THE CHEMICAL HISTORY OF A CANDLEBY
MICHAEL FARADAY
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for educational purposes at Tokyo Woman’s Christian University and hopefully in any
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THE CHEMICALHISTORY OF A CANDLE
A COURSE OF LECTURES DELIVERED BEFORE A JUVENILE
AUDIENCE AT THE ROYAL INSTITUTIONBY

MICHAEL FARADAY, D.C.L., F.R.S.

EDITED BY
WILLIAM CROOKES, F.C.S.
A NEW IMPRESSION, WITH ILLUSTRATIONSLONDONCHATTO & 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 atnight, 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 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 inhopeless ignorance: think that only during a period which might be spanned by the lifeof one man, has the truth been known.
Atom by atom, link by link, has the reasoning chain been forged. Some links, tooquickly and too slightly made, have given way, and been replaced by better work; but
now the great phenomena are known--the outline is correctly and firmly drawn-cunning artists are filling in the rest, and the child who masters these Lectures knows
more of fire than Aristotle did.
The candle itself is now made to light up the dark places of nature; the blowpipe
and the prism are adding to our knowledge of the earth's crust; but the torch must comefirst.
Among the readers of this book some few may devote themselves to increasing
the stores of knowledge: the Lamp of Science must burn. “Alere flammam.”

W. CROOKES.

CONTENTS.
LECTURE I.
A CANDLE: THE FLAME--ITS SOURCES--STRUCTURE--MOBILITY-BRIGHTNESSLECTURE II.
BRIGHTNESS OF THE FLAME--AIR NECESSARY FOR COMBUSTION-PRODUCTION OF WATERLECTURE III.
PRODUCTS: WATER FROM THE COMBUSTION--NATURE OF WATER--ACOMPOUND--HYDROGENLECTURE IV.
HYDROGEN IN THE CANDLE--BURNS INTO WATER--THE OTHER PART OF
WATER--OXYGENLECTURE V.
OXYGEN PRESENT IN THE AIR--NATURE OF THE ATMOSPHERE--ITSPROPERTIES--OTHER PRODUCTS FROM THE CANDLE--CARBONIC ACID-ITS PROPERTIESLECTURE VI.
CARBON OR CHARCOAL--COAL GAS--RESPIRATION AND ITS ANALOGY
TO THE BURNING OF A CANDLE--CONCLUSIONLECTURE I.
A CANDLE: THE FLAME--ITS SOURCES--STRUCTURE--MOBILITY-BRIGHTNESS.

I purpose, in return for the honour you do us by coming to see what are ourproceedings here, to bring before you, in the course of these lectures, the Chemical
History of a Candle. I have taken this subject on a former occasion; and were it left to
my own will, I should prefer to repeat it almost every year--so abundant is the interest
that attaches itself to the subject, so wonderful are the varieties of outlet which it offers
into the various departments of philosophy. There is not a law under which any part ofthis universe is governed which does not come into play, and is touched upon in these
phenomena. There is no better, there is no more open door by which you can enter into
the study of natural philosophy, than by considering the physical phenomena of acandle. I trust, therefore, I shall not disappoint you in choosing this for my subject
rather than any newer topic, which could not be better, were it even so good.
And before proceeding, let me say this also--that though our subject be so great,and our intention that of treating it honestly, seriously, and philosophically, yet I mean
to pass away from all those who are seniors amongst us. I claim the privilege of
speaking to juveniles as a juvenile myself. I have done so on former occasions--and, if
you please, I shall do so again. And though I stand here with the knowledge of having
the words I utter given to the world, yet that shall not deter me from speaking in thesame familiar way to those whom I esteem nearest to me on this occasion.
And now, my boys and girls, I must first tell you of what candles are made.
Some are great curiosities. I have here some bits of timber, branches of trees particularly
famous for their burning. And here you see a piece of that very curious substance takenout of some of the bogs in Ireland, called candle-wood, --a hard, strong, excellent wood,evidently fitted for good work as a resister of force, and yet withal burning so well that
where it is found they make splinters of it, and torches, since it burns like a candle, andgives a very good light indeed. And in this wood we have one of the most beautiful
illustrations of the general nature of a candle that I can possibly give. The fuel provided,
the means of bringing that fuel to the place of chemical action, the regular and gradualsupply of air to that place of action--heat and light--all produced by a little piece ofwood of this kind, forming, in fact, a natural candle.
But we must speak of candles as they are in commerce. Here are a couple ofcandles commonly called dips. They are made of lengths of cotton cut off, hung up by aloop, dipped into melted tallow, taken out again and cooled, then re-dipped until there isan accumulation of tallow round the cotton. In order that you may have an idea of thevarious characters of these candles, you see these which I hold in my hand--they arevery small, and very curious. They are, or were, the candles used by the miners in coalmines. In olden times the miner had to find his own candles; and it was supposed that asmall candle would not so soon set fire to the fire-damp in the coal mines as a large one;and for that reason, as well as for economy's sake, he had candles made of this sort--20,
30, 40, or 60 to the pound. They have been replaced since then by the steel-mill, andthen by the Davy-lamp, and other safety-lamps of various kinds. I have here a candle

that was taken out of the Royal George1, it is said, by Colonel Pasley. It has been sunk inthe sea for many years, subject to the action of salt water. It shews you how well candles
may be preserved; for though it is cracked about and broken a good deal, yet, whenlighted, it goes on burning regularly, and the tallow resumes its natural condition assoon 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, there is thesuet--the fat of the ox--Russian tallow, I believe, employed in the manufacture of these
dips, which Gay Lussac, or some one who entrusted him with his knowledge, converted
into that beautiful substance, stearin, which you see lying beside it. A candle, you know,
is not now a greasy thing like an ordinary tallow candle, but a clean thing, and you may
almost scrape off and pulverise the drops which fall from it without soiling anything.
This is the process he adopted2:--The fat or tallow is first boiled with quick-lime, andmade into a soap, and then the soap is decomposed by sulphuric acid, which takes away
the lime, and leaves the fat re-arranged as stearic acid, whilst a quantity of glycerin is
produced at the same time. Glycerin--absolutely a sugar, or a substance similar tosugar--comes out of the tallow in this chemical change. The oil is then pressed out of it;
and you see here this series of pressed cakes, shewing how beautifully the impurities arecarried out by the oily part as the pressure goes on increasing, and at last you have leftthat substance which is melted, and cast into candles as here represented. The candle I
have in my hand is a stearin candle, made of stearin from tallow in the way I have told
you. Then here is a sperm candle, which comes from the purified oil of the spermaceti
whale. Here also are yellow bees-wax and refined bees-wax, from which candles are
made. Here, too, is that curious substance called paraffin, and some paraffin candles
made of paraffin obtained from the bogs of Ireland. I have here also a substance broughtfrom Japan, since we have forced an entrance into that out-of-the-way place--a sort ofwax which a kind friend has sent me, and which forms a new material for the
manufacture of candles.
And how are these candles made? I have told you about dips, and I will shew
you how moulds are made. Let us imagine any of these candles to be made of materials
which can be cast. “Cast!” you say. “Why, a candle is a thing that melts; and surely if
you can melt it, you can cast it.” Not so. It is wonderful, in the progress of manufacture,and in the consideration of the means best fitted to produce the required result, how
things turn up which one would not expect beforehand. Candles cannot always be cast.
A wax candle can never be cast. It is made by a particular process, which I can illustrate
1 The Royal George sunk at Spithead on The 29th of August, 1782. Colonel Pasley commenced
operations for the removal of the wreck by the explosion of gunpowder, in August, 1839. The
candle which Professor Faraday exhibited must therefore have been exposed to the action of salt
water for upwards of fifty-seven years.
2 The fat or tallow consists of a chemical combination of fatty acids with glycerine. The lime
unites with the palmitic, oleic, and stearic acids, and separates the glycerine. After waashing, theinsoluble lime soap is decomposed with hot dilute sulphuric acid. The melted fatty acids thus riseas an oil to the surface, when they are decanted. They are again washed and cast into thin plates,
which, when cold, are placed between layers of cocoa-nut matting, and submitted to intense
hydraulic pressure. In this way the soft oleic acid is squeezed out, whilst the hard palmitic andstearic acids remain. These are further purified by pressure at a higher temperature, and washingin warm dilute sulphuric acid, when they are ready to be made into candles. These acids are
harder and whiter than the fats from which they were obtained, whilst at the same time they arecleaner and more combustible.

in a minute or two: but I must not spend much time on it. Wax is a thing which, burning
so well, and melting so easily in a candle, cannot be cast. However, let us take amaterial that can be cast. Here is a frame, with a number of moulds fastened in it. The
first thing to be done is to put a wick through them. Here is one--a plaited wick, which
does not require snuffing3--supported by a little wire. It goes to the bottom, where it ispegged in--the little peg holding the cotton tight, and stopping the aperture, so that
nothing fluid shall run out. At the upper part there is a little bar placed across, which
stretches the cotton and holds it in the mould. The tallow is then melted, and the moulds
are filled. After a certain time, when the moulds are cool, the excess of tallow is poured
off at one corner, and then cleaned off altogether, and the ends of the wick cut away.
The candles alone then remain in the mould, and you have only to upset them, as I am
doing, when out they tumble, for the candles are made in the form of cones, being
narrower at the top than at the bottom; so that what with their form and their own
shrinking, they only need a little shaking, and out they fall. In the same way are madethese candles of stearin and of paraffin. It is a curious thing to see how wax candles are
made. A lot of cottons are hung upon frames, as you see here, and covered with metaltags at the ends to keep the wax from covering the cotton in those places. These arecarried to a heater, where the wax is melted. As you see, the frames can turn round; andas they turn, a man takes a vessel of wax and pours it first down one, and then the next
and the next, and so on. When he has gone once round, if it is sufficiently cool, he gives
the first a second coat, and so on until they are all of the required thickness. When they
have been thus clothed, or fed, or made up to that thickness, they are taken off, andplaced elsewhere. I have here, by the kindness of Mr. Field, several specimens of thesecandles. Here is one only half-finished. They are then taken down, and well rolled upona fine stone slab, and the conical top is moulded by properly shaped tubes, and thebottoms cut off and trimmed. This is done so beautifully that they can make candles inthis way weighing exactly four, or six, to the pound, or any number they please.
We must not, however, take up more time about the mere manufacture, but go alittle further into the matter. I have not yet referred you to luxuries in candles (for there
is such a thing as luxury in candles). See how beautifully these are coloured: you see
here mauve, magenta, and all the chemical colours recently introduced, applied to
candles. You observe, also, different forms employed. Here is a fluted pillar mostbeautifully shaped; and I have also here some candles sent me by Mr. Pearsall, which
are ornamented with designs upon them, so that as they burn you have as it were a
glowing sun above, and a bouquet of flowers beneath. All, however, that is fine andbeautiful is not useful. These fluted candles, pretty as they are, are bad candles; they arebad because of their external shape. Nevertheless, I shew you these specimens sent tome from kind friends on all sides, that you may see what is done, and what may be donein this or that direction; although, as I have said, when we come to these refinements,
we are obliged to sacrifice a little in utility.
Now, as to the light of the candle. We will light one or two, and set them at workin the performance of their proper functions. You observe a candle is a very different
thing from a lamp. With a lamp you take a little oil, fill your vessel, put in a little mossor some cotton prepared by artificial means, and then light the top of the wick. Whenthe flame runs down the cotton to the oil, it gets extinguished, but it goes on burning in
the part above. Now, I have no doubt you will ask, how is it that the oil, which will notburn of itself, gets up to the top of the cotton, where it will burn? We shall presently
3 A little borax or phosphorus salt is sometimes added, in order to make the ash fusible.

