
A 2012 DeviantArt.com “fiery tongue” (Ѻ) with the James 3.5 "spark of the tongue" quote overlaid.

A 2012 DeviantArt.com “fiery tongue” (Ѻ) with the James 3.5 "spark of the tongue" quote overlaid.

In hmolscience, “spark of the tongue” (James, 150), “torch of the spoken word” (Hitler, 1925), or “heated speeches” (Beg, 1987), refers to the parallel of the ability of the tongue, in thermal word usage, to enflame social matter, e.g. a person, crowd, or society, sometimes resulting in social combustion (see: social combustion theory), WWI (1914-1918) and WWII (1939-1945) being two historically detailed examples were "words" produced heated "war" (see: hot war | cold war), similar to the ability of a spark or torch in lighting a forest fire, via the triggering of activation energy (see: social activation energy).

James 3:5
In circa 150, James, in the fifth of his twenty-two epistles (didactic letter), as found in the New Testament of the Bible, compared the enflamement capability of speech in a dry ear or crowd to that of a spark in kindling or a dry forest; the in-context statement of which James 3:3-6, according to King James Version (1611) translation, reads as follows: [1]

“Behold, we put bits in the horses' mouths, that they may obey us; and we turn about their whole body. Behold also the ships, which though they be so great, and are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small helm, whithersoever the governor listeth. Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature.”

The modern rendition (Ѻ) of James 3:5, according to the New Living Translation (1996), is as follows:

“The tongue is a small part of the body that makes grand speeches, similar to tiny spark that sets a great forest on fire.”

(add discussion)

Lotka
In 1925, Alfred Lotka, in his §17: “The Carbon Dioxide Cycle”, opened to the following section of James 3:5: [8]

“Behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth.”
— James (150AD), Epistle of James, in: Bible, James 3:5

Lotka goes on in the opening of this chapter, building on his previous chapter §1:Regarding Definitions, to argue that the flame model of life is untenable:

“If the lamp of life is a poetic symbol, it is an image essentially true to fact. Not only is life, in particular animal life, largely a combustion process: like the flame, life reaches out for fuel, and with the power gained, strains again for more. Like the flame it consumes, and it spreads. And as the fire sends out sparks, of which many die, but a few, falling upon favorable ground, flare up as a second generation, in reproduction of the parent flame; so the living creature scatters its seed, some to die, but some also to live again the life of the parent.

‘But’, someone perhaps will remark, ‘a fire may start without preexisting flame; whereas all life is itself begotten of life.’ Is this distinction really so fundamental? In nature undisturbed by man the starting of a fire spontaneously is a rare event; and that, after all, is the most that we can say positively regarding the origination of life from the non-living it is either so rare or so unobtrusive an event as to have escaped our observation.

Compare F. J. Allen's view, as presented by L. L. Woodruff in The Evolution of the Earth and its Inhabitants, 1919, p. 102: "Life at this stage was of the humblest kind, since there were no definite organisms, only diffuse substances trading in energy, and between this stage and the evolution of cellular organisms an immense period elapsed." If this picture of the beginning of life is true to fact, the process was unobtrusive; probably, if we were shown a specimen of such elementary "living" matter, we should not recognize it as such. All this is in accord with what has been said in an earlier chapter regarding the definition of life. If we continue to use the word life, this is merely a matter of convenience and does not imply any departure from the point of view set forth in the opening chapters [§1:Regarding Definitions]. See also (pg. 19):

‘We shall, wherever convenient, continue to employ the terms life, living organism, merely as a matter of convenience. This use of the terms does not imply or resuppose any precise distinction between living and non-living matter; it merely rests upon the fact that in most cases ordinarily met there is essentially universal agreement as to whether a portion of matter is to be classed in the first or in the second category. We will adopt the policy of Sir William Bayliss:

“If asked to define life I should be inclined to do as Poinsot, the mathematician did, as related by Claude Bernard: ‘If anyone asked me to define time, I should reply: Do you know what it is that you speak of? If he said Yes, I should say, Very well, let us talk about it. If he said No, I should say, Very well, let us talk about something else’.”

