“To keep it from taking fire. Even the sun shining upon it would heat it hot enough to set it on fire.”
“O father!” said Rollo.
“Yes,” said his father; “and so, for safety, they make it in the shape of sticks, and keep it in a phial filled with water.”
“Well, father,” said Rollo, “I wish you would get a little in a phial, and let me put a piece of it upon a paper in the sun, and let me see it catch fire.”
“I’ll think of it,” said his father, “next time I go into town. But phosphorus, you see, is certainly very inflammable, because it takes fire very easily, and burns brightly too. But I don’t know which would be said to be most inflammable, sulphur or resin; for instance, sulphur inflames the quickest, but resin will make altogether the greatest blaze.”
“I should think the resin,” said Rollo.
“We can’t tell by reasoning about it,” said his father; “it depends on the usage of the word. We will go into the other room, and look in the dictionary.”
So saying, they all went into the parlor again, and looked into the dictionary, to learn the precise meaning of the word, inflammable. The definition given was, “easily kindled into a flame.”
“Then,” said Mr. Holiday, “if this definition is correct, the sulphur and the alcohol are most inflammable, because they are most easily kindled.”