examine that; but there is a much more wonderful thing about the burning of a candle
than this. You have here a solid substance with no vessel to contain it; and how is it that
this solid substance can get up to the place where the flame is? How is it that this solidgets there, it not being a fluid? or, when it is made a fluid, then how is it that it keeps
together? This is a wonderful thing about a candle.
We have here a good deal of wind, which will help us in some of ourillustrations, but tease us in others; for the sake, therefore, of a little regularity, and tosimplify the matter, I shall make a quiet flame--for who can study a subject when there
are difficulties in the way not belonging to it? Here is a clever invention of somecostermonger or street stander in the market-place for the shading of their candles on
Saturday nights, when they are selling their greens, or potatoes, or fish. I have very
often admired it. They put a lamp-glass round the candle, supported on a kind of gallery,
which clasps it, and it can be slipped up and down as required. By the use of this lampglass, employed in the same way, you have a steady flame, which you can look at, andcarefully examine, as I hope you will do, at home.
You see, then, in the first instance, that a beautiful cup is formed. As the air
comes to the candle it moves upwards by the force of the current which the heat of thecandle produces, and it so cools all the sides of the wax, tallow, or fuel, as to keep theedge much cooler than the part within; the part within melts by the flame that runs down
the wick as far as it can go before it is extinguished, but the part on the outside does not
melt. If I made a current in one direction, my cup would be lop-sided, and the fluid
would consequently run over,--for the same force of gravity which holds worlds
together holds this fluid in a horizontal position, and if the cup be not horizontal, ofcourse the fluid will run away in guttering. You see, therefore, that the cup is formed bythis beautifully regular ascending current of air playing upon all sides, which keeps theexterior of the candle cool. No fuel would serve for a candle which has not the propertyof giving this cup, except such fuel as the Irish bogwood, where the material itself islike a sponge, and holds its own fuel. You see now why you would have had such a bad
result if you were to burn these beautiful candles that I have shewn you, which are
irregular, intermittent in their shape, and cannot therefore have that nicely-formed edge
to the cup which is the great beauty in a candle. I hope you will now see that theperfection of a process--that is, its utility--is the better point of beauty about it. It is not
the best looking thing, but the best acting thing, which is the most advantageous to us.
This good-looking candle is a bad burning one. There will be a guttering round about it
because of the irregularity of the stream of air and the badness of the cup which isformed thereby. You may see some pretty examples (and I trust you will notice these
instances) of the action of the ascending current when you have A little gutter run down
the side of a candle, making it thicker there than it is elsewhere. As the candle goes onburning, that keeps its place and forms a little pillar sticking up by the side, because, as
it rises higher above the rest of the wax or fuel, the air gets better round it, and it is morecooled and better able to resist the action of the heat at a little distance. Now, thegreatest mistakes and faults with regard to candles, as in many other things, often bringwith them instruction which we should not receive if they had not occurred. We comehere to be philosophers; and I hope you will always remember that whenever a result
happens, especially if it be new, you should say, “What is the cause? Why does it
occur?” and you will in the course of time find out the reason.
Then, there is another point about these candles which will answer a question,-that is, as to the way in which this fluid gets out of the cup, up the wick, and into theplace of combustion. You know that the flames on these burning wicks in candles madeof beeswax, stearin, or spermaceti, do not run down to the wax or other matter, and melt
it all away, but keep to their own right place. They are fenced off from the fluid below,
and do not encroach on the cup at the sides. I cannot imagine a more beautiful example
than the condition of adjustment under which a candle makes one part subserve to theother to the very end of its action. A combustible thing like that, burning away
gradually, never being intruded upon by the flame, is a very beautiful sight; especiallywhen you come to learn what a vigorous thing flame is--what power it has of destroying
the wax itself when it gets hold of it, and of disturbing its proper form if it come only
too near.
But how does the flame get hold of the fuel? There is a beautiful point about
that--capillary attraction4. “Capillary attraction!” you say, -- “the attraction of hairs.”
Well, never mind the name: it was given in old times, before we had a goodunderstanding of what the real power was. It is by what is called capillary attraction thatthe fuel is conveyed to the part where combustion goes on, and is deposited there, not ina 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 capillaryattraction. It is that kind of action or attraction which makes two things that do notdissolve in each other still hold together. When you wash your hands, you wet themthoroughly; you take a little soap to make the adhesion better, and you find your handremains wet. This is by that kind of attraction of which I am about to speak. And, what
is more, if your hands are not soiled (as they almost always are by the usages of life), if
you put your finger into a little warm water, the water will creep a little way up thefinger, though you may not stop to examine it. I have here a substance which is rather
porous--a column of salt--and I will pour into the plateat the bottom, not water, as it appears, but a saturated
solution of salt which cannot absorb more; so that theaction which you see will not be due to its dissolving
anything. We may consider the plate to be the candle,
and the salt the wick, and this solution the melted
tallow. (I have coloured the fluid, that you may see theaction better.) You observe that, now I pour in the fluid,
it rises and gradually creeps up the salt higher andhigher (FIG. 55); and provided the column does not
tumble over, it will go to the top.
If this blue solution were combustible, and we were to place a wick at the top of
the salt, it would burn as it entered into the wick. It is a most curious thing to see thiskind of action taking place, and to observe how singular some of the circumstances areabout it. When you wash your hands, you take a towel to wipe off the water; and it is bythat kind of wetting, or that kind of attraction which makes the towel become wet withwater, that the wick is made wet with the tallow. I have known some careless boys andgirls (indeed, I have known it happen to careful people as well) who, having washedtheir hands and wiped them with a towel, have thrown the towel over the side of the
4 Capillary attraction or repulsion is the cause which determines the ascent or descent of a fluid ina capillary tube. If a piece of thermometer tubing, open at each end, be plunged into water, thelatter will instantly rise in the tube considerably above its external level. If, on the other hand, thetube be plunged into mercury, a repulsion instead of attraction will be exhibited, and the level ofthe mercury will be lower in the tube than it is outside.

basin, and before long it has drawn all the water out of the basin and conveyed it to thefloor, because it happened to be thrown over the side in such a way as to serve thepurpose of a syphon.5 That you may the better see the way in which the substances act
one upon another, I have here a vessel made of wire gauze filled with water, and you
may compare it in its action to the cotton in one respect, or to a piece of calico in theother. In fact, wicks are sometimes made of a kind of wire gauze. You will observe that
this vessel is a porous thing; for if I pour a little water on to the top, it will run out at thebottom. You would be puzzled for a good while if I asked you what the state of thisvessel is, what is inside it, and why it is there? The vessel is full of water, and yet you
see the water goes in and runs out as if it were 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; themeshes 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 haveseen 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 pieceof cane on a plate containing some camphin (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 wickis, 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 thevapour 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 willblow out one of these candles in such a way as not to disturb
5 The late Duke of Sussex was, we believe, the first to shew that a prawn might be washed uponthis principle. If the tail, after pulling off the fan part, be placed in a tumbler of water, and thehead be allowed to hang over the outside, the water will be sucked up the tail by capillaryattraction, and will continue to run out through the head until the water in the glass has sunk so
low that the tail ceases to dip into it.

the air around it, by the continuing action of my breath; and now, if I hold a lighted
taper two or three inches from the wick, you will observe a train of fire going throughthe air till it reaches the candle (FIG. 56). I am obliged to be quick and ready, because, if
I allow the vapour time to cool, it becomes condensed into a liquid or solid, or the
stream of combustible matter gets disturbed.
Now, as to the shape or form of the flame. It concerns us much to know about
the condition which the matter of the candle finally assumes at the top of the wick-where you have such beauty and brightness as nothing but combustion or flame canproduce.
You have the glittering beauty of gold and silver, and the still higher lustre ofjewels, like the ruby and diamond; but none of these rival the brilliancy and beauty offlame. What diamond can shine like flame? It owes its lustre at night-time to the very
flame shining upon it. The flame shines in darkness, but the light which the diamond
has is as nothing until the flame shine upon it, when it is brilliant again. The candle
alone shines by itself, and for itself, or for those who have arranged the materials. Now,
let us look a little at the form of the flame as you see it under the glass shade. It is steadyand equal; and its general form is that which is represented in the diagram (FIG. 57),
varying with atmospheric disturbances, and also varying according to the size of thecandle. It is a bright oblong--brighter at the top than towards the bottom--with the wickin the middle, and besides the wick in the middle, certain darker parts towards thebottom, where the ignition is not so perfect as in the part above.
I have a drawing here, sketched many years ago by Hooker, when he made his
investigations. It is the drawing of the flame of a lamp, but it will apply to the flame of acandle. The cup of the candle is the vessel or lamp, the melted spermaceti is the oil, andthe wick is common to both. Upon that he sets this little flame, and then he represents
what is true--a certain quantity of matter rising about it which you do not see, andwhich, if you have not been here before, or are not familiar with the subject, you will
not know of. He has here represented the parts of the surrounding atmosphere that arevery essential to the flame, and that are always present with it. There is a current
formed, which draws the flame out--for the flame which you see is really drawn out by
the current, and drawn upward to a great height--just as Hooker
has here shewn you by that prolongation of the current in the
diagram (FIG. 58). You may see this by taking a lighted candle,
and putting it in the sun so as to get its shadow thrown on a pieceof paper. How remarkable it is that that thing which is lightenough to produce shadows of other objects, can be made tothrow its own shadow on a piece of white paper or card, so thatyou can actually see streaming round the flame something which
is not part of the flame, but is ascending and drawing the flame
upwards. Now, I am going to imitate the sunlight, by applying thevoltaic battery to the electric lamp. You now see our sun, and its
great luminosity; and by placing a candle between it and thescreen, we get the shadow of the flame.
You observe the shadow of the candle and of the wick; then there is a darkish
part, as represented in the diagram, and then a part which is more distinct. Curiously
enough, however, what we see in the shadow as the darkest part of the flame is, inreality, the brightest part; and here you see streaming upwards the ascending current of
hot air, as shewn by Hooker, which draws out the flame, supplies it with air, and cools

the sides of the cup of melted fuel.
I can give you here a little further illustration, for the purpose of shewing you
how flame goes up or down; according to the current. I have here a flame--it is not a
candle flame--but you can, no doubt, by this time, generalise enough to be able tocompare one thing with another. What I am about to do is to change the ascending
current that takes the flame upwards into a descending current. This I can easily do by
the little apparatus you see before me. The flame, as I have said, is not a candle flame,but it is produced by alcohol, so that it shall not smoke too much. I will also colour theflame with another substance6, so that you may trace its course; for with the spirit alone
you could hardly see well enough to have the opportunity of tracing its direction. Bylighting this spirit-of-wine, we have then a flame produced; and you observe that whenheld in the air, it naturally goes upwards.
You understand now easily enough why flames go up under ordinary
circumstances--it is because of the draught of air by which the combustion is formed.
But now, by blowing the flame down, you see I am enabled to make it go downwards
into this little chimney--the direction of the current being changed (FIG. 59). Before wehave concluded this course of lectures, we shall shew you a lamp in which the flame
goes up and the smoke goes down, or the flame goes down and the smoke goes up. You
see, then, that we have the power in this way of varying the flame in different
directions.
There are now some other points that I must bring before you. Many of theflames you see here vary very much in their shape by the currents of air blowing aroundthem in different directions; but we can, if we like, make flames so that they will look
like fixtures, and we can photograph them--indeed, we have to photograph them--so thatthey become fixed to us, if we wish to find out everything concerning them. That,
however, is not the only thing I wish to mention. If I take a flame sufficiently large, itdoes not keep that homogeneous, that uniform condition of shape, but it breaks out witha power of life which is quite wonderful. I am about to use another kind of fuel, but one
which is truly and fairly a representative of the wax or tallow of a candle. I have here alarge ball of cotton, which will serve as a wick. And, now that I have immersed it in
spirit and applied a light to it, in what way does it differ from an ordinary candle? Why,
it differs very much in one respect, that we have a vivacity and power about it, a beauty
and a life entirely different from the light presented by a candle. You see those fine
tongues of flame rising up. You have the same general disposition of the mass of theflame from below upwards; but, in addition to that, you have this remarkable breaking
out into tongues which you do not perceive in the case of a candle. Now, why is this? I
must explain it to you, because when you understand that
perfectly, you will be able to follow me better in what I have tosay hereafter. I suppose some here will have made forthemselves the experiment I am going to shew you. Am I rightin supposing that anybody here has played at snapdragon? I do
not know a more beautiful illustration of the philosophy offlame, as to a certain part of its history, than the game ofsnapdragon. First, here is the dish; and let me say, that when
you play snapdragon properly, you ought to have the dish wellwarmed; you ought also to have warm plums and warm brandy,
which, however, I have not got. When you have put the spirit
6 The alcohol had chloride of copper dissolved in it: this produces a beautiful green flame.

into the dish, you have the cup and the fuel; and are not the raisins acting like thewicks? I now throw the plums into the dish, and light the spirit, and you see thosebeautiful tongues of flame that I refer to. You have the air creeping in over the edge ofthe dish forming these tongues (FIG. 60). Why? Because, through the force of thecurrent and the irregularity of the action of the flame, it cannot flow in one uniform
stream. The air flows in so irregularly that you have what would otherwise be a single
image, broken up into a variety of forms, and each of these little tongues has anindependent existence of its own. Indeed, I might say, you have here a multitude ofindependent candles. You must not imagine, because you see these tongues all at once,
that the flame is of this particular shape. A flame of that shape is never so at any one
time. Never is a body of flame, like that which you just saw rising from the ball, of the
shape it appears to you. It consists of a multitude of different shapes, succeeding eachother so fast that the eye is only able to take cognisance of them all at once. In former
times, I purposely analysed a flame of that general character, and the diagram shews
you the different parts of which it is composed. They do not occur all at once: it is only
because we see these shapes in such rapid succession, that they seem to us to exist all at
one time.

It is too bad that we have not got further than my game of snapdragon; but wemust not, under any circumstances, keep you beyond your time. It will be a lesson to me
in future to hold you more strictly to the philosophy of the thing, than to take up yourtime so much with these illustrations.

LECTURE II.
A CANDLE: BRIGHTNESS OF THE FLAME--AIR NECESSARY FORCOMBUSTION--PRODUCTION OF WATER.

