and spark arrestors Fires may produce sparks as updrafts carry particles of the burning fuel aloft. This was a great problem with steam locomotives as the sparks might set fire to the adjacent landscape or even to the train itself, especially if the engine burned wood rather than coal. To prevent this dangerous nuisance, a variety of spark arrestors were invented and fitted. The chimneys and exhausts of other fuel-burning engines such as steam engines or internal combustion engines might also have spark arrestors fitted if there would be a fire risk from their operation. For example, a trail bike might be fitted with a centrifugal arrestor, which will trap glowing hot pieces of soot. Symbolism The significance of a spark as a source for a flame or a conflagration shows clearly, for example, in the naming and motto of Lenin's newspaper Iskra [The Spark]. The spark metaphor has often been used in philosophy since Stoicism and, recently, after Jacques Lacan. The “creative spark” has come to be considered as inherent to metaphor itself. Hasidic philosophy contains a doctrine of holy sparks (nitzotzot) from the kabbalism of Isaac Luria in which there is a duty to gather the sundered light of creation. In the Book of Job (Job 5:7), it is written, "Yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward." The use by King James' translators of the word sparks here is a poetic one rather than a literal one. The sparks of fire are identified by some translators as the sons of Resheph - a Canaanite deity of lightning and pestilence. See also Electric arc Lightning Short circuit Ember References Fire