have been added to facilitate
the use of the books in cases where parents or teachers may make the
reading of them a regular exercise of instruction.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
Page
SLOW COMBUSTION 9
CHAPTER II.
LAMP-LIGHTING 21
CHAPTER III.
BURNING IRON 36
CHAPTER IV.
FIRE IN THE PASTURE 54
CHAPTER V.
THEORY AND PRACTICE 70
CHAPTER VI.
GUNPOWDER 85
CHAPTER VII.
THE ALARM 102
CHAPTER VIII.
RADIATION AND CONDUCTION 116
CHAPTER IX.
RADIATION 130
CHAPTER X.
CONDITION 142
CHAPTER XI.
THE RIDE HOME 155
CHAPTER XII.
THE CONFLAGRATION 165
THE ROLLO PHILOSOPHY.
FIRE.
CHAPTER I.
SLOW COMBUSTION.
The way in which it happened that Rollo’s father first began to explain
to him something about the nature of fire, was this: It was one evening
early in the autumn. Dorothy was going away to visit one of her friends,
and Rollo was waiting for Jonas to come out, and see the fire-flies, or
lightning-bugs, as he called them, which were flying about the yard. But
Jonas did not come as soon as Rollo had expected, and so he went into
the kitchen to see what had become of him. He found that, as Dorothy was
rather late for her visit, and still had her kitchen fire to cover up,
Jonas was just offering to cover it up for her, so that she could go at
once without any further delay. So Rollo came in, and stood by the
kitchen hearth to see Jonas cover up the fire.
The fire had nearly burned out, but it had left quite a large bed of
embers, and a few coals among them. Jonas took the long-handled iron
shovel, which belonged to the kitchen fire, and with it he drew forward
all these coals and embers, so as to leave the back part of the hearth
bare. Then he took the tongs, and with the tongs he gathered out from
the hot ashes all the coals which he could find among the ashes, and put
them back upon the bare place which he had made upon the hearth. He
spread them evenly over it in a row against the back of the chimney.
“What are you going to do, Jonas?” said Rollo.
“I am going to cover up a stick of wood,” replied Jonas.
So Jonas opened a small door which led to a little wood closet by the
side of the fire, and took out a short stick of wood, flat on one side
and round on the other. It was a stick which was round first, but Jonas
had split it in two. It was part of a great branch of a tree, large
enough to make a good log, only Jonas saw that it would split easily,
and so he had split it in two. The other half of it was still in the
wood closet.
“This is just the stick,” said Jonas.
“Why?” asked Rollo.
“Why, the lower side is flat,” said Jonas, “to lie upon the coals, and
the top is round, so that I can cover it all up the easier.”
So Jonas laid the stick down, with the flat side against the coals, and
the round side outwards. Then with the great shovel he began to shovel
the ashes and embers back over it. He put all the hot embers in first,
and then the ashes, and he tried to cover up the stick entirely; but
there was not quite ashes enough. One of the ends remained out.
“There, Jonas,” said Rollo, “now come.”
“No,” said Jonas, “I must cover the stick all up.”
“O, that little end won’t do any harm,” said Rollo.
“Yes,” said Jonas, “because, when the stick burns down, that place would
make a hole, and let too much air in.”
“Don’t you want any air to get in?” said Rollo.
“Very little,” said Jonas. “I want a very slow combustion to go on until
to-morrow morning, and then there will be a good bed of coals for
Dorothy.”
“I don’t see why you take so much pains to cover up a stick of wood,”
said Rollo. “You might light a fire with your tinder-box.”
“But it takes a great deal longer to make a good fire with a tinder-box,
than when we have a good bed of coals.”
“Then take a friction match,” said Rollo. “I can light a friction match
in half a minute.”
“You can light the match, but not build a fire. It takes a long time
with a match light to get heat enough to set large sticks of wood on
fire; but, with a bed of burning coals, we can do it very soon.”