We were occupied the last time we met in considering the general character andarrangement as regards the fluid portion of a candle, and the way in which that fluid got
into the place of combustion. You see, when we have a candle burning fairly in a
regular, steady atmosphere, it will have a shape something like the one shewn in the
diagram, and will look pretty uniform, although very curious in its character. And now, I
have to ask your attention to the means by which we are enabled to ascertain what
happens in any particular part of the flame--why it happens, what it does in happening,
and where, after all, the whole candle goes to: because, as you know very well, a candle
being brought before us and burned, disappears, if burned properly, without the least
trace of dirt in the candlestick--and this is a very curious circumstance. In order, then, toexamine this candle carefully, I have arranged certain apparatus, the use of which you
will see as I go on. Here is a candle: I am about to put the end of this glass tube into the
middle of the flame--into that part which old Hooker has represented in the diagram as
being rather dark, and which you can see at any time, if you will look at a candle
carefully, without blowing it about. We will examine this dark part first.
Now, I take this bent glass tube, and introduce one end into that part of theflame, and you see at once that something is coming from the flame, out at the other endof the tube; and if I put a flask there, and leave it for a little while, you will see thatsomething from the middle part of the flame is gradually drawn out, and goes throughthe tube and into that flask, and there behaves very differently from what it does in the
open air. It not only escapes from the end of the tube, but falls down to the bottom of theflask like a heavy substance, as indeed it is (FIG. 61). We find that this is the wax of thecandle made into a vaporous fluid--not a gas. (You must learn the difference between a
gas and a vapour: a gas remains permanent, a vapour is something that will condense.)
If you blow out a candle, you perceive a very nasty smell, resulting from thecondensation of this vapour. That is very different from what you have outside theflame; and, in order to make that more clear to you, I am about to produce and set fire toa larger portion of this vapour--for what we have in the small way in a candle, tounderstand thoroughly, we must, as philosophers, produce
in a larger way, if needful, that we may examine thedifferent parts. And now Mr. Anderson will give me asource of heat, and I am about to shew you what thatvapour is. Here is some wax in a glass flask, and I am goingto make it hot, as the inside of that candle-flame is hot, andthe matter about the wick is hot. [The Lecturer placed some
wax in a glass flask, and heated it over a lamp.] Now, I dare
say that is hot enough for me. You see that the wax I put init has become fluid, and there is a little smoke coming fromit. We shall very soon have the vapour rising up. I will
make it still hotter, and now we get more of it, so that I canactually pour the vapour out of the flask into that basin, andset it on fire there. This, then, is exactly the same kind of vapour as we have in the
middle of the candle; and that you may be sure this is the case, let us try whether wehave not got here, in this flask, a real combustible vapour out of the middle of thecandle. [Taking the flask into which the tube from the candle proceeded, andintroducing a lighted taper (FIG. 62).] See how it burns. Now, this is the vapour fromthe middle of the candle, produced by its own heat; and that is one of the first things you
have to consider with respect to the progress of the wax in the course of its combustion,
and as regards the changes it undergoes. I will arrange another tube carefully in the
flame, and I should not wonder if we were able, by a little care, to get that vapour topass through the tube to the other extremity, where we will light it, and obtainabsolutely the flame of the candle at a place distant from it. Now, look at that. Is notthat a very pretty experiment? Talk about laying on gas--why, we can actually lay on a
candle! And you see from this that there are clearly two different kinds of action--one
the production of the vapour, and the other the combustion of it--both of which takeplace in particular parts of the candle.
I shall get no vapour from that part which is alreadyburnt. If I raise the tube (FIG. 61) to the upper part of theflame, so soon as the vapour has been swept out, whatcomes away will be no longer combustible: It is alreadyburned. How burned? Why, burned thus:--In the middle ofthe flame, where the wick is, there is this combustible
vapour; on the outside of the flame is the air which weshall find necessary for the burning of the candle; between
the two, intense chemical action takes place, whereby the
air and the fuel act upon each other, and at the very sametime that we obtain light the vapour inside is destroyed. If
you examine where the heat of a candle is, you will find itvery curiously arranged. Suppose I take this candle, andhold a piece of paper close upon the flame, where is the heat of that flame? Do you not
see that it is not in the inside? It is in a ring, exactly in the place where I told you thechemical action was; and even in my irregular mode of making the experiment, if there
is not too much disturbance, there will always be a ring. This is a good experiment foryou to make at home. Take a strip of paper, have the air in the room quiet, and put thepiece of paper right across the middle of the flame (I must not talk while I make theexperiment), and you will find that it is burnt in two places, and that it is not burnt, orvery 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
is necessary, or else we should be imperfect in our reasoning and our experiments. Hereis a jar of air. I place it over a candle, and it burns very nicely in it at first, shewing thatwhat I have said about it is true; but there will soon be a change. See how the flame isdrawing upwards, presently fading, and at last going out. And going out, why? Not
because it wants air merely, for the jar is as full now as it was before; but it wants pure,
fresh air. The jar is full of air, partly changed, partly not changed; but it does not containsufficient of the fresh air which is necessary for the combustion of a candle. These are
all points which we, as young chemists, have to gather up; and if we look a little moreclosely into this kind of action, we shall find certain steps of reasoning extremelyinteresting. For instance, here is the oil-lamp I shewed you--an excellent lamp for our
experiments--the old Argand lamp. I now make it like a candle [obstructing the passageof air into the centre of the flame]; there is the cotton; there is the oil rising up it; andthere is the conical flame. It burns poorly, because there is a partial restraint of air. I
have allowed no air to get to it, save round the outside of the flame, and it does not burnwell. I cannot admit more air from the outside, because the wick is large; but if, as
Argand did so cleverly, I open a passage to the middle of the flame, and so let air comein there, you will see how much more beautifully it burns. If I shut the air off, look how
it smokes; and why? We have now some very interesting points to study. We have thecase of the combustion of a candle; we have the case of a candle being put out by thewant of air; and we have now the case of imperfect combustion; and this is to us sointeresting, that I want you to understand it as thoroughly as you do the case of a candle
burning in its best possible manner. I will now make a great flame, because we need thelargest possible illustrations. Here is a larger wick [burning turpentine on a ball ofcotton]. All these things are the same as candles, after all. If we have larger wicks, wemust have a larger supply of air, or we shall have less perfect combustion. Look now at
this black substance going up into the atmosphere; there is a regular stream of it. I haveprovided means to carry off the imperfectly burned part, lest it should annoy you. Lookat the soots that fly off from the flame: see what an imperfect combustion it is, because
it cannot get enough air. What, then, is happening? Why, certain things which arenecessary to the combustion of a candle are absent, and very bad results are accordingly
produced; but we see what happens to a candle when it is burnt in a pure and properstate of air. At the time when I shewed you this charring by the ring of flame on the one
side of the paper, I might have also shewn you, by turning to the other side, that theburning of a candle produces the same kind of soot--charcoal or carbon.
But, before I shew that, let me explain to you--as it is quite necessary for our
purpose--that, though I take a candle and give you, as the general result, its combustionin the form of a flame, we must see whether combustion is always in this condition, or
whether there are other conditions of flame; and we shall soon discover that there are,and that they are most important to us. I think, perhaps, the best illustration of such a
point to us, as juveniles, is to shew the result of strong contrast. Here is a little
gunpowder. You know that gunpowder burns with flame--we may fairly call it flame. It
contains carbon and other materials, which altogether cause it to burn with a flame. And
here is some pulverised iron, or iron filings. Now, I purpose burning these two things
together. I have a little mortar in which I will mix them. (Before I go into theseexperiments, let me hope that none of you, by trying to repeat them, for fun's sake, will
do any harm. These things may all be very properly used if you take care; but without
that, much mischief will be done.) Well, then, here is a little gunpowder, which I put atthe bottom of that little wooden vessel, and mix the iron filings up with it, my object
being to make the gunpowder set fire to the filings and burn them in the air, and thereby
shew the difference between substances burning with flame and not with flame. Here is
the mixture; and when I set fire to it, you must watch the combustion, and you will seethat it is of two kinds. You will see the gunpowder burning with a flame, and the filings
thrown up. You will see them burning too, but without the production of flame. They
will each burn separately. [The Lecturer then ignited the mixture.] There is the
gunpowder, which burns with a flame; and there are the filings--they burn with adifferent kind of combustion. You see, then, these two great distinctions; and upon thesedifferences depend all the utility and all the beauty of flame which we use for the
purpose of giving out light. When we use oil, or gas, or candle, for the purpose ofillumination, their fitness all depends upon these different kinds of combustion.
There are such curious conditions of flame, that it requires some cleverness andnicety of discrimination to distinguish the kinds of combustion one from another. For
instance, here is a powder which is very combustible, consisting, as you see, of separate
little particles. It is called lycopodium7, and each of these particles can produce a vapour,and produce its own flame; but, to see them burning, you would imagine it was all one
flame. I will now set fire to a quantity, and you will see the effect. We saw a cloud offlame, apparently in one body; but that rushing noise [referring to the sound producedby the burning] was a proof that the combustion was not a continuous or regular one.
This is the lightning of the pantomimes, and a very good imitation. [The experiment
was twice repeated by blowing lycopodium from a glass tube through a spirit-flame.]
This is not an example of combustion like that of the filings I have been speaking of, towhich we must now return.
Suppose I take a candle, and examine that part of it which appears brightest to
our eyes. Why, there I get these black particles, which already you have seen manytimes evolved from the flame, and which I am now about to evolve in a different way. I
will take this candle and clear away the gutterage, which occurs by reason of thecurrents of air; and if I now arrange a glass tube so as just to dip into this luminous part,as in our first experiment, only higher, you see the result. In place of having the same
white vapour that you had before, you will now have a black vapour. There it goes, as
black as ink. It is certainly very different from the white vapour; and when we put alight to it, we shall find that it does not burn, but that it puts the light out. Well, theseparticles, as I said before, are just the smoke of the candle; and this brings to mind that
old employment which Dean Swift recommended to servants for their amusement,
namely, writing on the ceiling of a room with a candle. But what is that black
substance? Why, it is the same carbon which exists in the candle. How comes it out of
the candle? It evidently existed in the candle, or else we should not have had it here.
And now I want you to follow me in this explanation. You would hardly think that all
those substances which fly about London, in the form of soots and blacks, are the very
beauty and life of the flame, and which are burned in it as those iron filings were burned
here. Here is a piece of wire gauze, which will not let the flame go through it; and I
think you will see, almost immediately, that when I bring it low enough to touch thatpart of the flame which is otherwise so bright, that it quells and quenches it at once, andallows a volume of smoke to rise up.
I want you now to follow me in this point,--that whenever a substance burns, as
the iron filings burnt in the flame of gunpowder, without assuming the vaporous state(whether it becomes liquid or remains solid), it becomes exceedingly luminous. I havehere taken three or four examples apart from the candle, on purpose to illustrate thispoint to you; because what I have to say is applicable to all substances, whether theyburn or whether they do not burn,--that they are exceedingly bright if they retain theirsolid state, and that it is to this presence of solid particles in the candle-flame that it
owes its brilliancy.
Here is a platinum-wire, a body which does not change by heat. If I heat it in thisflame, see how exceedingly luminous it becomes. I will make the flame dim, for the
7 Lycopodium is a yellowish powder found in the fruit of the club moss (Lycopodium clavatum). It
is used in fireworks.

purpose of giving a little light only, and yet you will see that the heat which it can giveto that platinum-wire, though far less than the heat it has itself, is able to raise theplatinum-wire to a far higher state of effulgence. This flame has carbon in it; but I willtake one that has no carbon in it. There is a material, a kind of fuel--a vapour, or gas,
whichever you like to call it--in that vessel, and it has no solid particles in it; so I takethat because it is an example of flame itself burning without any solid matter whatever;and if I now put this solid substance in it, you see what an intense heat it has, and how
brightly it causes the solid body to glow. This is the pipe through which we convey thisparticular gas, which we call hydrogen, and which you shall know all about next time
we meet. And here is a substance called oxygen, by means of which this hydrogen canburn; and although we produce, by their mixture, far greater heat 8 than you can obtainfrom the candle, yet there is very little light. If, however, I take a solid substance, andput that into it, we produce an intense light If I take a piece of lime, a substance which
will not burn, and which will not vaporise by the heat (and because it does not vaporise,remains solid, and remains heated), you will soon observe what happens as to its
glowing. I have here a most intense heat, produced by the burning of hydrogen incontact with the oxygen; but there is as yet very little light--not for want of heat, but forwant of particles which can retain their solid state; but when I hold this piece of lime in
the flame of the hydrogen as it burns in the oxygen, see how it glows! This is theglorious lime-light, which rivals the voltaic-light, and which is almost equal to sunlight.
I have here a piece of carbon or charcoal, which will burn and give us light exactly inthe same manner as if it were burnt as part of a candle. The heat that is in the flame of acandle decomposes the vapour of the wax, and sets free the carbon particles--they riseup 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? You see it comes to this--that all brightflames contain these solid particles; all things that burn and produce solid particles,
either during the time they are burning, as in the candle, or immediately after being
burnt, as in the case of the gunpowder and iron-filings,--all these things give us thisglorious and beautiful light.
I will give you a few illustrations. Here is a piece of phosphorus, which burns
with a bright flame. Very well; we may now conclude that phosphorus will produce,
either at the moment that it is burning or afterwards, these solid particles. Here is thephosphorus lighted, and I cover it over with this glass for the
purpose of keeping in what is produced. What is all that smoke?
(FIG. 63.) That smoke consists of those very particles which areproduced by the combustion of the phosphorus. Here, again, are
two substances. This is chlorate of potassa, and this othersulphuret of antimony. I shall mix these together a little, and thenthey may be burnt in many ways. I shall touch them with a dropof sulphuric acid, for the purpose of giving you an illustration ofchemical action, and they will instantly burn9. [The Lecturer then
8 Bunsen has calculated that the temperature of the oxyhydrogen blowpipe is 8061° Centigrade.
Hydrogen burning in air has a temperature of 3259° C., and coal-gas in air, 2350° C.
9 The following is the action of the sulphuric acid in inflaming the mixture of sulphuret of
antimony and chlorate of potassa. A portion of the latter is decomposed by the sulphuric acid into

ignited the mixture by means of sulphuric acid.] Now, from the appearance of things,
you can judge for yourselves whether they produce solid matter in burning. I have given
you the train of reasoning which will enable you to say whether they do or do not; forwhat is this bright flame but the solid particles passing off?
Mr. Anderson has in the furnace a very hot crucible,--I am about to throw into itsome zinc filings, and they will burn with a flame like gunpowder. I make thisexperiment because you can make it well at home. Now, I want you to see what will be
the result of the combustion of this zinc. Here it is burning--burning beautifully like acandle, I may say. But what is all that smoke, and what are those little clouds of wool
which will come to you if you cannot come to them, and make themselves sensible toyou in the form of the old philosophic wool, as it was called? We shall have left in thatcrucible, also, a quantity of this woolly matter. But I will take a piece of this same zincand make an experiment a little more closely at home, as it were. You will have here thesame thing happening. Here is the piece of zinc, there [pointing to a jet of hydrogen] is
the furnace, and we will set to work and try and burn the metal. It glows, you see: thereis the combustion, and there is the white substance into which it burns. And so, if I takethat flame of hydrogen as the representative of a candle, and shew you a substance likezinc burning in the flame, you will see that it was merely during the action of
combustion that this substance glowed--while it was kept hot; and if I take a flame ofhydrogen, and put this white substance from the zinc into it, look how beautifully it
glows, and just because it is a solid substance.
I will now take such a flame as I had a moment since, and set free from it theparticles of carbon. Here is some camphine, which will burn with a smoke; but if I send
these particles of smoke through this pipe into the hydrogen flame, you will see they
will burn and become luminous, because we heat them a second time. There they are.
Those are the particles of carbon re-ignited a second time. They are those particles
which you can easily see by holding a piece of paper behind them, and which, whilst
they are in the flame, are ignited by the heat produced, and, when so ignited, produce
this brightness. When the particles are not separated, you get no brightness. The flameof coal-gas owes its brightness to the separation, during combustion, of these particles
of carbon, which are equally in that as in a candle. I can very quickly alter that
arrangement. Here, for instance, is a bright flame of gas. Supposing I add so much air tothe flame as to cause it all to burn before those particles are set free, I shall not have thisbrightness; and I can do that in this way:--If I place over the jet this wire-gauze cap, as
you see, and then light the gas over it, it burns with a non-luminous flame, owing to its
having plenty of air mixed with it before it burns; and if I raise the gauze, you see itdoes not burn below10. There is plenty of carbon in the gas; but, because the atmospherecan get to it, and mix with it before it burns, you see how pale and blue the flame is.
And if I blow upon a bright gas-flame, so as to consume all this carbon before it getsheated to the glowing point, it will also burn blue: [The Lecturer illustrated his remarks
oxide of chlorine, bisulphate of potassa, and perchlorate of potassa. The oxide of chlorine
inflames the sulphuret of antimony, which is a combustible body, and the whole mass instantly
bursts into flame.
10 The “air-burner,” which is of such value in the laboratory, owes its advantage to this principle. It
consists of a cylindrical metal chimney, covered at the top with a piece of rather coarse iron-wiregauze. This is supported over an argand burner, in such a manner that the gas may mix in thechimney with an amount of air sufficient to burn the carbon and hydrogen simultaneously, so that
there may be no separation of carbon in the flame with consequent deposition of soot. The flame,
being unable to pass through the wire gauze, burns in a steady, nearly invisible manner above.

