empty. In order to prove this to you, I have only to empty it. The reason
is this, the wire, being once wetted, remains wet; the meshes are so
small that the fluid is attracted so strongly from the one side to the
other, as to remain in the vessel although it is porous. In like manner
the particles of melted tallow ascend the cotton and get to the top; other
particles then follow by their mutual attraction for each other, and as
they reach the flame they are gradually burned.
Here is another application of the same principle. You see this bit of
cane. I have seen boys about the streets, who are very anxious to appear
like men, take a piece of cane, and light it and smoke it, as an imitation
of a cigar. They are enabled to do so by the permeability of the cane in
one direction, and by its capillarity. If I place this piece of cane on a
plate containing some camphine (which is very much like paraffin in its
general character), exactly in the same manner as the blue fluid rose
through the salt will this fluid rise through the piece of cane. There
being no pores at the side, the fluid cannot go in that direction, but
must pass through its length. Already the fluid is at the top of the cane:
now I can light it and make it serve as a candle. The fluid has risen by
the capillary attraction of the piece of cane, just as it does through the
cotton in the candle.
Now, the only reason why the candle does not burn all down the side of the
wick is, that the melted tallow extinguishes the flame. You know that a
candle, if turned upside-down, so as to allow the fuel to run upon the
wick, will be put out. The reason is, that the flame has not had time to
make the fuel hot enough to burn, as it does above, where it is carried in
small quantities into the wick, and has all the effect of the heat
exercised upon it.
There is another condition which you must learn as regards the candle,
without which you would not be able fully to understand the philosophy of
it, and that is the vaporous condition of the fuel. In order that you may
understand that, let me shew you a very pretty, but very common-place
experiment. If you blow a candle out cleverly, you will see the vapour
rise from it. You have, I know, often smelt the vapour of a blown-out
candle and a very bad smell it is; but if you blow it out cleverly, you
will be able to see pretty well the vapour into which this solid matter is
transformed. I will blow out one of these candles in such a way as not to
disturb the air around it, by the continuing action of my breath; and now,
11