The ideal definition is, undoubtedly, the quantitative definition, one that tells us how to measure the thing defined; or, at the least, one that furnishes a basis for the quantitative treatment of the subject to which it relates. We have already spoken of evolution. Most of what follows will relate directly or indirectly to evolution. It will be well here, while discussing definitions, to establish a definition, a conception, of evolution that shall, as far as may be, have the quantitative stamp.’

No doubt it took man many thousands of years to acquire the art of lighting a fire, may not in the lapse of time a second Prometheus arise to teach us also how to kindle the torch of life? Let us not delay his coming by closing our minds to the possibility.”

To this last section, Lotka he attaches a note [N2] about the history of the secret of the spark, guarded by the Romans, made possible the work of others, as information passed along.


In 1925, Hitler alluded to the idea that the "torch of the spoken word", when thrown into the crowd, can act as something that starts a social fire, akin to a spark igniting gasoline combustion or a torch thrown into a large pile mound of dry wood, an action depicted in a scene from the 1987 film Predator, above left, wherein Dutch (Arnold Schwarzenegger ) throws a lit torch onto the a large pile of dry wood on the forest floor; which would give seem to suggest that the people of Germany going into the mid to late 1930s were becoming akin to a type of dry wood or combustible substance at or near its flash point (spark required) or autoignition temperature (no spark required), depending. [4]

In 1925, Hitler alluded to the idea that the "torch of the spoken word", when thrown into the crowd, can act as something that starts a social fire, akin to a spark igniting gasoline combustion or a torch thrown into a large pile mound of dry wood, an action depicted in a scene from the 1987 film Predator, above left, wherein Dutch (Arnold Schwarzenegger ) throws a lit torch onto the a large pile of dry wood on the forest floor; which would give seem to suggest that the people of Germany going into the mid to late 1930s were becoming akin to a type of dry wood or combustible substance at or near its flash point (spark required) or autoignition temperature (no spark required), depending. [4]

Hitler
In 1925, Adolf Hitler, in his Mein Kampf, stated the following: [2]

“All great movements are popular movements. They are the volcanic eruptions of human passions and emotions, stirred into activity by the ruthless goddess of distress or by the torch of the spoken word cast into the midst of the people.”

Here we see Hitler conceptualizing the “spoken word” as something that can act like an activation energy lowering factor to the triggering of a large scale social chemical reaction, the way a match can ignite wood or gasoline in a combustion reaction.

Hitler, by 1934, true to his national socialism philosophy, no-doubt using the above model in mindset, had seized complete control of Germany and by 1938 had begun to occupy Austria and parts of Czechoslovakia, by 1939 Poland, by 1940 Denmark, Norway, Holland, Belgium, France, Romania, and Yugoslavia, and by 1941 had begun to invade Russia, with supposed aims to conquer all of Europe. [5]

The combustion process typically can be started in two ways, namely by bring a substance to its flash point, the temperature at which a substance will ignite when a spark or flame is applied, or by bringing a substance to its kindling point or autoignition temperature, the temperature at which a substance will ignite, without the need of an applied spark or flame. The autoignition temperature of a substance is the lowest temperature at which it will spontaneously ignite (spontaneous combustion) in a normal atmosphere without an external source of ignition, such as a flame or spark. This temperature is required to supply the activation energy needed for combustion.


Another remote explanation to Hitler’s theory that the “torch of the spoken word”, when cast into the crowd, can bring about revolution and or war, knowing that sound is but air vibrations pulsed in waves of certain frequency, impacting on the eardrum, is the comparison of certain crystallization and or freezing processes that will trigger when the test tube is tapped on or supercooled water bottle banged on (above video); see also Mpemba effect and war.

Another remote explanation to Hitler’s theory that the “torch of the spoken word”, when cast into the crowd, can bring about revolution and or war, knowing that sound is but air vibrations pulsed in waves of certain frequency, impacting on the eardrum, is the comparison of certain crystallization and or freezing processes that will trigger when the test tube is tapped on or supercooled water bottle banged on (above video); see also Mpemba effect and war.

