Thursday, March 23, 2017

Researcher Investigates Ignition Temperature for Books and Also for Homes

Fahrenheit 451 is the temperature at which a book ignites and burns.  "Fahrenheit 451" is also the title of a favorite of Kurt Vonnegut's books.  Probably many of you read it either willingly or were forced in school but maybe it has poofed from that curriculum for unknown reasons since.

From "Fahrenheit 451," we learn about being 'unstuck in time' and that brings the finest kind of existentialism in which I know that I am but I don't know when I am.


From there we go to Florida for the latest research into Fahrenheit 451 with the burning of paperback books.  As with all good science, this led to more research.

CNN: Florida fire started by book burning destroys at least 10 homes

Our researcher not only found the ignition temperature for the books but also for his home, neighborhood, and four hundred surrounding acres.

At least 10 homes in Nassau County, Florida, were destroyed in a wildfire caused by a man who was burning books Wednesday.

Only a few minor injuries to emergency personnel have been reported in what's being called the Garfield Road Fire, according to the Florida Forest Service. But it has burned an estimated 350 to 400 acres near Bryceville, about 20 miles west of Jacksonville.

- CNN


If you listen carefully, you can hear Gutenberg laughing and calling out, "Sie sind ein Idiot!"

Note:  no-one was physically hurt or not much.


Yes, they are sending him a bill for all the firefighting and he's liable for all damages.  Bankruptcy doesn't get you out of a court order so he will be living on fish sticks for life.


In whom will you entrust the responsibility for burning books since someone has to do it.  When publishers print a million copies, there will be just a few surplus.  There are many books which are just chaff and the Silas immediately chucks romance books into the fire.

Ed:  so we can't trust you to do it?

Nope, I'm not your best choice for a Fireman.


All those surplus books need to be recycled to make more pulp to make more books.  The Rockhouse doesn't believe books are obsolete but they will get a lot more expensive since maybe reading becomes a rich man's pleasure and he insists on the finest papers for the books.  That will make them too expensive for we groundlings but at least they will still exist.


Way back, Doc worked at Lance's Bookstore in Clifton in Cincinnati and their clientele was almost entirely drawn from the student body of the University of Cincinnati across the street.  They sold an enormous number of books but there were many they didn't and the publishers didn't want them back.

To get a credit for unsellable books with the publisher, they tore off the covers of the books to return those but the books now had no cash value so do whatever you like with them.

To Doc that meant take a pile home so there were books all over the place but, regrettably, few in this part of the house had covers.  He was going through Sartre and all the philosophers because it interested him but his career wound up in working on gigantic machines.

You may think you have that mechanic pegged but you probably don't.


Probably all the sibs wound up with the same programming.  Only a heathen devil dog would damage a book.

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