Fun with Phlogiston

Posted by Katharine M. J. Osborne Jan 13, 2007

I first learned about phlogiston when I was about ten or so. I believe my older brother and I were watching the fantastic BBC series, The Day the Universe Changed when we first heard it uttered. It's a great miniseries on the the various events that conspired to give insight to scientists about the true and elusive nature of the universe.

"Phlogiston" immediately stuck in our heads. Our games and conversations became peppered with the word. To this day, if I say the word to my brother, he is sure to chuckle with the inside joke. It is an inherently ridiculous word like "ramekin" or "spool".

Phlogiston is rooted in the Greek - phlogios - it means "to burn", at it was thought that it was mysterious substance released when things were combusted or rusted (essentially the same process - one is fast, one is slow).