Waldrop, Howard. "…The World as We Know't"
Divergence: c 1880 CE
What if: Phlogiston exists.
Summary: A late 19th-century scientist attempts to isolate pure phlogiston, with apocalyptic results.
Published: In Shayol #6; Howard Who? Twelve Outstanding Stories of Speculative Fiction, Doubleday 1986 (038519708X), Small Beer 2006 (1931520186BUY); Strange Things in Close-Up, Legend 1989 (0099644401); The Norton Book of Science Fiction: North American Science Fiction, 1960-1990 (eds. Ursula K. LeGuin and Brian Attebery), Norton 1993 (0393034568); and Armageddons (eds. Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois), Ace 1999 (0441006752BUY).
Original in: English.
Translation: French by Pierre K. Ray and Jacques Chambon as "Ainsi va le monde…", in Ces chers vieux monstres, Denoël/Presence du Futur 1990 (2207305139).