by blowing on the gas-light.] The only reason why I have not the same bright light when
I thus blow upon the flame is, that the carbon meets with sufficient air to burn it before
it gets separated in the flame in a free state. The difference is solely due to the solid
particles not being separated before the gas is burnt.
You observe that there are certain products as the result of the combustion of acandle, and that of these products one portion may be considered as charcoal, or soot;that charcoal, when afterwards burnt, produces some other product; and it concerns usvery much now to ascertain what that other product is. We shewed that something wasgoing away; and I want you now to understand how much is going up into the air; andfor that purpose we will have combustion on a little larger scale. From that candle
ascends heated air, and two or three experiments will shew you the ascending current;
but, in order to give you a notion of the quantity of matter which ascends in this way, I
will make an experiment by which I shall try to imprison some of the products of thiscombustion. For this purpose I have here what boys call a fire-balloon. I use this fireballoon merely as a sort of measure of the result of the combustion we are considering;and I am about to make a flame in such an easy and simple manner as shall best serve
my present purpose. This plate shall be the “cup,” we will so say, of the candle; thisspirit shall be our fuel; and I am about to place this chimney over it, because it is better
for me to do so than to let things proceed at random.
Mr. Anderson will now light the fuel, and here at the top weshall get the results of the combustion. What we get at the top of thattube is exactly the same, generally speaking, as you get from the
combustion of a candle; but we do not get a luminous flame here,
because we use a substance which is feeble in carbon. I am about to put
this balloon--not into action, because that is not my object--but to shew
you the effect which results from the action of those products whicharise from the candle, as they arise here from the furnace. [The balloon
was held over the chimney (FIG. 64), when it immediately commenced
to fill.] You see how it is disposed to ascend; but we must not let it up,
because it might come in contact with those upper gas-lights, and thatwould be very inconvenient. [The upper gas-lights were turned out, at
the request of the Lecturer, and the balloon was allowed to ascend.]
Does not that shew you what a large bulk of matter is being evolved?
Now, there is going through this tube [placing a large glass tube over a
candle] all the products of that candle, and you will presently see that the tube will
become quite opaque. Suppose I take another candle, and place it under a jar, and thenput a light on the other side, just to shew you what is going on. You see that the sides of
the jar become cloudy, and the light begins to burn feebly. It is the products, you see,
which make the light so dim, and this is the same thing which makes the sides of the jar
so opaque. If you go home and take a spoon that has been in the cold air, and hold it
over a candle--not so as to soot it--you will find that it becomes dim, just as that jar isdim. If you can get a silver dish, or something of that kind, you will make theexperiment still better. And now, just to carry your thoughts forward to the time we shallnext meet, let me tell you that it is water which causes the dimness; and when we next
meet. I will shew you that we can make it, without difficulty, assume the form of aliquid.

LECTURE III.
PRODUCTS: WATER FROM THE COMBUSTION--NATURE OF WATER--ACOMPOUND--HYDROGEN.

I dare say you will remember that when we parted we had just mentioned theword “products” from the candle. For when a candle burns we found we were able, by
nice adjustment, to get various products from it. There was one substance which was not
obtained when the candle was burning properly, which was charcoal or smoke; andthere was some other substance that went upwards from the flame which did not appear
as smoke, but took some other form, and made part of that general current which,ascending from the candle upwards, becomes invisible, and escapes. There were also
other products to mention. You remember that in that rising current having its origin at
the candle, we found that one part was condensable against a cold spoon, or against aclean plate, or any other cold thing, and another part was incondensable.
We will first take the condensable part, and examine it; and,strange to say, we find that that part of the product is just water-nothing but water. On the last occasion I spoke of it incidentally,
merely saying that water was produced among the condensable
products of the candle; but to-day I wish to draw your attention towater, that we may examine it carefully, especially in relation to thissubject, and also with respect to its general existence on the surface ofthe globe.
Now, having previously arranged an experiment for the purposeof condensing water from the products of the candle, my next point
will be to shew you this water; and perhaps one of the best means that I
can adopt for shewing its presence to so many at once, is to exhibit avery visible action of water, and then to apply that test to what iscollected as a drop at the bottom of that vessel. I have here a chemical
substance, discovered by Sir Humphrey Davy, which has a very
energetic action upon water, which I shall use as a test of the presence of water. If I takea little piece of it--it is called potassium, as coming from potash,--if I take a little pieceof it, and throw it into that basin, you see how it shews the presence of water by lighting
up and floating about, burning with a violent flame. I am now going to take away the
candle which has been burning beneath the vessel containing ice and salt, and you see adrop of water--a condensed product of the candle--hanging from under the surface ofthe dish (FIG. 65).
I will shew you that potassium has the same action upon it as upon the water inthat basin in the experiment we have just tried. See, it takes fire, and burns in just thesame manner. I will take another drop upon this glass slab, and when I put thepotassium on to it, you see at once, from its taking fire, that there is water present. Now,
that water was produced by the candle. In the same manner, if I put this spirit-lamp
under that jar, you will soon see the latter become damp, from the dew which isdeposited upon it--that dew being the result of combustion; and I have no doubt you will
shortly see by the drops of water which fall upon the paper below, that there is a gooddeal of water produced from the combustion of the lamp. I will let it remain, and youcan afterwards see how much water has been collected. So, if I take a gas-lamp, and put
any cooling arrangement over it, I shall get water--water being likewise produced fromthe combustion of gas. Here, in this bottle, is a quantity of water--perfectly pure,distilled water, produced from the combustion of a gas-lamp--in no point different fromthe water that you distil from the river, or ocean, or spring, but exactly the same thing.
Water is one individual thing--it never changes. We can add to it by careful adjustment,
for a little while, or we can take it apart, and get other things from it; but water, as
water, remains always the same, either in a solid, liquid, or fluid state. Here, again[holding another bottle], is some water produced by the combustion of an oil-lamp. A
pint of oil, when burnt fairly and properly, produces rather more than a pint of water.
Here, again, is some water, produced by a rather long experiment from a wax candle.
And so we can go on with almost all combustible substances, and find that if they burnwith a flame, as a candle, they produce water. You may make these experiments
yourselves. The head of a poker is a very good thing to try with, and if it remains cold
long enough over the candle, you may get water condensed in drops on it; or a spoon orladle, or anything else may be used, provided it be clean, and can carry off the heat, andso condense the water.
And now--to go into the history of this wonderful production of water fromcombustibles, and by combustion--I must first of all tell you that this water may exist indifferent conditions; and although you may now be acquainted with all its forms, they
still require us to give a little attention to them for the present, so that we may perceive
how the water, whilst it goes through its Protean changes, is entirely and absolutely thesame 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 bein its solid, or liquid, or gaseous state,--we speak of it chemically as water. Water is athing compounded of two substances, one of which we have derived from the candle,
and the other we shall find elsewhere. Water may occur as ice; and you have had mostexcellent opportunities lately of seeing this. Ice changes back into water--for we had on
our last Sabbath a strong instance of this change, by the sad catastrophe which occurredin our own house, as well as in the houses of many of our friends,--ice changes backinto water when the temperature is raised: water also changes into steam when it iswarmed enough. The water which we have here before us is in its densest state11, andalthough it changes in weight, in condition, in form, and in many other qualities, it stillis water; and whether we alter it into ice by cooling, or whether we change it into steam
by heat, it increases in volume,--in the one case very strangely and powerfully, and in
the other case very largely and wonderfully. For instance, I will now take this tin
cylinder, and pour a little water into it; and seeing how much water I pour in, you may
easily estimate for yourselves how high it will rise in the vessel: it will cover the bottom
about two inches. I am now about to convert the water into steam, for the purpose of
shewing to you the different volumes which water occupies in its different states ofwater and steam.
Let us now take the case of water changing into ice: we can effect that bycooling it in a mixture of salt and pounded ice 12; and I shall do so to shew you the
11 Water is in its densest state at a temperature of 39.1° Fahrenheit.
12 A mixture of salt and pounded ice reduces the temperature from 32° F. to zero--the ice at thesame time becoming fluid.

expansion of water into a thing of larger bulk when it is so changed. These bottles[holding one] are made of strong cast iron, very strong and very thick--I suppose they
are the third of an inch in thickness; they are very carefully filled with water, so as to
exclude all air, and then they are screwed down tight. We shall see that when we freeze
the water in these iron vessels, they will not be able to hold the ice, and the expansion
within them will break them in pieces as these [pointing to some fragments] are broken,
which have been bottles of exactly the same kind. I am about to put these two bottles
into that mixture of ice and salt, for the purpose of shewing that when water becomes
ice, it changes in volume in this extraordinary way.
In the mean time look at the change which has taken place in the water to which
we have applied heat--it is losing its fluid state. You may tell this by two or threecircumstances. I have covered the mouth of this glass flask, in which water is boiling,with a watch-glass. Do you see what happens? It rattles away like a valve chattering,
because the steam rising from the boiling water sends the valve up and down, and forces
itself out, and so makes it clatter. You can very easily perceive that the flask is quite fullof steam, or else it would not force its way out. You see, also, that the flask contains asubstance very much larger than the water, for it fills the whole of the flask over andover again, and there it is blowing away into the air; and yet you cannot observe any
great diminution in the bulk of the water, which shews you that its change of bulk isvery great when it becomes steam.
I have put our iron bottles containing water into this freezing mixture, that you
may see what happens. No communication will take place, you observe, between thewater in the bottles and the ice in the outer vessel. But there will be a conveyance ofheat from the one to the other; and if we are successful--we are making our experimentin very great haste--I expect you will by-and-by, so soon as the cold has taken
possession of the bottles and their contents, hear a pop on the occasion of the bursting of
the one bottle or the other; and, when we come to examine the bottles, we shall findtheir contents masses of ice, partly enclosed by the covering of iron which is too small
for them, because the ice is larger in bulk than the water. You know very well that ice
floats upon water: if a boy falls through a hole into the water, he tries to get on the ice
again to float him up. Why does the ice float?--think of that, and philosophise. Because
the ice is larger than the quantity of water which can produce it; and therefore the ice
weighs the lighter, and the water is the heavier.
To return now to the action of heat on water. See what a stream of vapour isissuing from this tin vessel! You observe, we must have made it quite full of steam tohave it sent out in that great quantity. And now,
as we can convert the water into steam by heat,
we convert it back into liquid water by theapplication of cold. And if we take a glass, or
any other cold thing, and hold it over thissteam, see how soon it gets damp with water; itwill condense it until the glass is warm--it
condenses the water which is now running
down the sides of it. I have here anotherexperiment to shew the condensation of waterfrom a vaporous state back into a liquid state,in the same way as the vapour, one of the
products of the candle, was condensed againstthe bottom of the dish, and obtained in the form of water; and to shew you how truly
and thoroughly these changes take place, I will take this tin flask, which is now full of
steam, and close the top. We shall see what takes place when we cause this water or
steam to return back to the fluid state by pouring some cold water on the outside. [TheLecturer poured the cold water over the vessel, when it immediately collapsed (FIG.
66).] You see what has happened. If I had closed the stopper, and still kept the heatapplied to it, it would have burst the vessel; yet, when the steam returns to the state ofwater, the vessel collapses, there being a vacuum produced inside by the condensationof the steam. I shew you these experiments for the purpose of pointing out that in allthese occurrences there is nothing that changes the water into any other thing--it still
remains water; and so the vessel is obliged to give way, and is crushed inwards, as in theother case, by the further application of heat, it would have been blown outwards.
And what do you think the bulk of that water iswhen it assumes the vaporous condition? You see thatcube [pointing to a cubic foot]. There, by its side, is a
cubic inch (FIG. 67), exactly the same shape as the cubic
foot, and that bulk of water [the cubic inch] is sufficient toexpand into that bulk [the cubic foot] of steam; and, on
the contrary, the application of cold will contract thatlarge quantity of steam into this small quantity of water.
[One of the iron bottles burst at that moment.] Ah!
There is one of our bottles burst, and here you see is a crack down one side an eighth of
an inch in width. [The other now exploded, sending the freezing mixture in all
directions.] This other bottle is also broken; although the iron was nearly half-an-inch
thick, the ice has burst it asunder. These changes always take place in water: they do not
require to be always produced by artificial means,--we only use them here because wewant to produce a small winter round that little bottle, instead of a long and severe one.
But if you go to Canada, or to the North, you will find the temperature there out ofdoors will do the same thing as has been done here by the freezing mixture.
To return to our quiet philosophy. We shall not in future be deceived, therefore,
by any changes that are produced in water. Water is the same everywhere, whether
produced from the ocean or from the flame of the candle. Where, then, is this water
which we get from a candle? I must anticipate a little, and tell you. It evidently comes,
as to part of it, from the candle; but is it within the candle beforehand? No. It is not in
the candle; and it is not in the air round about the candle which is necessary for its
combustion. It is neither in one nor the other, but it comes from their conjoint action, apart from the candle, a part from the air; and this we have now to trace, so that we mayunderstand thoroughly what is the chemical history of a candle when we have it burningon our table. How shall we get at this? I myself know plenty of ways, but I want you to
get at it from the association in your own minds of what I have already told you.
I think you can see a little in this way. We had just now the case of a substancewhich acted upon the water in the way that Sir Humphrey Davy shewed us 13, and which
I am now going to recall to your minds by making again an experiment upon that dish.
It is a thing which we have to handle very carefully, for you see, if I allow a little splash
13 Potassium, the metallic basis of potash, was discovered by Sir Humphrey Davy in 1807, who
succeeded in separating it from potash by means of a powerful voltaic battery. Its great affinity
for oxygen causes it to decompose water with evolution of hydrogen, which takes fire with theheat produced.

