Monday, January the 31th, 2011

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Gas

“Gas was given its name after Greek ‘chaos' by the Dutch chemist J B van Helmont in a book published in 1652. It passed into English towards the end of the century, and was then defined as ‘a Spirit that will not coagulate, or the Spirit of Life’.”

Marina Warner, Phantasmagoria : Spirit Visions, Metaphors, And Media Into The Twenty-First Century (2006)