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What did Robert Hooke suggest about the active part of air in combustion?
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combustion
Learn about the chemistry of lighting a match.
In 1665, the English scientist Robert Hooke proposed that air contains an active component that, when heated, combines with combustible substances to produce flame. This insight was a significant early step in understanding the nature of combustion, as it moved away from purely metaphysical explanations toward the idea that specific chemical interactions were responsible for burning.1