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Stinnes, Hugo

(Encyclopedia)Stinnes, Hugo ho͞oˈgō shtĭnˈəs [key], 1870–1924, German industrialist. The son of a Westphalian mine owner, he founded his own company in 1892 and rapidly expanded his interests to build a hug...

Greek fire

(Encyclopedia)Greek fire, a flammable composition believed to have consisted of sulfur, naphtha, and quicklime. Although known in antiquity, it was first employed on a large scale by the Byzantines. Bronze tubes th...

forest fire

(Encyclopedia)forest fire: see forestry.

fire, forest

(Encyclopedia)fire, forest: see forestry.

fire clay

(Encyclopedia)fire clay, clay that has a high degree of resistance to heat. By the best standards it should have a fusion point higher than 1,600℃. The term “fire clay” is commonly held to exclude kaolin and ...

fire-eaters

(Encyclopedia)fire-eaters, in U.S. history, term applied by Northerners to proslavery extremists in the South in the two decades before the Civil War. Edmund Ruffin, Robert B. Rhett, and William L. Yancey were the ...

fire engine

(Encyclopedia)fire engine: see fire fighting.

fire escape

(Encyclopedia)fire escape, in architecture, device, either fixed or movable, to facilitate escape from a burning building. In the United States the term usually is applied to the common iron balconies and stairways...

fire extinguisher

(Encyclopedia)fire extinguisher: see fire fighting. ...

fire fighting

(Encyclopedia)fire fighting, the use of strategy, personnel, and apparatus to extinguish, to confine, or to escape from fire. Ancient Rome is known to have had a fire department consisting by the 1st cent. of app...