of water to come upon this mass, it sets fire to part of it; and if there were free access ofair, it would quickly set fire to the whole. Now, this is a metal--a beautiful and brightmetal--which rapidly changes in the air, and, as you know, rapidly changes in water. I
will put a piece on the water, and you see it burns beautifully, making a floating lamp,
using the water in the place of air. Again, if we take a few iron filings or turnings, andput them in water, we find that they likewise undergo an alteration. They do not change
so much as this potassium does, but they change somewhat in the same way; they
become rusty, and shew an action upon the water, though in a different degree ofintensity to what this beautiful metal does: but they act upon the water in the samemanner generally as this potassium. I want you to put these different facts together inyour minds. I have another metal here [zinc], and when we examined it with regard to
the solid substance produced by its combustion, we had an opportunity of seeing that itburned; and I suppose, if I take a little strip of this zinc and put it over the candle, youwill see something half-way, as it were, between the combustion of potassium on thewater and the action of iron,--you see there is a sort of combustion. It has burned,
leaving a white ash or residuum, and here also we find that the metal has a certain
amount of action upon water.
By degrees we have learned how to modify the action of these different
substances, and to make them tell us what we want to know. And now, first of all, I takeiron. It is a common thing in all chemical reactions, where we get any result of this kind,
to find that it is increased by the action of heat; and if we want to examine minutely andcarefully the action of bodies one upon another, we often have to refer to the action ofheat. You are aware, I believe, that iron-filings burn beautifully in the air; but I am about
to shew you an experiment of this kind, because it will impress upon you what I am
going to say about iron in its action on water. If I take a flame and make it hollow;--youknow why, because I want to get air to it and into it, and therefore I make it hollow--andthen take a few iron-filings and drop them into the flame, you see how well they burn.
That combustion results from the chemical action which is going on when we ignite
those particles. And so we proceed to consider these different effects, and ascertain what
iron will do when it meets with water. It will tell us the story so beautifully, so graduallyand regularly, that I think it will please you very much.

I have here a furnace with a pipe going through it like an iron gun-barrel (FIG.
68), and I have stuffed that barrel full of bright iron-turnings, and placed it across thefire, to be made red-hot. We can either send air through the barrel to come in contact
with the iron, or we can send steam from this little boiler at the end of the barrel. Here isa stop-cock which shuts off the steam from the barrel until we wish to admit it. There issome water in these glass jars, which I have coloured blue, so that you may see what
happens. Now, you know very well that any steam I might send through that barrel, if itwent through into the water, would be condensed; for you have seen that steam cannot
retain its gaseous form if it be cooled down.
You saw it here [pointing to the tin flask] crushing itself into a small bulk, andcausing the flask holding it to collapse; so that if I were to send steam through thatbarrel, it would be condensed--supposing the barrel were cold: it is, therefore, heated toperform the experiment I am now about to shew you. I am going to send the steam
through the barrel in small quantities; and you shall judge for yourselves, when you see
it issue from the other end, whether it still remains steam. Steam is condensible into
water, and when you lower the temperature of steam, you convert it back into fluid
water; but I have lowered the temperature of the gas which I have collected in this jar,by passing it through water after it has traversed the iron barrel, and still it does notchange back into water. I will take another test and apply to this gas. (I hold the jar in an
inverted position, or my substance would escape.) If I now apply a light to the mouth of
the jar, it ignites with a slight noise. That tells you that it is not steam. Steam puts out afire--it does not burn; but you saw that what I had in that jar burnt. We may obtain thissubstance equally from water produced from the candle-flame as from any other source.
When it is obtained by the action of the iron upon the aqueous vapour, it leaves the ironin a state very similar to that in which these filings were after they were burnt. It makes
the iron heavier than it was before. So long as the iron remains in the tube and is heated,
and is cooled again without the access of air or water, it does not change in its weight;
but after having had this current of steam passed over it, it then comes out heavier that it
was before, having taken something out of the steam, and having allowed somethingelse to pass forth, which we see here. And now, as we have another jar full, I will shew
you something most interesting. It is a combustible gas; and I might at once take this jar
and set fire to the contents, and shew you that it is combustible; but I intend to shew you
more if I can. It is also a very light substance. Steam will condense: this body will risein the air, and not condense.
Suppose I take another glass jar, empty of all but air:if I examine it with a taper, I shall find that it contains
nothing but air. I will now take this jar full of the gas that I
am speaking of, and deal with it as though it were a lightbody. I will hold both upside-down, and turn the one up
under the other (FIG.69); and that which did contain the gas
procured from the steam, what does it contain now? You
will find it now only contains air. But look! Here is the
combustible substance [taking the other jar] which I havepoured out of the one jar into the other. It still preserves its quality, and condition, andindependence, and therefore is the more worthy of our consideration, as belonging to
the products of a candle.
Now, this substance which we have just prepared by the action of iron on thesteam or water, we can also get by means of those other things which you have alreadyseen act so well upon the water. If I take a piece of potassium, and make the necessary
arrangements, it will produce this gas; and if, instead, a piece of zinc, I find, when I
come to examine it very carefully, that the main reason why this zinc cannot act upon
the water continuously as the other metal does, is because the result of the action of thewater envelopes the zinc in a kind of protecting coat. We have learned in consequence,that if we put into our vessel only the zinc and water, they by themselves do not giverise to much action, and we get no result. But suppose I proceed to dissolve off thisvarnish--this encumbering substance--which I can do by a little acid; the moment I do
this, I find the zinc acting upon the water exactly as the iron did, but at the common
temperature. The acid in no way is altered, except in its combination with the oxide ofzinc, which is produced. I have now poured the acid into the glass, and the effect is as
though I were applying heat to cause this boiling up. There is something coming off
from the zinc very abundantly, which is not steam. There is a jar full of it; and you willfind that I have exactly the same combustible substance remaining in the vessel, when I
hold it upside-down, that I produced during the experiment with the iron barrel. This iswhat we get from water--the same substance which is contained in the candle.

Let us now trace distinctly the connection between these two points. This ishydrogen--a body classed among those things which in Chemistry we call elements,
because we can get nothing else out of them (FIG. 70). A candle is not an elementarybody, because we can get carbon out of it; we can get this hydrogen out of it, or at leastout of the water which it supplies. And this gas has been so named hydrogen, because itis that element which, in association with another, generates water. * Mr. Anderson
having now been able to get two or three jars of gas, we shall have a few experiments tomake, and I want to shew you the best way of making these experiments. I am not afraid
to shew you, for I wish you to make experiments, if you will only make them with care
and attention, and the assent of those around you. As we advance in Chemistry, we are
obliged to deal with substances which are rather injurious, if in their wrong places--theacids, and heat, and combustible things we use, might do harm if carelessly
employed. If you want to make hydrogen, you can make it easily from bitsof zinc, and sulphuric or muriatic acid. Here is what in former times wascalled the “philosopher's candle.” It is a little phial with a cork, and a tube or
pipe passing through it.
And I am now putting a few little pieces of zinc into it. This little
instrument I am going to apply to a useful purpose in our demonstrations-for I want to shew you that you can prepare hydrogen, and make someexperiments with it as you please at your own homes. Let me here tell you
why I am so careful to fill this phial nearly, and yet not quite full. I do it
because the evolved gas, which, as you have seen, is very combustible, is
explosive to a considerable extent when mixed with air, and might lead toharm, if you were to apply a light to the end of that pipe before all the air* [greek: hudos], “water,” and [greek: gennao], “I generate.”had been swept out of the space above the water. I am now about to pour in thesulphuric acid. I have used very little zinc, and more sulphuric acid and water, because I
want to keep it at work for some time. I therefore take care in this way to modify the
proportions of the ingredients, so that I may have a regular supply--not too quick, andnot too slow. Supposing I now take a glass and put it upside-down over the end of thetube, because the hydrogen is light I expect that it will remain in that vessel a little
while. We will now test the contents of our glass to see if there be hydrogen in it. I think
I am safe in saying we have caught some [applying a light]. There it is, you see. I will
now apply a light to the top of the tube. There is the hydrogen burning (FIG. 71). Thereis our philosophical candle. It is a foolish feeble sort of a flame, you may say; but it isso hot that scarcely any common flame gives out so much heat. It goes on burning
regularly, and I am now about to put that flame to burn under a certain arrangement, inorder that we may examine its results and make use of the information which we may
thereby acquire. Inasmuch as the candle produces water, and this gas comes out of thewater, let us see what this gives us by the same process of combustion that the candle
went through when it burnt in the atmosphere; and for that purpose I am going to put thelamp under this apparatus (FIG. 72), in order to condense whatever may arise from the
combustion within it In the course of a short time you will see moisture appearing in thecylinder, and you will get the water running down the side; and the water from thishydrogen flame will have absolutely the same effect upon all our tests, being obtainedby the same general process as in the former case. This hydrogen is a very beautiful
substance. It is so light that it carries things up: it is far lighter than the atmosphere; andI dare say I can shew you this by an experiment which, if you are very clever, some ofyou may even have skill enough to repeat. Here is our generator of hydrogen, and here
are some soap-suds. I have an india-rubber tube connected with the hydrogen generator,
and at the end of the tube is a tobacco-pipe.

I can thus put the pipe into the suds, and blow bubbles by means of thehydrogen. You observe how the bubbles fall downwards when I blow them with mywarm breath; but notice the difference when I blow them with hydrogen. [The Lecturer
here blew bubbles with hydrogen, which rose to the roof of the theatre.] It shews you
how light this gas must be in order to carry with it not merely the ordinary soap-bubble,
but the larger portion of a drop hanging to the bottom of it. I can shew its lightness in abetter way than this; larger bubbles than these may be so lifted up; indeed, in former
times balloons used to be filled with this gas. Mr. Anderson will fasten this tube on to
our generator, and we shall have a stream of hydrogen here with which we can charge
this balloon made of collodion. I need not even be very careful to get all the air out, for Iknow the power of this gas to carry it up. [Two collodion balloons were inflated, andsent up, one being held by a string.] Here is another larger one made of thin membrane,
which we will fill and allow to ascend. You will see they will all remain floating about
until the gas escapes.
What, then, are the comparative weights of these substances? I have a table here
which will shew you the proportion which their weights bear to each other. I have taken
a pint and a cubic foot as the measures, and have placed opposite to them the respective
figures. A pint measure of this hydrogen weighs three-quarters of our smallest weight (agrain), and a cubic foot weighs one-twelfth of an ounce; whereas a pint of water weighs
8,750 grains, and a cubic foot of water weighs almost 1,000 ounces. You see, therefore,
what a vast difference there is between the weight of a cubic foot of water and a cubic
foot of hydrogen.
Hydrogen gives rise to no substance that can become solid, either during
combustion or afterwards as a product of its combustion. But when it burns, it produces
water only; and if we take a cold glass and put it over the flame, it becomes damp, andyou have water, produced immediately in appreciable quantity; and nothing is produced
by its combustion but the same water which you have seen the flame of the candle
produce. It is important to remember that this hydrogen is the only thing in nature which
furnishes water as the sole product of combustion.
And now we must endeavour to find some additional proof of the generalcharacter and composition of water; and for this purpose I will keep you a little longer,
so that at our next meeting we may be better prepared for the subject. We have thepower of arranging the zinc which you have seen acting upon the water by theassistance of an acid, in such a manner as to cause all the power to be evolved in theplace where we require it I have behind me a voltaic pile, and I am just about to shew
you, at the end of this lecture, its character and power, that you may see what we shallhave to deal with when next we meet. I hold here the extremities of the wires whichtransport the power from behind me, and which I shall cause to act on the water.
We have previously seen what a power of combustion is possessed by thepotassium, or the zinc, or the iron-filings; but none of them shew such energy as this.
[The Lecturer here made contact between the two terminal wires of the battery, when abrilliant flash of light was produced.] This light is, in fact, produced by a forty-zinc
power of burning: it is a power that I can carry about in my hands, through these wires,at pleasure--although, if I applied it wrongly to myself, it would destroy me in an
instant, for it is a most intense thing, and the power you see here put forth while you
count five [bringing the poles in contact, and exhibiting the electric light] is equivalent
to the power of several thunder-storms, so great is its force14. And that you may see
what intense energy it has, I will take the ends of the wires which convey the powerfrom the battery, and with it I dare say I can burn this iron file. Now, this is a chemical
power, and one which, when we next meet, I shall apply to water, and shew you what
results we are able to produce.

14 Professor Faraday has calculated that there is as much electricity required to decompose one
grain of water as there is in a very powerful flash of lightning.

LECTURE IV.
HYDROGEN IN THE CANDLE--BURNS INTO WATER--THE OTHER PART OF
WATER--OXYGEN.

I see you are not tired of the candle yet, or I am sure you would not be interested
in the subject in the way you are. When our candle was burning, we found it produced
water exactly like the water we have around us; and by further examination of this water
we found in it that curious body, hydrogen--that light substance of which there is somein this jar. We afterwards saw the burning powers of that hydrogen, and that it produced
water. And I think I introduced to your notice an apparatus which I very briefly said wasan arrangement of chemical force, or power, or energy, so adjusted as to convey its
power to us in these wires; and I said I should use that force to pull the water to pieces,
to see what else there was in the water besides hydrogen; because, you remember, when
we passed the water through the iron tube, we by no means got the weight of water backwhich we put in, in the form of steam, though we had a very large quantity of gas
evolved. We have now to see what is the other substance present. That you may
understand the character and use of this instrument, let us make an experiment or two.
Let us put together, first of all, some substances, knowing what they are, and then see
what that instrument does to them. There is some copper (observe the various changes
which it can undergo), and here is some nitric acid, and you will find that this, being astrong chemical agent, will act very powerfully when I add it to the copper. It is now
sending forth a beautiful red vapour; but as we do not want that vapour, Mr. Anderson
will hold it near the chimney for a short time, that we may have the use and beauty ofthe experiment without the annoyance. The copper which I have put into the flask will
dissolve: it will change the acid and the water into a blue fluid, containing copper andother things; and I propose then shewing you how this voltaic battery deals with it; andin the mean-time we will arrange another kind of experiment for you to see what power
it has. This is a substance which is to us like water--that is to say, it contains bodies
which we do not know of as yet, as water contains a body which we do not know as yet.
Now, this solution of a salt 15 I will put upon paper, and spread about, and apply thepower of the battery to it, and observe what will happen. Three or four important things
will happen which we shall take advantage of. I place this wetted paper upon a sheet of
tinfoil, which is convenient for keeping all clean, and also for the advantageous
application of the power; and this solution, you see, is not at all affected by being put
upon the paper or tinfoil, nor by anything else I have brought in contact with it yet, andwhich, therefore, is free to us to use as regards that instrument. But first let us see that
our instrument is in order. Here are our wires. Let us see whether it is in the state inwhich it was last time. We can soon tell. As yet, when I bring them together, we have nopower, because the conveyers--what we call the electrodes--the passages or ways for theelectricity--are stopped; but now Mr. Anderson by that [referring to a sudden flash at theends of the wires] has given me a telegram to say that it is ready. Before I begin our
15 A solution of acetate of lead submitted to the action of the voltaic current, yields lead at thenegative pole, and brown peroxide of lead at the positive pole. A solution of nitrate of silver,
under the same circumstances, yields silver at the negative pole, and peroxide of silver at thepositive pole.

experiment I will get Mr. Anderson to break contact again at the battery behind me, andwe will put a platinum-wire across to connect the poles, and then if I find I can ignite apretty good length of this wire, we shall be safe in our experiment. Now you will see thepower. [The connection was established, and the intermediate wire became red-hot.]
There is the power running beautifully through the wire, which I have made thin on
purpose to shew you that we have those powerful forces; and now, having that power,
we will proceed with it to the examination of water.
I have here two pieces of platinum, and if I lay them down upon this piece of
paper [the moistened paper on the tinfoil], you will see no action; and if I take them up,there is no change that you can see, but the arrangement remains just as it was before.
But, now, see what happens: if I take these two poles and put either one or the other ofthem down separately on the platinum-plates, they do nothing for me, both are perfectly
without action; but if I let them both be in contact at the same moment, see what
happens [a brown spot appeared under each pole of the battery]. Look here at the effectthat takes place, and see how I have pulled something apart from the white--somethingbrown; and I have no doubt, if I were to arrange it thus, and were to put one of the poles
to the tinfoil on the other side of the paper--why, I get such a beautiful action upon thepaper, that I am going to see whether I cannot write with it--a telegram, if you please.
[The Lecturer here traced the word “juvenile” on the paper with one of the terminal
wires.] See there how beautifully we can get our results!
You see we have here drawn something, which we have not known about before,out of this solution. Let us now take that flask from Mr. Andersen's hands, and see what
we can draw out of that. This, you know, is a liquid which we have just made up fromcopper and nitric acid, whilst our other experiments were in hand; and though I am
making this experiment very hastily, and may bungle a little, yet I prefer to let you see
what I do rather than prepare it beforehand.
Now, see what happens. These two platinum-plates are the two ends (or I will
make them so immediately) of this apparatus; and I am about to put them in contact
with that solution just as we did a moment ago on the paper. It does not matter to us
whether the solution be on the paper or whether it be in the jar, so long as we bring theends of the apparatus to it. If I put the two platinums in by themselves, they come out asclean and as white as they go in [inserting them into the fluid without connecting themwith the battery]; but when we take the power and lay that on [the platinums wereconnected with the battery and again dipped into the solution], this, you see [exhibiting
one of the platinums], is at once turned into copper, as it were: it has become like a plateof copper; and that [exhibiting the other piece of platinum] has come out quite clean. If I
take this coppered piece and change sides, the copper will leave the right-hand side andcome over to the left side; what was before the coppered plate comes out clean, and theplate which was clean comes out coated with copper; and thus you see that the same
copper we put into this solution we can also take out of it by means of this instrument.
Putting that solution aside, let us now see what effect this instrument will haveupon water (FIG. 73). Here are two little platinum-plates which I intend to make theends of the battery, and this (C) is a little vessel so shaped as to enable me to take it topieces, and shew you its construction. In these two cups (A and B) I pour mercury,which touches the ends of the wires connected with the platinum-plates. In the vessel(C) I pour some water containing a little acid (but which is put only for the purpose of
facilitating the action; it undergoes no change in the process), and connected with the
top of the vessel is a bent glass tube (D), which may remind you of the pipe which wasconnected with the gun barrel in our furnace experiment, and which now passes under
the jar (F). I have now adjusted this apparatus, and we will proceed to affect the waterin some way or other. In the other case, I sent the water through a tube which was madered-hot; I am now going to pass the electricity through the contents of this vessel.
Perhaps I may boil the water; if I do boil the water, I shall get steam; and you know thatsteam condenses when it gets cold, and you will therefore see by that whether I do boil
the water or not. Perhaps, however, I shall not boil the water, but produce some othereffect. You shall have the experiment and see. There is one wire which I will put to thisside (A), and here is the other wire which I will put to the other side (B), and you willsoon see whether any disturbance takes place. Here it is seeming to boil up famously;
but does it boil? Let us see whether that which goes out is steam or not. I think you willsoon see the jar (F) will be filled with vapour, if that which rises from the water issteam. But can it be steam? Why, certainly not; because there it remains, you see,unchanged. There it is standing over the water, and it cannot therefore be steam, butmust be a permanent gas of some sort What is it? Is it hydrogen? Is it anything else?
Well, we will examine it. If it is hydrogen, it will burn. [The Lecturer then ignited a
portion of the gas collected, which burnt with an explosion.]

It is certainly something combustible, but not combustible in the way thathydrogen is. Hydrogen would not have given you that noise; but the colour of that light,
when the thing did burn, was like that of hydrogen: it will, however, burn without
contact with the air. That is why I have chosen this other form of apparatus, for the
purpose of pointing out to you what are the particular circumstances of this experiment.
In place of an open vessel I have taken one that is closed (our battery is so beautifully
active that we are even boiling the mercury, and getting all things right--not wrong, but
vigorously right); and I am going to shew you that that gas, whatever it may be, canburn without air, and in that respect differs from a candle, which cannot burn without
the air. And our manner of doing this is as follows:--I have here a glass vessel (G) which
is fitted with two platinum-wires (IK), through which I can apply electricity; and we canput the vessel on the air-pump and exhaust the air, and when we have taken the air out
we can bring it here and fasten it on to this jar (F), and let into the vessel that gas which
was formed by the action of the voltaic battery upon the water, and which we haveproduced by changing the water into it,--for I may go as far as this, and say we havereally, by that experiment, changed the water into that gas. We have not only altered its
condition, but we have changed it really and truly into that gaseous substance, and allthe water is there which was decomposed by the experiment. As I screw this vessel(GH) on here (H), and make the tubes well connected, and when I open the stop-cocks(HHH), if you watch the level of the water (in F), you will see that the gas will rise. I
will now close the stop-cocks, as I have drawn up as much as the vessel can hold, andbeing safely conveyed into that chamber, I will pass into it an electric spark from this
Leyden jar (L), when the vessel, which is now quite clear and bright, will become dim.
There will be no sound, for the vessel is strong enough to confine the explosion. [Aspark was then passed through the jar, when the explosive mixture was ignited.] Did
you see that brilliant light? If I again screw the vessel on to the jar, and open these stopcocks, you will see that the gas will rise a second time. [The stop-cocks were thenopened.] Those gases [referring to the gases first collected in the jar, and which had justbeen ignited by the electric spark] have disappeared, as you see: their place is vacant,and fresh gas has gone in. Water has been formed from them; and if we repeat ouroperation [repeating the last experiment], I shall have another vacancy, as you will see
by the water rising. I always have an empty vessel after the explosion, because thevapour or gas into which that water has been resolved by the battery explodes under the
influence of the spark, and changes into water; and by-and-by you will see in this uppervessel some drops of water trickling down the sides and collecting at the bottom.
We are here dealing with water entirely, without reference to the atmosphere.
The water of the candle had the atmosphere helping to produce it; but in this way it canbe produced independently of the air. Water, therefore, ought to contain that othersubstance which the candle takes from the air, and which, combining with the hydrogen,produces water.
Just now you saw that one end of this battery took hold of the copper, extracting
it from the vessel which contained the blue solution. It was effected by this wire; andsurely we may say, if the battery has such power with a metallic solution which we
made and unmade, may we not find that it is possible to split asunder the component
parts of the water, and put them into this place and that place? Suppose I take the poles-the metallic ends of this battery--and see what will happen with the water in thisapparatus (FIG. 74), where we have separated the two ends far apart.
I place one here (at A), and the other there (atB), and I have little shelves with holes which I can
put upon each pole, and so arrange them thatwhatever escapes from the two ends of the battery
will appear as separate gases; for you saw that thewater did not become vaporous, but gaseous. The
wires are now in perfect and proper connection withthe vessel containing the water; and you see thebubbles rising: let us collect these bubbles and see
what they are. Here is a glass cylinder (O); I fill itwith water and put it over one end (A) of the pile; andI will take another (H) and put it over the other end(B) of the pile. And so now we have a double
apparatus, with both places delivering gas. Boththese jars will fill with gas. There they go, that to the right (H) filling very rapidly; theone to the left (O) filling not so rapidly; and though I have allowed some bubbles toescape, yet still the action is going on pretty regularly; and were it not that one is rather
smaller than the other, you would see that I should have twice as much in this (H) as I

have in that (O). Both these gases are colourless; they stand over the water without
condensing; they are alike in all things--I mean in all apparent things; and we have here
an opportunity of examining these bodies and ascertaining what they are. Their bulk islarge, and we can easily apply experiments to them. I will take this jar (H) first, and will
ask you to be prepared to recognise hydrogen.
Think of all its qualities--the light gas which stood well in inverted vessels,
burning with a pale flame at the mouth of the jar--and see whether this gas does notsatisfy all these conditions. If it be hydrogen, it will remain here while I hold this jar
inverted. [A light was then applied, when the hydrogen burnt] What is there now in theother jar? You know that the two together made an explosive mixture. But what canthis 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 thevessel consisted of the two things together. We find one of these is hydrogen: what mustthat other be which was in the water before the experiment, and which we now have byitself? 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 combustionof the wood, and how it makes it burn far better than the air would make it burn; andnow you see by itself that every other substance which is contained in the water, andwhich, when the water was formed by the burning of the candle, must have been takenfrom 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 acandle 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 oneof 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 bycomparison 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
|
|
|
|
|
|
|___________|

Such a thing would be absolutely impossible, and chemically impossible,
without oxygen.
Can we get it from the air? Well, there are some very complicated and difficult
processes by which we can get it from the air; but we have better processes. There is a
substance called the black oxide of manganese: it is a very black-looking mineral, butvery useful, and when made red-hot it gives out oxygen. Here is an iron bottle which
has had some of this substance put into it, and there is a tube fixed to it (FIG. 75), and afire ready made, and Mr. Anderson will put that retort into the fire, for it is made of iron,and can stand the heat. Here is a salt called chlorate of potassa, which is now made inlarge quantities for bleaching, and chemical and medical uses, and for pyrotechnic andother purposes. I will take some and mix it with some of the oxide of manganese (oxideof copper, or oxide of iron would do as well); and if I put these together in a retort, farless than a red heat is sufficient to evolve this oxygen from the mixture. I am notpreparing to make much, because we only want sufficient for our experiments; only, as
you will see immediately, if I use too small a charge, the first portion of the gas will bemixed with the air already in the retort, and I should be obliged to sacrifice the firstportion of the gas, because it would be so much diluted with air; the first portion must
therefore be thrown away. You will find in this case, that a common spirit-lamp is quite
sufficient for me to get the oxygen, and so we shall have two processes going on for its
preparation. See how freely the gas is coming over from that small portion of the
mixture. We will examine it, and see what are its properties. Now, in this way we areproducing, as you will observe, a gas just like the one we had in the experiment with thebattery, transparent, undissolved by water, and presenting the ordinary visible propertiesof the atmosphere. (As this first jar contains the air, together with the first portions of
the oxygen set free during the preparation, we will carry it out of the way, and be
prepared to make our experiments in a regular, dignified manner.) And, inasmuch as thatpower of making wood, wax, or other things burn, was so marked in the oxygen we
obtained by means of the voltaic battery from water, we may expect to find the same
property here. We will try it You see there is the combustion of a lighted taper in air, andhere is its combustion in this gas [lowering the taper into the jar]. See how brightly andhow beautifully it burns! You can also see more than this,--you will perceive it is aheavy gas, whilst the hydrogen would go up like a balloon, or even faster than aballoon, when not encumbered with the weight of the envelope.
You may easily see that although we obtained from water twice as much involume of the hydrogen as of oxygen, it does not follow that we have twice as much inweight--because one is heavy, and the other a very light gas. We have means ofweighing gases or air; but without stopping to explain, that, let me just tell you what
their respective weights are. The weight of a pint ofhydrogen is three-quarters of a grain; the weight ofthe same quantity of oxygen is nearly twelve grains.
This is a very great difference. The weight of a
cubit foot of hydrogen is one-twelfth of an ounce;
and the weight of a cubit foot of oxygen is one
ounce and a third. And so on we might come tomasses of matter which may be weighed in thebalance, and which we can take account of as tohundredweights and as to tons, as you will see
almost immediately.

