ABSTRACT
The mention of fire evokes familiar images and sensations: the warmth of a hearth fire, the holocaust of a forest fire, the flickering of a candle flame, the flaming exhaust of a jet engine, etc. [Blackshear, 1961]. For historians, fire is related to momentous events. First used by prehistoric humans about half a million years ago, fire was responsible for the survival of many tribes through periods of glaciation. Fire was the means by which humans emerged from the Stone Age, through pyrometallurgy. Engines that use fire have been sources of power and propulsion only in the past several centuries, and have succeeded in liberating humankind from drudgery. Finally, it appears that fire will play a key role in our first adventures away from this planet.
