Thursday 28 January 2010

KNITTING PHLOGISTON.

I've been wanting to knit a dress for some time, but couldn't think what I wanted to wear.
I wanted an explosive dress in which I could jump up and down and have ideas. Explosions can be good or bad, it depends....
So an explosion it is - in Shetland DK. It's going to have a lot of bits flying out of it, and big clouds of smoke.
And then! I saw a brilliant program, 'Chemistry- A Volatile History' where I learned that in the 17th century, scientists thought that anything combustible was made of Phlogiston. It was an attempt to explain oxidation processes like fire and rust. Phlogiston took science down a cul-de-sac, which took 100 years to come out of, but I love the story as an example of how sometimes we have to grapple with thinking, and ideas do come clear eventually.