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The Chemical History of a Candle Michael Faraday Public domain text from Project Gutenberg. THE CHEMICAL HISTORY OF A CANDLE A COURSE OF LECTURES DELIVERED BEFORE A JUVENILE AUDIENCE AT THE ROYAL INSTITUTION BY MICHAEL FARADAY, D.C.L., F.R.S. EDITED BY WILLIAM CROOKES, F.C.S. A NEW IMPRESSION, WITH ILLUSTRATIONS LONDON CHATTO & WINDUS 1908 PREFACE From the primitive pine-torch to the paraffin candle, how wide an interval! between them how vast a contrast! The means adopted by man to illuminate his home at night, stamp at once his position in the scale of civilisation. The fluid bitumen of the far East, blazing in rude vessels of baked earth; the Etruscan lamp, exquisite in form, yet ill adapted to its office; the whale, seal, or bear fat, filling the hut of the Esquimaux or Lap with odour rather than light; the huge wax candle on the glittering 1 altar, the range of gas lamps in our streets, all have their stories to tell. All, if they could speak (and, after their own manner, they can), might warm our hearts in telling, how they have ministered to man s comfort, love of home, toil, and devotion. Surely, among the millions of fire-worshippers and fire-users who have passed away in earlier ages, _some_ have pondered over the mystery of fire; perhaps some clear minds have guessed shrewdly near the truth. Think of the time man has lived in hopeless ignorance: think that only during a period which might be spanned by the life of one man, has the truth been…

The Chemical History of a Candle

Page 43 of 90, printed 43

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be which we find as the other constituent in water, and which must therefore be that substance which made the hydrogen burn? We know that the water we put into the vessel consisted of the two things together. We find one of these is hydrogen: what must that other be which was in the water before the experiment, and which we now have by itself? I am about to put this lighted splinter of wood into the gas. The gas itself will not burn, but it will make the splinter of wood burn. [The Lecturer ignited the end of the wood, and introduced it into the jar of gas.] See how it invigorates the combustion of the wood, and how it makes it burn far better than the air would make it burn; and now you see by itself that every other substance which is contained in the water, and which, when the water was formed by the burning of the candle, must have been taken from the atmosphere. What shall we call it, A, B, or C? Let us call it O call it Oxygen: it is a very good distinct-sounding name. This, then, is the oxygen which was present in the water, forming so large a part of it. We shall now begin to understand more clearly our experiments and researches; because, when we have examined these things once or twice, we shall soon see why a candle burns in the air. When we have in this way analysed the water that is to say, separated, or electrolysed its parts out of it we get two volumes of hydrogen, and one of the body that burns it. And these two are represented to us on the following diagram, with their weights also stated; and we shall find that the oxygen is a very heavy body by comparison with the hydrogen. It is the other element in water. I had better, perhaps, tell you now how we get this oxygen abundantly, having shewn you how we can separate it from the water. Oxygen, as you will immediately imagine, exists in the atmosphere; for how should the candle burn to produce water without it? _____________________ | | | | 1 | 8 | | | | | | Oxygen. | Oxygen, . . . . 88.9 | | | | |_________| Hydrogen, . . . 11.1 | Hydrogen. | | | 9 Water,. . . . . 100.0 43

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The Chemical History of a Candle