Social pressure
The temperature at which a chemical will ignite, to note, decreases as the pressure or oxygen concentration increases. [6] Here, we may see, by extrapolation, via human chemical reaction theory, that the increase in the social pressure in Germany in the early 1930s may have worked to lower the autoignition temperature of the German people, and thus may have ignited on its own without the need of an external spark or flame to cross the activation energy barrier. Hitler, however, seems to have argued that his "spoken words" acted as the activation energy spark or flame, which would imply that the Germans were at or near their flash point, not their autoignition temperature, in July 1934, after the death of President Hindenburg, Hitler declares himself “Fuehrer and Reich Chancellor” over German and abolishes the title of President.

“At the risk of appearing to talk nonsense I tell you that the national socialist movement will go on for 1,000 years!... Don't forget how people laughed at me 15 years ago when I declared that one day I would govern Germany. They laugh now, just as foolishly, when I declare that I shall remain in power!”
— Adolf Hitler (1934), to a British correspondent in Berlin, June [7]

Technically, it would seem to be possible that spoken words (sound) could be employed as a means to start a fire they way rubbing of sticks together can create fire in leaves or kindling via friction. Although, it is difficult to find a citation, it has been suggested that as sound transmitted through powerful speakers can create vibration in objects, that such vibrations in materials rubbing against each other could work to start a fire via heated-generated friction, hence validating Hitler's spoken word argument.

Oxidant concentration
In respect to autoignition temperature being lowering when the oxygen concentration increases, in respect to the German people, this extrapolation is more blurry. Combustion, technically, is a sequence of exothermic chemical reactions between a fuel and an oxidant accompanied by the production of heat and conversion of chemical species. The following is a typical combustion reaction between methane (fuel) and oxygen (oxidant):

$CH_{4(g)} + 2O_{2(g)} \to CO_{2(g)} + 2H_2O_{(g)}$

In comparison to Hitler's spoken words social ignition model, it would seem that the fuel is the German people and the oxidant are the people of the surrounding countries, that when put into contact or mixed can ignite, given the right temperature and possibly the right spark or spoken words.

Beg
In 1987, Pakistani organometallic chemist Mirza Beg, in his New Dimensions in Sociology, outlined the following so-called "speech heat theory", in respect to the period shortly before the riots and manslaughter of Direct Action Day (16 Aug 1946), as follows: [3]

“The speeches made by Hindu extremists generated high heat in their society. Their emotions were set so high as to interact with violent force with the Muslims and this led to widespread riots, killings, arson and looting.”

This, supposedly, was one of the reaction mechanism steps that led to India and Pakistan to becoming independent and self-governing, in the so-called timeline of British India. (Ѻ)


A depiction of the sound of "tree crackling" acting as a sound-induced trigger action, resulting in the "flee reaction"; which can be scaled up to social words and speech producing similar combustion-like human chemical reactions, whether love or war.

A depiction of the sound of "tree crackling" acting as a sound-induced trigger action, resulting in the "flee reaction"; which can be scaled up to social words and speech producing similar combustion-like human chemical reactions, whether love or war.

References
1. (a) James 3:5 – BibleHub.com.
(b) Epistle of James – Wikipedia.
2. Hitler, Adolf. (1925). Mein Kampf, Volume 1 (ch. 3) (Ѻ). Publisher.
3. Beg, Mirza Arshad Ali. (1987). New Dimensions in Sociology: a Physico-Chemical Approach to Human Behavior (abs) (intro) (speeches, pg. 107). Karachi: The Hamdard Foundation.
4. (a) Flash point – Wikipedia.
(b) Autoignition temperature – Wikipedia.
5. (a) Hitler’s rise and fall (timeline) – Open.edu.
(b) Adolf Hitler’s rise to power – Wikipedia.
6. Spontaneous combustion – Wikipedia.
7. Anon. (1934). “Germany: Second Revolution?” (WB) (abs), Time, Jul 02.
8. Lotka, Alfred J. (1925). Elements of Physical Biology (republished (Ѻ) as: Elements of Mathematical Biology, which includes: corrections from Lotka’s notes and a completed list of his publications) (pdf) (Ѻ) (txt) (pg. 218). Dover, 1956.