Now, as regards this very property of oxygen supporting combustion,
which we may compare to air, I will take a piece of candle to shew it you in arough way, and the result will be rough. There is our candle burning in the
air: how will it burn in oxygen? (FIG. 76) I have here a jar of this gas, and I
am about to put it over the candle for you to compare the action of this gas
with that of the air. Why, look at it: it looks something like the light you saw
at the poles of the voltaic battery. Think how vigorous that action must be!
And yet, during all that action, nothing more is produced than what is
produced by the burning of the candle in air. We have the same production ofwater, and the same phenomena exactly, when we use this gas instead of air,as we have when the candle is burnt in air.
But now we have got a knowledge of this new substance, we can lookat it a little more distinctly, in order to satisfy ourselves that we have got agood general understanding of this part of the product of a candle. It iswonderful how great the supporting powers of this substance are as regards
combustion. For instance, here is a lamp which, simple though it be, is the original, I
may say, of a great variety of lamps which are constructed for divers purposes--forlight-houses, microscopic illuminations, and other uses; and if it were proposed to makeit burn very brightly, you would say, “If a candle burnt better in oxygen, will not a lamp
do the same?” Why, it will do so. Mr. Anderson will give me a tube coming from ouroxygen reservoir, and I am about to apply it to this flame, which I will
previously make burn badly on purpose. There comes the oxygen:
what a combustion that makes! But if I shut it off, what becomes ofthe lamp? [The flow of oxygen was stopped, and the lamp relapsed toits former dimness.] It is wonderful how, by means of oxygen, we get
combustion accelerated. But it does not affect merely the combustionof hydrogen, or carbon, or the candle; but it exalts all combustions of
the common kind. We will take one which relates to iron, for instance,
as you have already seen iron burn a little in the atmosphere. Here is a
jar of oxygen, and this is a piece of iron wire; but if it were a bar as
thick as my wrist, it would burn the same.
I first attach a little piece of wood to the iron, I then set the wood on fire and letthem both down together into the jar (FIG. 77). The wood is now alight, and there it
burns as wood should burn in oxygen; but it will soon communicate its combustion to
the iron. The iron is now burning brilliantly, and will continue so for a long time. Aslong as we supply oxygen, so long can we carry on the combustion of the iron, until thelatter is consumed.
We will now put that on one side, and take some other substance;
but we must limit our experiments, for we have not time to spare for all theillustrations you would have a right to if we had more time. We will take apiece of sulphur--you know how sulphur burns in the air--well, we put it
into the oxygen, and you will see that whatever can burn in air, can burnwith a far greater intensity in oxygen, leading you to think that perhaps theatmosphere itself owes all its power of combustion to this gas (FIG. 78).
The sulphur is now burning very quietly in the oxygen; but you cannot for a
moment mistake the very high and increased action which takes place when
it is so burnt, instead of being burnt merely in common air.

I am now about to shew you the combustion of another substance--phosphorus. I
can do it better for you here than you can do it at home. This is a very combustible
substance; and if it be so combustible in air, what might you expect it would be inoxygen? I am about to shew it to you not in its fullest intensity, for if I did so we should
almost blow the apparatus up--I may even now crack the jar, though I do not want tobreak things carelessly. You see how it burns in the air. But what a glorious light it givesout when I introduce it into oxygen! [Introducing the lighted phosphorus into the jar ofoxygen.] There you see the solid particles going off which cause that combustion to be
so brilliantly luminous.
Thus far we have tested this power of oxygen, and the high combustion it
produces by means of other substances. We must now, for a little while longer, look at it
as respects the hydrogen. You know, when we allowed the oxygen and the hydrogen
derived from the water to mix and burn together, we had a little explosion. You
remember, also, that when I burnt the oxygen and the hydrogen in a jet together, we gotvery little light, but great heat. I am now about to set fire to oxygen and hydrogen,mixed in the proportion in which they occur in water. Here is a vessel containing one
volume of oxygen and two volumes of hydrogen. This mixture is exactly of the same
nature as the gas we just now obtained from the voltaic battery: it would be far too
much to burn at once; I have therefore arranged to blow soap-bubbles with it, and burnthose bubbles, that we may see by a general experiment or two how this oxygen
supports the combustion of the hydrogen. First of all, we will see whether we can blow
a bubble. Well, there goes the gas [causing it to issue through a tobacco-pipe into somesoap-suds]. Here I have a bubble. I am receiving them on my hand: and you will
perhaps think I am acting oddly in this experiment; but it is to shew you that we must
not always trust to noise and sounds, but rather to real facts. [Exploding a bubble on thepalm of his hand.] I am afraid to fire a bubble from the end of the pipe, because theexplosion would pass up into the jar and blow it to pieces. This oxygen then will unitewith the hydrogen, as you see by the phenomena, and hear by the sound, with theutmost readiness of action, and all its powers are then taken up in its neutralisation of
the qualities of the hydrogen.
So now I think you will perceive the whole history of water with reference tooxygen and the air, from what we have before said. Why does a piece of potassium
decompose water? Because it finds oxygen in the water. What is set free when I put it in
the water, as I am about to do again? It sets free hydrogen, and the hydrogen burns; but
the potassium itself combines with oxygen; and this piece of potassium, in taking thewater apart--the water, you may say, derived from the combustion of the candle--takes
away the oxygen which the candle took from the air, and so sets the hydrogen free; andeven if I take a piece of ice, and put a piece of potassium upon it, the beautiful affinities
by which the oxygen and the hydrogen are related are such, that the ice will absolutely
set fire to the potassium. I shew this to you to-day, in order to enlarge your ideas ofthese things, and that you may see how greatly results are modified by circumstances.
There is the potassium on the ice, producing a sort of volcanic action.
It will be my place, when next we meet, having pointed out these anomalous
actions, to shew you that none of these extra and strange effects are met with by us--thatnone of these strange and injurious actions take place when we are burning, not merely
a candle, but gas in our streets, or fuel in our fireplaces, so long as we confine ourselves
within the laws that Nature has made for our guidance.

LECTURE V.
OXYGEN PRESENT IN THE AIR--NATURE OF THE ATMOSPHERE--ITSPROPERTIES--OTHER PRODUCTS FROM THE CANDLE--CARBONIC ACID-ITS PROPERTIES.

We have now seen that we can produce hydrogen and oxygen from the waterthat we obtained from the candle. Hydrogen, you know, comes from the candle, andoxygen, you believe, comes from the air. But then you have a right to ask me, “How is itthat the air and the oxygen do not equally well burn the candle?” If you remember what
happened when I put a jar of oxygen over a piece of candle, you recollect there was avery different kind of combustion to that which took place in the air. Now, why is this?
It is a very important question, and one I shall endeavour to make you understand: it
relates most intimately to the nature of the atmosphere, and is most important to us.
We have several tests for oxygen besides the mere burning of bodies. You haveseen a candle burnt in oxygen, or in the air; you have seen phosphorus burnt in the air,or in oxygen; and you have seen iron-filings burnt in oxygen. But we have other tests
besides these, and I am about to refer to one or two of them for the purpose of carrying
your conviction and your experience further. Here we have a vessel of oxygen. I will
shew its presence to you: if I take a little spark and put it into that oxygen, you know, by
the experience you gained the last time we met, what will happen; if I put that spark into
the jar, it will tell you whether we have oxygen here or not. Yes! We have proved it by
combustion; and now here is another test for oxygen, which is a very curious and usefulone. I have here two jars full of gas, with a plate between them to prevent their mixing; I
take the plate away, and the gases are creeping one into the other. “What happens?” sayyou: “they together produce no such combustion as was seen in the case of the candle.”
But see how the presence of oxygen is told by its association with this other substance 16.
What a beautifully coloured gas I have obtained in this way, shewing me the presence ofthe oxygen! In the same way we can try this experiment by mixing common air withthis test-gas. Here is a jar containing air--such air as the candle would burn in--and here
is a jar or bottle containing the test-gas. I let them come together over water, and you
see the result: the contents of the test-bottle are flowing into the jar of air, and you see I
obtain exactly the same kind of action as before, and that shews me that there is oxygenin the air--the very same substance that has been already obtained by us from the waterproduced by the candle. But then, beyond that, how is it that the candle does not burn in
air as well as in oxygen? We will come to that point at once. I have here two jars; they
are filled to the same height with gas, and the appearance to the eye is alike in both, andI really do not know at present which of these jars contains oxygen and which contains
air, although I know they have previously been filled with these gases. But here is our
test-gas, and I am going to work with the two jars, in order to examine whether there isany difference between them in the quality of reddening this gas. I am now going to turnthis test-gas into one of the jars, and observe what happens. There is reddening, you see;
there is then oxygen present. We will now test the other jar; but you see this is not so
16 The gas which is thus employed as a test for the presence of oxygen, is the binoxide of nitrogen,or nitrous oxide. It is a colourless gas, which, when brought in contact with oxygen, unites withit, forming hyponitric acid, the red gas referred to.

distinctly red as the first: and, further, this curious thing happens,--if I take these twogases and shake them well together with water, we shall absorb the red gas; and then, if
I put in more of this test-gas and shake again, we shall absorb more; and I can go on aslong as there be any oxygen present to produce that effect. If I let in air, it will notmatter; but the moment I introduce water, the red gas disappears; and I may go on inthis way, putting in more and more of the test-gas, until I come to something left behind
which will not redden any longer by the use of that particular body that rendered the air
and the oxygen red. Why is that? You see in a moment it is because there is, besides
oxygen, something else present which is left behind. I will let a little more air into thejar, and if it turns red you will know that some of that reddening gas is still present, andthat consequently it was not for the want of this producing body that that air was left
behind.
Now, you will begin to understand what I am about to say. You saw that when I
burnt phosphorus in a jar, as the smoke produced by the phosphorus and the oxygen of
the air condensed, it left a good deal of gas unburnt, just as this red gas left something
untouched,--there was, in fact, this gas left behind, which the phosphorus cannot touch,which the reddening gas cannot touch, and this something is not oxygen, and yet is partof the atmosphere.
So that is one way of opening out air into the two things of which it iscomposed--oxygen, which burns our candles, our phosphorus, or anything else; and thisother substance--nitrogen--which will not burn them. This other part of the air is by far
the larger proportion, and it is a very curious body, when we come to examine it; it isremarkably curious, and yet you say, perhaps, that it is very uninteresting. It is
uninteresting in some respects because of this--that it shews no brilliant effects of
combustion. If I test it with a taper as I do oxygen and hydrogen, it does not burn likehydrogen, nor does it make the taper burn like oxygen. Try it in any way I will, it does
neither the one thing nor the other: it will not take fire; it will not let the taper burn; it
puts out the combustion of everything. There is nothing that will burn in it in common
circumstances. It has no smell; it is not sour; it does not dissolve in water; it is neither
an acid nor an alkali; it is as indifferent to all our organs as it is possible for a thing to
be. And you might say, “It is nothing; it is not worth chemical attention; what does it doin the air?” Ah! then come our beautiful and fine results shewn us by an observant
philosophy. Suppose, in place of having nitrogen, or nitrogen and oxygen, we had pureoxygen as our atmosphere; what would become of us? You know very well that a pieceof iron lit in a jar of oxygen goes on burning to the end. When you see a fire in an irongrate, imagine where the grate would go to if the whole of the atmosphere were oxygen.
The grate would burn up more powerfully than the coals--for the iron of the grate itself
is even more combustible than the coals which we burn in it. A fire put into the middle
of a locomotive would be a fire in a magazine of fuel, if the atmosphere were oxygen.
The nitrogen lowers it down and makes it moderate and useful for us, and then, with allthat, it takes away with it the fumes that you have seen produced from the candle,
disperses them throughout the whole of the atmosphere, and carries them away to places
where they are wanted to perform a great and glorious purpose of good to man, for thesustenance of vegetation; and thus does a most wonderful work, although you say, on
examining it, “Why, it is a perfectly indifferent thing.” This nitrogen in its ordinary stateis an inactive element; no action short of the most intense electric force, and then in themost infinitely small degree, can cause the nitrogen to combine directly with the otherelement of the atmosphere, or with other things round about it; it is a perfectlyindifferent, and therefore to say, a safe substance.
But before I take you to that result, I must tell you about the atmosphere itself. I
have written on this diagram the composition of one hundred parts of atmospheric air:-Oxygen, . . . . .
Nitrogen, . . . .

