re-oxidation

Updated: May 23, 2025

This is the process of combustion. Observations and experiments on decaying wood have been made, showing that the amount of heat developed by the combustion of a mass of wood, though much more intense for a time, is the same in amount as that which is set free by the slower process of re-oxidation by gradual decay; both being the equivalent of the amount absorbed by the leaves from the sun, in the process of deoxidizing the carbon and hydrogen when the wood was formed.

Jacob Abbott - Gentle Measures in the Management and Training of the Young: Or, the Principles on Which a Firm Parental Authority May Be: Established and Maintained, Without Violence or Anger, and the Right: Development of the Moral and Mental Capacities Be Promoted by Methods: in Harmony with the Structure and the Characteristics of the Juvenile: Mind