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Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

German tinder en · NOUN

Meanings

  1. (dated, uncountable) amadou
    • When lucifers were struck they only fizzed and sputtered, would not burn. German tinder succeeded better; for the exhausted atmosphere, hungering for oxygen, uniting with the atoms of saltpetre in the process of ignition, the tinder, instead of its usual dull glow, threw out a long bright flame, made as it were of electric sparks. 1862 August 23, Mrs. H. Stanley, “The trials of an inventor”, in Once a Week:
    • The inflammation of German tinder in the so-called pneumatic tinder-boxes; which are, as we know, little pump-chambers in which the air is rapidly compressed. 1897, Sadi Carnot (original), R. H. Thurston (translator), Reflections on the Motive Power of Heat, Appendix B: