398 F I 
fubflance which he calls paper.fione, invented by Dr. Faye, 
phyfician to the Swedifh admiralty. Its compofition is 
not known: but, from a chemical analyfis, it appears to 
confift of two parts of an earthy bafis, and one of animal 
oil, mixed up with two parts of forne vegetable fubftance. 
At Carlfcrone, a hut was built of dry wood covered with 
this paper, which is not more than two lines in thick- 
nefs; it was then filled with combuftibles, which were 
fet on fire and confumed without burning the building : 
the paper, which had been pafted on the boards, was re¬ 
duced to a cinder, and formed a kind of incruftation which 
preferved them front the efi'eCts of the flame. As this 
paper readily takes any colour, it may be rendered orna¬ 
mental as well as ufeful. 
In his directions for extinguishing, fires, the abbe ob- 
ferves that water, in which a fmall quantity of pot-alh has 
been difl’olyed, is more efficacious than any other ; he alfo 
recommends an engine, called the hydraulic ventilator, in¬ 
vented by M. Caftelli, which is worked by vanes inftead 
of piftons, and may be managed by one pprfon. The ad¬ 
vantages afcribed by our author to this machine are very 
confiderable : but we cannot fupprefs our aftoniftiment 
on being told that, with a cylinder of only three inches 
in diameter, it will throw up more water than the largeft 
fire-engines : however, it certainly appears to be lefs 
expenlive and more portable than the common forcing 
pumps, and may be of life in extinguifliing a fire before 
it has made any great progrefs. The utility of garden 
mould with wet land, in this refpeft, is well known : but 
it can feldom be applied; and we doubt the efficacy of 
the kind of catapulta, which the author recommends for 
throwing it to any diftance. The remainder of the me¬ 
moir contains fome very juft but obvious remarks on the 
neceflity of a regular difcipline among firemen; and it 
concludes with a particular defeription of the engines, 
cifterns, and pipes, at the opera-houfe in Paris, the con- 
ftruCtion and arrangement of which the abbe recommends 
to be adopted in every public theatre. 
On the nth of November, 1776, Mr. David Hartley, 
then member of parliament for Kingfton upon Hull, made 
a mod fatisfaCtory and convincing experiment to prove 
the efficacy of a method invented by him, for preferving 
houfes, (hips, &c. built with the moft combuftible ma¬ 
terials, from fire. Mr. Hartley had. built a houfe ex- 
prefsly for the purpofe, which confifted of three ftories, 
and with two large rooms on a floor. The manner in 
which he conducted the experiment was as follows: He 
firft ordered a fire to be made on the deal flooring of one 
of the ground-rooms; then a large faggot of (havings, fuf- 
pended by iron from the upper part of the fame room, 
was fet on fire. After this, the ftair-cafe was fet on fire, 
both above and below, without the fire extending, in 
either cafe, beyond the fpot on.which it was lighted. 
Laftly, the other room on the ground-floor, filled alrnoft 
to the top with faggots, pitch, and other combuftibles, 
was fet fire to; but though they all burned in fu.ch a 
manner as to vomit forth a perpetual torrent of flame and 
fmoke, and thereby rendered all approach within thirty 
yards of the windows, on the outfide, abfolutely imprac¬ 
ticable, the room adjoining to, and that immediately over, 
this temporary Vefuvius, continued as cool and as accef- 
fible as if no fire had happened in the houfe. Nor were 
its walls, floqrs, and cielings, alone preferved, for even 
fixtures and houfehold furniture were thereby rendered 
proof againft the rage of this otherwile all-devouring 
element, though found, at the fame time, fufficient to 
prepare iron for the anvil ; particularly, a bed being pur- 
pofely fet on fire, little more of it was confumed than the 
part to which the fire had been immediately applied. 
But lingular as the eft efts of this contrivance for fecuririg 
houfes, (hips, and other buildings, from fire, muft ap¬ 
pear, the means, perhaps, from their perfect fnnplicity, 
may be thought equally extraordinary. They coiilift of 
no’hingmore than the thinned: plates of iron nailed to the 
joifts, okc. and to the facility of execution, may be added 
R E. 
the cheapnefs of it, as the additional expence of buildings 
fcarcely exceeds three per cent. 
