A Course of Six Lectures on the Chemical History of a Candle: To which is Added a Lecture on Platinum |
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apparatus apply ARGAND LAMP atmos atmosphere barrel battery beautiful bladder blow boil the water bonic bottom BREATH ON LIME-WATER bulk BURNED IN OXYGEN burnt bustion carbon burns carbonic acid chemical coals cold condensed cotton cubic foot DECOMPOSITION OF WATER dish duced easily examine experiment flame float fluid freezing mixture fuel full of steam give goes on burning heat hold hydrogen iridium kind lamp LEAD PYROPHORUS LECTURE light lime little piece lungs LYCOPODIUM melted metal mosphere nitrogen observe paraffine particles periment phere phosphorus piece of charcoal plate platinum potassium PRODUCT OF COMBUSTION quantity red-hot result set fire shape side Sir Humphrey Davy spermaceti stearin sulphur suste take a glass take a piece take fire takes place tallow taper thing vapor vessel voltaic voltaic pile water into steam water produced weight wick wires wonderful
Popular passages
Page 12 - George* it is said, by Colonel Pasley. It has been sunk in the sea for many years, subject to the action of salt water. It shows you how well candles may be preserved; for though it is cracked about and broken a good deal, yet, when lighted, it goes on burning regularly, and the tallow resumes its natural condition as soon as it is fused. Mr. Field, of Lambeth, has supplied me abundantly with beautiful illustrations of the candle and its materials. I shall therefore now refer to them. And, first,...
Page 37 - I suppose some here will have made for themselves the experiment I am going to show you. Am I right in supposing that any body here has played at snapdragon? I do not know a more beautiful illustration of the philosophy of flame, as to a certain part of its history, than the game of snapdragon. First, here is the dish; and let me say, that when you play snapdragon properly you ought to have the dish well warmed; you ought also to have warm plums, and warm brandy, which, however, I have not got. When...
Page 23 - It is by what is called capillary attraction that the fuel is conveyed to the part where combustion goes on, and is deposited there, not in a careless way, but very beautifully in the very midst of the centre of action, which takes place around it. Now I am going to give you one or two instances of capillary attraction. It is that kind of action or attraction which makes two things that do not dissolve in each other still hold together. When you wash your hands, you wet them thoroughly; you take...
Page 45 - I make the experiment) — and you will find that it is burnt in two places, and that it is not burnt, or very little so, in the middle ; and when you have tried the experiment once or twice, so as to make it nicely, you will be very interested to see where the heat is, and to find that it is where the air and the fuel come together. This is most important for us as we proceed with our subject. Air is absolutely necessary for combustion ; and, what is more, I must have you understand that fresh air...
Page 63 - The heat that is in the flame of a candle decomposes the vapor of the wax, and sets free the carbon particles; they rise up heated and glowing as this now glows, and then enter into the air. But the particles, when burnt, never pass off from a candle in the form of carbon. They go off into the air as a perfectly invisible substance, about which we shall know hereafter. Is it not beautiful to think that such a process is going on, and that such a dirty thing as charcoal can become so incandescent?...
Page 69 - ... it goes through its Protean changes, is entirely and absolutely the same thing, whether it is produced from a candle, by combustion, or from the rivers or ocean. First of all, water, when at the coldest, is ice. Now we philosophers — I hope that I may class you and myself together in this case — speak of water as water, whether it be in its solid, or liquid, or gaseous state — we speak of it chemically as water. Water is a thing compounded of two substances, one of which we have derived...