One of the four classical elements, capable of both remarkable
destructive and generative effect, the heat and light product of
chemical reactions that we know as fire is one of the baseline phenomena
of human experience. Harnessing and controlling fire is perhaps the
single most important achievement of the human animal, and its use--from
cooking fires that changed diet and hunting patterns of early man to the
forges in which the Industrial Revolution was born--has shaped the
development of our history like no other force. Cabinet issue 32, with
its special section on "Fire," features Thomas van Leeuwen on the
history of fire escapes; D. Graham Burnett on the alchemy of
spectroscopy; Amanda Miller on the relationship between forgery and
fire; an interview with one of the world's foremost aerial firefighters
and more. Elsewhere in the issue: an interview with Eyal Sivan on the
cultural history of the Jaffa orange; Joshua Foer's timeline of
incidents of falling from great heights; and a special portfolio of
artworks and writing on the strange flatfish known as the plaice.
