Combustion is the operation of fire on inflammable substances; or the union of an inflammable substance with oxygen or some other supporter of combustion, attended with heat and in most instances with light. In consequence of the combination of the carbon in fuel with the oxygen of the air being the universal method of getting heat and light, and as when the action takes place the fuel is said to burn or undergo combustion, the latter term has been extended to those cases in which other bodies than carbon - for example, phosphorus, sulphur, metals, etc - burn in the air or in other substances than air - for example, chlorine. Though the action between the gas and the more solid material, as coal, wood, charcoal, of whose combination combustion is the result, is mutual, the one having as much to do with the process as the other, yet the former, as oxygen, chlorine, iodine, and the compounds which they form with each other and with nitrogen, have received the name of supporters of combustion, while to the latter the term combustibles has been assigned. Research Combustion
Abbreviations
SciTech
Research Combustion