The Scientific Fact of Phlogiston
Imagine some cowboys at the campfire on the trail: "I see you got that fire built up pretty high. Ain't that a tad much for heatin' up beans?" "Normally, yep. But I'm making coffee, it's gonna be a long night". "Well, hope that firewood's loaded up with phlogiston." "What's phlogiston?" "The stuff that makes things burn. If it don't have no phlogiston, it won't burn. Johann Becher explained combustion back in 1667. You really should do some science reading now and then." Too bad the dude doing the explaining didn't read further, or something more up to date. While phlogiston was the dominant scientific theory for a spell, Lavosier became skeptical and determined that it was oxygen , not phlogiston (the dark matter of the 16th century?) that caused burning. RGBStock / Krzysztof Szkurlatowski Unlike Darwinism, phlogiston theory had some explanatory merit. Like Darwinism, the idea of ph