Okay so basically what I got out of this story was that there are a bunch of guys from the "Lunatick Society" (They spelled Lunatic wrong) arguging over various scientific matters. Noone seems to be very satisified and after some deliberation they decide to go out to a field to do the Great Experiment. This resulted in the end of the Earth. Maybe this story is essentially about what could happen when we take Science and exploration too far, or become overly curious!
1 comment:
This is a brilliant story for anyone with a strong background in chemistry, especially the history of chemistry. Look up the phlogiston theory—it was an old (and wrong) theory about how things burned, during the 18th century. Basically, the story plays with the idea of "what would it be like if there really was Phlogiston?" And apparently the answer is, "some poor scientist would light Earth's atmosphere on fire and consume the world"—a reasonable answer if phlogiston theory was correct! In reality, burning is the combination of something with oxygen (like the French "New Chemists" theorized in the story, just as Lavoisier demonstrated in real life). I hope that helps explain the story!
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