“You might have some sticks and shavings for kindling,” said Rollo, “and
they will burn quick.”
“Yes,” said Jonas, “but it is more trouble to prepare sticks and
shavings every night, than it is to cover up a stick of wood.”
While Jonas had been saying these things, he had taken more ashes from
the ash-hole, and had covered the stick over entirely. He then put away
the shovel, and was brushing up the hearth, when Rollo, after standing a
moment, as if in thought, said,—
“Jonas, what do you mean by _combustion_?”
“Did I say _combustion_?” rejoined Jonas.
“Yes, you said you wanted slow _combustion_.”
“Well, I meant burning. I want the wood to burn slowly all night.”
“Then why did not you say _burning_,” said Rollo, “so that I could
understand you. I don’t see where you get all your learned words. I
suppose it is out of some of your books.”
“Yes,” said Jonas, “they call it _combustion_ in the books that I read,
but I don’t know exactly why. I think there must be some difference
between _combustion_ and _burning_, but I don’t know exactly what it
is.”
“I mean to ask my father,” said Rollo.
“But do you expect that that stick of wood will burn, Jonas?” continued
Rollo, after a moment’s pause.
“Yes,” said Jonas, “it will burn slowly. A little air will get through
the ashes so as just to keep it burning slowly. It is very dry.”
“Suppose that there could not any air get through at all?” said Rollo.
“Why, then,” said Jonas, “it couldn’t burn at all. It would go out.
Sometimes I have buried up a fire so deep in ashes that it has gone out,
and then I find nothing but black coals there in the morning, when I
rake it open. That’s the way they make charcoal.”
“How?” said Rollo.
But Jonas had no opportunity to answer this question then, for they were
just going out into the yard when Rollo asked it, and the attention of
both the boys was attracted to the fire-flies. They, however, soon had
looked at the fire-flies as much as they wished. Rollo tried to catch
one, but he could not. He would see a flash at a little distance from
him, and he would run to the place with his cap in the air; but, by the
time that he got there, the fire-fly would of course have gone on to
another place, though Rollo could not tell where, without waiting to see
him flash again. Then he had to run again; but before he got to this
second place the fire-fly would be gone again. One of the fire-flies led
him a zigzag chase, in this way, all around the yard, and finally
flashed at last just over the garden fence, so that Rollo gave up in
despair.
In the meantime, Jonas had gone to the barn; and now Rollo went to see
what had become of him. He found him shutting the doors up for the
night, and then they both came back towards the house, and sat down upon
the edge of the platform, under the piazza, and Rollo asked Jonas to
tell him how they made charcoal.
“Why, they only bury up wood, as I did my log, lightly, so that enough
air can get in, until it is burnt through; and then they cover it up
tight, so that no air can get in, and so it goes out; and when it is all
cold, they open it, and find the heap is all black coals.”
“How big a heap do they make?” asked Rollo.
“O, they make a very large heap, sometimes,” said Jonas; “as big as
this.” So Jonas rose from his seat, and marked out a circle in the yard
with a stick, which he had in his hand, in order to show Rollo how large
a heap they make, when they pile up wood for a charcoal bed.
“And how high do they make it?” asked Rollo.
“As high as _that_” said Jonas; and he reached his stick up in the air
as high as he could, to show Rollo how high the heap was.
“That must take a great deal of wood,” said Rollo.
“Yes,” said Jonas, “and when it is turned into charcoal, they get a
great many loads of it.”
“How do they get ashes enough to cover it up?” asked Rollo.
“O, they don’t cover it with ashes,” said Jonas; “they cover it with
turf.”
“With turf?” repeated Rollo.
“Yes,” said Jonas, “turf is the best thing to cover the heap with. If
they had ashes, it would be very troublesome to put it on, and then it
would be sliding down, and letting the fire break out. But they cut
square pieces of turf, and cover the heap all over with them, very
tight, and so only just air enough gets in to keep the fire slowly
burning.”
“Slow combustion?” said Rollo.