FIRE-FLY. See Lampyris. 
FIRE, GREEK, vulgarly called wild-fire ; a factitious 
preparation of combuftible ingredients, laid to burn even 
under water, and that with greater violence than out of it. 
It is thought to have been compofed of fulphur, naph¬ 
tha, pitch, gum, and bitumen ; and it is only extinguifli- 
able by vinegar, mixed with fand and urine, or by cover¬ 
ing it with raw hides. It is even faid that its motion is 
contrary to that of natural fire, always following the di¬ 
rection in which it is thrown, whether it be downwards, 
fideways, or otherwife. The French call it Feu Grcgeois , 
becaufe firft ufed by the Greeks about the year 660, as 
noticed by Petavius, <an the authority of Nicetas, Theo- 
phanes, Cedrenus, &c. The inventor, according to the 
fame author, was an engineer of Heliopolis, in Syria, 
named Callinicus, who firft applied it in the fea-fight. 
commanded by Conftantine Pogonates, againft the Sara¬ 
cens, near Cyzicus, in the Hellefpont; and with fuch. 
effeCt, that he burnt the whole fleet, which contained 
30,000 men. But others refer it to a much older date, 
and aferibe the invention to Marcus Gracchus ; an opi-. 
nion which is fupported by feverul paflages, both in the. 
Greek and Roman writers; which (hew that it was an¬ 
ciently ufed by both thefe nations in their wars. See 
Scaliger againfi Cardan. —After all, perhaps, the invention, 
is to be afcribed to other nations, and to a ftill more 
ancient date; and that it was ufed among the Indians in 
Alexander’s invafion, when it was faid they fought with 
thunder and lightning, or fliot fire with a terrible noife. 
Others attribute its invention to the Chinefe.—For a fur¬ 
ther account of it, fee the article Artillery, vol. ii. 
p. 232. 
FIRE-ORDEAL, f. Trial by fire.—Ordeal was of two 
forts, either firc-ordeal and water-ordeal, the former being 
confined to perfons of high rank, the latter to common 
people. Blackfione. 
FIRE-PHILOSOPHERS, a fanatical fed which ap¬ 
peared towards the clofe of the fixteenth century, and 
made a figure in alrnoft all the countries of Europe. The 
diftinguifhing tenet from which they derived this appella-. 
tion was, that the intimate eflences of natural things were 
only to be known by the trying efforts of fire, directed in 
a chemical procefs ; which was the doCtrine of the rofy- 
crucians. They were alfo called Theofophifis, from their 
declaring againft human reafon as a dangerous and deceit¬ 
ful guide, and reprefenting a divine and fupernatural illu¬ 
mination as the only means of arriving'at truth a they 
were likewife denominated Puracelfifis, from the name of 
Paracelfus, the eminent phyfician and chemift, who was 
the chief ornament and leader of this extraordinary feCf. 
It was patronifed in England by Robert Fludd, who en¬ 
deavoured to illuftrate the philofophy of Paracelfus in a, 
great number of treatifes; in France, it was zealoufly pro¬ 
pagated by Rivier; in Denmark, by Severinus; in-Ger¬ 
many, by Kunrath, an eminent phyfician of Drefden ; and 
in other countries by zealous votaries who aftumed a 
ftriking air of piety and devotion. See the article Rosy-, 
crucians. 
FIRE-PLACE, the archite(Rural contrivance for com¬ 
municating heat to rooms ; and alfo for anfwering va¬ 
rious purpofes of arts and manufacture. The' general 
properties of air and fire, on which their conftruCtion 
chiefly depends, are the following, viz. that air is; rare¬ 
fied by heat, and condenfed by cold ; i. e. the fame quan¬ 
tity of air takes up more fpace when warm, than when, 
cold. Air rarefied and expanded by heat, is fpecifically 
lighter than it was before, and will rife in other air of 
greater denfity : fo that a fire being made iff any chimney,, 
the air about and over the fire is rarefied by the heat, 
thence becomes lighter, and fo rifes in the funnel, and 
goes out at the top of the chimney : the other air in the 
room, flowing towards the chimney, fupplies its place,, 
is then rarefied in its turn, and rifes likewife j and the, 
4 pitted 
