Search the Dictionary

To kindle or set on fire; as, to ignite paper or wood.

Mineral coal retaining the texture of the wood from which it was formed, and burning with an empyreumatic odor. It is of more recent origin than the anthracite and bituminous coal of the proper coal series. Called also brown coal, wood coal.

e acetate produced by treating pyroligneous acid with a metal or basic compound; as, pyrolignite of iron (iron liquor).

sh translucent resin resembling copal, found as a fossil in alluvial soils, with beds of lignite, or on the seashore in many places. It takes a fine polish, and is used for pipe mouthpieces, beads, etc., and as a basis for a fine varnish. By friction, it becomes strongly electric.

A kind of mineral coal, or brown lignite, burning with a weak flame, and generally a disagreeable odor; -- found at Bovey Tracey, Devonshire, England. It is of geological age of the oölite, and not of the true coal era.

r of wheat and rye or Indian; rye and Indian bread. [U.S.] -- Brown coal, wood coal. See Lignite. -- Brown hematite or Brown iron ore (Min.), the hydrous iron oxide, limonite, which has a brown streak. See Limonite. -- Brown holland. See under Holland. -- Brown paper, dark colored paper, esp. coarse wrapping paper,…

A brown pigment of varying permanence, consisting of impure lignite. It was found originally near Cassel (now Kassel), Germany.

each in time; to come up with; as, to catch a train. To catch fire, to become inflamed or ignited. -- to catch it to get a scolding or beating; to suffer punishment. [Colloq.] -- To catch one's eye, to interrupt captiously while speaking. [Colloq.] "You catch me up so very short." Dickens. -- To catch up, to snatch;…

A thoroughly charred, and extinguished or still ignited, fragment from wood or other combustible substance; charcoal.

-- Cobalt blue, a dark blue pigment consisting of some salt of cobalt, as the phosphate, ignited with alumina; -- called also cobalt ultramarine, and Thenard's blue. -- Cobalt crust, earthy arseniate of cobalt. -- Cobalt glance. (Min.) See Cobaltite. -- Cobalt green, a pigment consisting essentially of the oxides o…

a deep brown color, containing more vegetable than mineral matter; an earthy variety of lignite, or brown coal.

space in the cylinder of an internal combustion engine where the charge is compressed and ignited.

lleries, Their catalogue of accusations fill. Daniel. Concussion fuse (Mil.), one that is ignited by the concussion of the shell when it strikes.

bination, forming an alkaline cyanide when nitrogen or a nitrogenous compound is strongly ignited with carbon and soda or potash. It conducts itself like a member of the halogen group of elements, and shows a tendency to form complex compounds. The name is also applied to the univalent radical, CN (the half molecule of…

ch the air drawn in by the suction stroke is so highly compressed that the heat generated ignites the fuel (usually crude oil), the fuel being automatically sprayed into the cylinder under pressure. The Diesel engine has a very high thermal efficiency.

d by a fire placed in the lower part. (b) A balloon sent up at night with fireworks which ignite at a regulated height. Simmonds. -- Fire bar, a grate bar. -- Fire basket, a portable grate; a cresset. Knight. -- Fire beetle. (Zoöl.) See in the Vocabulary. -- Fire blast, a disease of plants which causes them to appe…

An old form of gunlock, as the flintlock, which ignites the priming by a spark; perhaps originally, a matchlock. Hence, a gun having such a lock.

ock for a gun or pistol, having a flint fixed in the hammer, which on stricking the steel ignites the priming.

mposition, a composition of chlorate of potassium, antimony, sulphide, etc, which readily ignites by friction. -- Friction primer, Friction tube, a tube used for firing cannon by means of the friction of a roughened wire in the friction powder or composition with which the tube is filled -- Friction wheel (Mach.), one…

A tube or casing filled with combustible matter, by means of which a charge of powder is ignited, as in blasting; -- called also fuzee. See Fuze. Fuse hole, the hole in a shell prepared for the reception of the fuse. Farrow.