George Iles
“A lens of ice will focus a solar beam”

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“Form may be of more account than substance. A lens of ice will focus a solar beam to a blaze.”

— George Iles

in Canadian Stories (1918)

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George Iles added a chapter to his book Canadian Stories called 'Jottings from a Notebook.' It contained a collection of short epithets, most one or two sentences long. A prefatory note says they “have in part appeared in the Century Magazine, New York”. The subject quote was complete in two sentences, so there is no further context on its subject given by George Iles. He did, however, make another comment about fire in Canadian Stories, when he added a footnote, quoting from his earlier book, Flame, Electricity, and the Camera (1900). Iles contrasted the flame-kindling of man millennia ago with electricity as its modern replacement, for example, in the mineral extraction industry to part copper from its compounds by providing intense heat in the core of a crucible:

In other brief 'Jottings' he mentioned “Form” in other ways, such as:

Iles also used the word form with an interesting metaphor:

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As regards how practical it is to use a lens of ice to make fire, there are several webpages to read, including the well-illustrated Starting Fire With an Ice Lens by Bob Gillis.

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Nature bears long with those who wrong her. She is patient under abuse. But when abuse has gone too far, when the time of reckoning finally comes, she is equally slow to be appeased and to turn away her wrath. (1882) -- Nathaniel Egleston, who was writing then about deforestation, but speaks equally well about the danger of climate change today.

Carl Sagan: In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion. (1987) ...(more by Sagan)

Albert Einstein: I used to wonder how it comes about that the electron is negative. Negative-positive—these are perfectly symmetric in physics. There is no reason whatever to prefer one to the other. Then why is the electron negative? I thought about this for a long time and at last all I could think was “It won the fight!” ...(more by Einstein)

Richard Feynman: It is the facts that matter, not the proofs. Physics can progress without the proofs, but we can't go on without the facts ... if the facts are right, then the proofs are a matter of playing around with the algebra correctly. ...(more by Feynman)

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