“Yes, slow combustion,” said Jonas.
“How do you set it on fire?” asked Rollo.
“I believe they leave a hole in the middle,” said Jonas, “from the top
down to the bottom, and then they put the fire down there.”
“I wonder if I couldn’t make a charcoal bed,” said Rollo.
“Yes,” replied Jonas, “you might make a little one, I suppose.”
“How should I do it?” asked Rollo.
“Why, you might take some dry wood from the shed, and wheel it down the
lane, and through the gate into the pasture. Then you might take a
spade, and cut up some turf, though that would be rather hard work for
you.”
“I wish you would cut the turf for me,” said Rollo.
“Well,” said Jonas, “perhaps I will. Then you must hollow out a little
place in the bare spot I make by taking up the turf, and make your pile
of wood there, leaving a hole in the middle.”
“How can I leave a hole?” asked Rollo.
“Why, you can take three short pieces of board, as long as you intend
the height of your pile to be, and stand them up on the ground, so as to
leave a three-cornered space between them, and then pile your wood
around the three boards.”
“So I can,” said Rollo.
“Your wood must be small,” continued Jonas, “or else you can’t pile it
very snugly in a small pile. You had better take small round sticks, and
saw them short, and lean them up against your boards all around, and so
make a snug pile. After the pile is ready, you must bank up a little
against the bottom of your heap with the loose earth, and then begin to
put on the turf. But that will be a nice business.”
“Why?” asked Rollo.
“Because you must fit them carefully all around; and, as the heap will
be round, and will grow smaller towards the top, square pieces of turf
will not fit. You will have to cut them into shape with a knife. You can
get an old knife to cut them with, and so fit them together. But you
must fit them together well, or the air will get in, and your heap of
wood will blaze up, and so it will be spoiled for charcoal.”
“I can make it tight,” said Rollo, “I know. I’ll shave away the sides of
every turf, till it fits its place exactly.”
“There must be some air,” said Jonas, “or else the wood will not burn at
all. You must leave a few holes around at the bottom, to let a little
air in, then you can plug some of them up, if you find the fire burns
too fast.”
“Well,” said Rollo, “I mean to make some charcoal some day. I’ll get my
cousin James to come and help me. I’ll begin to saw up some wood for it
to-morrow.
“But, then, Jonas,” he continued, after a moment’s pause, “what good
will the charcoal do me when I get it made?”
“O, I don’t know,” said Jonas; “I wasn’t thinking of your getting any
good from the charcoal. All the advantage would be, the pleasure of
making it.”
“Isn’t there anything I can do with it,” said Rollo, “when I get it
made? What is charcoal good for?”
“It makes a very hot fire. They use it when they want a great heat.
Blacksmiths use it in their forges.”
“I wish I had a little forge,” said Rollo.
“They use it to make gunpowder, too,” said Jonas.
“How?” said Rollo.
“Why, they take some charcoal, and some sulphur, and some saltpetre, and
pound it up together, and it makes gunpowder.”
“That’s what I’ll do with my charcoal,” said Rollo, jumping up from his
seat. “I’ll make some gunpowder. I’ll ask my mother to give me some
sulphur and saltpetre, and I’ll make some gunpowder.”
QUESTIONS.
What was the condition of the fire, on the evening when it was left
to Jonas to cover up? Describe the arrangements which he made for
covering up the fire. What was the shape of the stick of wood? Why
was this form convenient for the purpose? What plan did Rollo
propose, instead of covering up the fire? What objection did Jonas
make to this plan? What term did Jonas use to designate the process
which would go forward, during the night, under the ashes? What did
he say that _combustion_ meant? Would any air at all be necessary
for the slow combustion? How was the necessary air to get access to
the wood? Why could not Rollo catch the fire-flies? How did Jonas
describe the process of making charcoal? What did he say were the
uses of charcoal? To which of these uses did Rollo intend to put his
charcoal, if he should succeed in making any?