An essay on combustion, with a view to a new art of dying and painting

"An essay on combustion, with a view to a new art of dying and painting" by Fulhame is a scientific treatise written in the late 18th century. It investigates combustion, oxidation, and reduction through meticulous experiments, challenges both phlogistic and antiphlogistic accounts, and proposes practical methods for depositing metals onto textiles for artistic and cartographic use. The work argues that water’s hydrogen drives reductions and that water is central to oxygenation, tying chemical theory to a proposed new art of dyeing and painting. The opening of the treatise presents a preface recounting the author’s long pursuit of making gold and silver cloth by chemical means, its application to painting and to maps with silvered rivers and golden cities, the mixed reception of her specimens, and her decision to publish despite the lack of patrons and fear of plagiarism. She describes her simple apparatus, adopts the French chemical nomenclature, and pointedly answers expected criticism—especially toward a woman conducting scientific work. The introduction surveys major theories of combustion (from Becher and Stahl to Lavoisier, Macquer, Scheele, and Kirwan), critiques their complexity, and advances her thesis that water is the source of oxygen in oxidations and that hydrogen from water is the universal reducer.

An essay on combustion, with a view to a new art of dying and painting, by active 1780-1810 Mrs. Fulhame. Republished by OpenStories from Project Gutenberg eBook #77630.