Bulk.
20
80
---l00Weight.
22.3
77.7----100.0

It is a true analysis of the atmosphere, so far as regards the quantity of oxygen
and the quantity of nitrogen present. By our analysis, we find that 5 pints of theatmosphere contain only 1 pint of oxygen, and 4 pints, or 4 parts, of nitrogen by bulk.
That is our analysis of the atmosphere. It requires all that quantity of nitrogen to reduce
the oxygen down, so as to be able to supply the candle properly with fuel, so as tosupply us with an atmosphere which our lungs can healthily and safely breathe; for it isjust as important to make the oxygen right for us to breathe, as it is to make theatmosphere right for the burning of the fire and the candle.
But now for this atmosphere. First of all, let me tell you the weight of thesegases. A pint of nitrogen weighs 10-4/10 grains, or a cubic foot weighs 1-1/6 ounce.
That is the weight of the nitrogen. The oxygen is heavier: a pint of it weighs 11-9/10
grains, and a cubic foot weighs 1-3/4 ounce. A pint of air weighs about 10-7/10 grains,
and a cubic foot 1-1/5 ounce.
You have asked me several times, and I am very glad you have,“How do you weigh gases?” I will shew you; it is very simple, and easily
done. Here is a balance, and here a copper bottle, made as light as we canconsistent with due strength, turned very nicely in the lathe, and madeperfectly air-tight, with a stop-cock, which we can open and shut, which atpresent is open, and therefore allows the bottle to be full of air. I have here anicely-adjusted balance, in which I think the bottle, in its present condition,
will be balanced by the weight on the other side. And here is a pump bywhich we can force the air into this bottle, and with it we will force in acertain number of volumes of air, as measured by the pump. [Twenty
measures were pumped in.] We will shut that in and put it in the balance. See
how it sinks: it is much heavier than it was. By what? By the air that wehave forced into it by the pump. There is not a greater bulk of air, but there is
the same bulk of heavier air, because we have forced in air upon it. And thatyou may have a fair notion in your mind as to how much this air measures,
here is a jar full of water. We will open that copper vessel into this jar, andlet the air return to its former state (FIG. 79). All I have to do now is to screw themtightly together, and to turn the taps, when there, you see, is the bulk of the twenty
pumps of air which I forced into the bottle; and to make sure that we have been quite
correct in what we have been doing, we will take the bottle again to the balance, and, if
it is now counterpoised by the original weight, we shall be quite sure we have made ourexperiment correctly.
It is balanced; so, you see, we can find out the weight of the extra volumes of airforced in, in that way, and by that means we are able to ascertain that a cubic foot of air
weighs 1-1/5 ounce. But that small experiment will by no means convey to your mindthe whole literal truth of this matter. It is wonderful how it accumulates when you cometo larger volumes. This bulk of air [a cubic foot] weighs 1-1/5 ounce. What do you thinkof the contents of that box above there, which I have had made for the purpose? The air
which is within that box weighs one pound--a full pound; and I have calculated theweight of the air in this room,--you would hardly imagine it, but it is above a ton. So
rapidly do the weights rise up, and so important is the presence of the atmosphere, andof the oxygen and the nitrogen in it, and the use it performs in conveying things to andfro from place to place, and carrying bad vapours to places where they will do goodinstead of harm.
Having given you that little illustration with respect to the weight of the air, letme shew you certain consequences of it. You have a right to them, because you would
not understand so much without it. Do you remember this kind of experiment? Haveyou ever seen it? Suppose I take a pump somewhat similar to the one I had a little while
ago to force air into the bottle, and suppose I place it in such a manner that by certain
arrangements I can apply my hand to it: my hand moves about in the air so easily that it
seems to feel nothing, and I can hardly get velocity enough by any motion of my own in
the atmosphere to make sure that there is much resistance to it.
But, when I put my hand here [on the air-pumpreceiver, which was afterwards exhausted], you see what
happens (FIG. 80). Why is my hand fastened to this place, andwhy am I able to pull this pump about? And see! how is it that
I can hardly get my hand away? Why is this? It is the weightof the air--the weight of the air that is above. I have anotherexperiment here, which I think will explain to you more about
it. When the air is pumped from underneath the bladder whichis stretched over this glass, you will see the effect in anothershape: the top is quite flat at present, but I will make a very
little motion with the pump, and now look at it--see how it hasgone down, see how it is bent in. You will see the bladder goin more and more, until at last I expect it will be driven in andbroken by the force of the atmosphere pressing upon it.

[The bladder at last broke with a loud report.] Now, that was done entirely by theweight of the air pressing on it, and you can easily understand how that is. The particles
that are piled up in the atmosphere stand upon each other, as these five cubes do. You
can easily conceive that four of these five cubes are resting upon the bottom one, and if
I take that away, the others will all sink down. So it is with the atmosphere: the air that

is above is sustained by the air that is beneath; and when the air is pumped away frombeneath them, the change occurs which you saw when I placed my hand on the airpump, and which you saw in the case of the bladder, and which you shall see better here
(FIG. 81). I have tied over this jar a piece of sheet india-rubber, and I am now about totake away the air from the inside of the jar; and if you will watch the india-rubber-which acts as a partition between the air below and the air above--you will see, when I
pump, how the pressure shews itself. See where it is going to--I can actually put myhand into the jar; and yet this result is only caused by the great and powerful action of
the air above. How beautifully it shews this curious circumstance!
Here is something that you can have a pull at, when I
have finished to-day. It is a little apparatus of two hollow brass
hemispheres, closely fitted together, and having connected withit a pipe and a cock, through which we can exhaust the air fromthe inside; and although the two halves are so easily taken apart,while the air is left within, yet you will see, when we exhaust it
by-and-by, no power of any two of you will be able to pull themapart (FIG. 82). Every square inch of surface that is contained in
the area of that vessel sustains fifteen pounds by weight, or
nearly so, when the air is taken out; and you may try yourstrength presently in seeing whether you can overcome thatpressure of the atmosphere.
Here is another very pretty thing--the boys' sucker, only refined by thephilosopher. We young ones have a perfect right to take toys, and make them into
philosophy, inasmuch as now-a-days we are turning philosophy into toys. Here is asucker, only it is made of india-rubber: if I clap it upon the table, you see at once itholds. Why does it hold? I can slip it about, and yet if I try to pull it up, it seems as if itwould pull the table with it I can easily make it slip about from place to place; but only
when I bring it to the edge of the table can I get it off. It is only kept down by thepressure of the atmosphere above. We have a couple of them; and if you take these twoand press them together, you will see how firmly they stick. And, indeed, we may use
them as they are proposed to be used, to stick against windows, or against walls, where
they will adhere for an evening, and serve to hang anything on that you want. I think,however, that you boys ought to be shewn experiments that you can make at home; andso here is a very pretty experiment in illustration of the pressure of the atmosphere. Hereis a tumbler of water. Suppose I were to ask you to turn that tumbler upside-down, sothat the water should not fall out, and yet not be kept in by your hand, but merely byusing the pressure of the atmosphere. Could you do that? Take a wine-glass, either quite
full or half-full of water, and put a flat card on the top, turn it upside-down, and then see
what becomes of the card and of the water. The air cannot get in because the water by
its capillary attraction round the edge keeps it out.
I think this will give you a correct notion of what you may call the materiality of
the air; and when I tell you that the box holds a pound of it, and this room more than aton, you will begin to think that air is something very serious. I will make anotherexperiment, to convince you of this positive resistance. There is that beautiful
experiment of the popgun, made so well and so easily, you know, out of a quill, or atube, or anything of that kind,--where we take a slice of potato, for instance, or an apple,
and take the tube and cut out a pellet, as I have now done, and push it to one end. I havemade that end tight; and now I take another piece and put it in: it will confine the airthat is within the tube perfectly and completely for our purpose; and I shall now find it
absolutely impossible by any force of mine to drive that little pellet close up to theother. It cannot be done. I may press the air to a certain extent, but if I go on pressing,long before it comes to the second, the confined air will drive the front one out with aforce something like that of gunpowder; for gunpowder is in part dependent upon thesame action that you see here exemplified.
I saw the other day an experiment which pleased me much, as I thought it would
serve our purpose here. (I ought to have held my tongue for four or five minutes before
beginning this experiment, because it depends upon my lungs for success.) By theproper application of air I expect to be able to drive this egg out of one cup into theother by the force of my breath; but if I fail, it is in a good cause; and I do not promise
success, because I have been talking more than I ought to do to make the experimentsucceed.
[The Lecturer here tried the experiment, and succeeded in blowing the egg fromone egg-cup to the other.]
You see that the air which I blow goes downwards between the egg and the cup,and makes a blast under the egg, and is thus able to lift a heavy thing--for a full egg is avery heavy thing for air to lift. If you want to make the experiment, you had better boil
the egg quite hard first, and then you may very safely try to blow it from one cup to theother, with a little care.
I have now kept you long enough upon this property of the weight of the air, butthere is another thing I should like to mention. You saw the way in which, in this
popgun, I was able to drive the second piece of potato half or two-thirds of an inch
before the first piece started, by virtue of the elasticity of the air--just as I pressed into
the copper bottle the particles of air by means of the pump. Now, this depends upon awonderful property in the air, namely, its elasticity; and I should like to give you a good
illustration of this. If I take anything that confines the air properly, as this membrane,
which also is able to contract and expand so as to give us a measure of the elasticity of
the air, and confine in this bladder a certain portion of air; and then, if we take theatmosphere off from the outside of it, just as in these cases we put the pressure on--if wetake the pressure off, you will see how it will then go on expanding and expanding,larger and larger, until it will fill the whole of this bell-jar, shewing you that wonderfulproperty of the air, its elasticity, its compressibility, and expansibility, to an exceedingly
large extent, and which is very essential for the purposes and services it performs in theeconomy of creation.
We will now turn to another very important partof our subject, remembering that we have examined thecandle in its burning, and have found that it gives rise tovarious products. We have the products, you know, ofsoot, of water, and of something else which you have
not yet examined. We have collected the water, but haveallowed the other things to go into the air. Let us now
examine some of these other products.
Here is an experiment which I think will help
you in part in this way. We will put our candle there, andplace over it a chimney, thus (FIG. 83). I think mycandle will go on burning, because the air-passage isopen at the bottom and the top. In the first place, yousee the moisture appearing--that you know about. It is water produced from the candle
by the action of the air upon its hydrogen. But, besides that, something is going out at
the top: it is not moisture--it is not water--it is not condensible; and yet, after all, it hasvery singular properties. You will find that the air coming out of the top of our chimney
is nearly sufficient to blow the light out I am holding to it; and if I put the light fairly
opposed to the current, it will blow it quite out. You will say that is as it should be; and I
am supposing that you think it ought to do so, because the nitrogen does not support
combustion, and ought to put the candle out, since the candle will not burn in nitrogen.
But is there nothing else there than nitrogen? I must now anticipate--that is tosay, I must use my own knowledge to supply you with the means that we adopt for the
purpose of ascertaining these things, and examining such gases as these. I will take anempty bottle--here is one--and if I hold it over this chimney, I shall get the combustionof the candle below sending its results into the bottle above; and we shall soon find that
this bottle contains, not merely an air that is bad as regards the combustion of a taper put
into it, but having other properties.
Let me take a little quick-lime and pour some common water on to it--thecommonest water will do. I will stir it a moment, then pour it upon a piece of filtering
paper in a funnel, and we shall very quickly have a clear water proceeding to the bottle
below, as I have here. I have plenty of this water in another bottle; but, nevertheless, I
should like to use the lime-water that was prepared before you, so that you may see
what its uses are. If I take some of this beautiful clear lime-water, and pour it into thisjar, which has collected the air from the candle, you will see a change coming about. Do
you see that the water has become quite milky? Observe, that will not happen with air
merely. Here is a bottle filled with air; and if I put a little lime-water into it, neither theoxygen nor the nitrogen, nor anything else that is in that quantity of air, will make anychange in the lime-water. It remains perfectly clear, and no shaking of that quantity oflime-water with that quantity of air in its common state will cause any change; but if I
take this bottle with the lime-water, and hold it so as to get the general products of thecandle in contact with it, in a very short time we shall have it milky. There is the chalk,
consisting of the lime which we used in making the lime-water, combined withsomething that came from the candle--that other product which we are in search of, andwhich I want to tell you about to-day. This is a substance made visible to us by its
action, which is not the action of the lime-water either upon the oxygen or upon thenitrogen, nor upon the water itself, but it is something new to us from the candle. And
then we find this white powder, produced by the lime-water and the vapour from thecandle, appears to us very much like whitening or chalk, and, when examined, it does
prove to be exactly the same substance as whitening or chalk. So we are led, or havebeen led, to observe upon the various circumstances of this experiment, and to trace thisproduction of chalk to its various causes, to give us the true knowledge of the nature ofthis combustion of the candle--to find that this substance, issuing from the candle, isexactly the same as that substance which would issue from a retort, if I were to put somechalk into it with a little moisture, and make it red-hot: you would then find that exactly
the same substance would issue from it as from the candle.
But we have a better means of getting this substance, and in greater quantity, so
as to ascertain what its general characters are. We find this substance in very greatabundance in a multitude of cases where you would least expect it. All limestones
contain a great deal of this gas which issues from the candle, and which we callcarbonic acid. All chalks, all shells, all corals contain a great quantity of this curious air.

We find it fixed in these stones; for which reason Dr. Black called it “fixed air”--finding
it in these fixed things like marble and chalk. He called it fixed air, because it lost its
quality of air, and assumed the condition of a solid body. We can easily get this air frommarble. Here is a jar containing a little muriatic acid, and here is a taper which, if I put
it into that jar, will shew only the presence of common air. There is, you see, pure air
down to the bottom; the jar is full of it Here is a substance--marble 17, a very beautiful
and superior marble—and if I put these pieces of marble into the jar, a great boilingapparently goes on. That, however, is not steam--it is a gas that is rising up; and if I now
search the jar by a candle, I shall have exactly the same effect produced upon the taper
as I had from the air which issued from the end of the chimney over the burning candle.
It is exactly the same action, and caused by the very same substance that issued from thecandle; and in this way we can get carbonic acid in great abundance--we have alreadynearly filled the jar. We also find that this gas is not merely contained in marble. Here isa vessel in which I have put some common whitening--chalk, which has been washed inwater and deprived of its coarser particles, and so supplied to the plasterer as whitening.
Here is a large jar containing this whitening and water, and I have here some strong
sulphuric acid, which is the acid you might have to use if you were to make theseexperiments (only, in using this acid with limestone, the body that is produced is an
insoluble substance, whereas the muriatic acid produces a soluble substance that does
not so much thicken the water). And you will seek out a reason why I take this kind ofapparatus for the purpose of shewing this experiment. I do it because you may repeat ina small way what I am about to do in a large one. You will have here just the same kindof action; and I am evolving in this large jar carbonic acid, exactly the same in its natureand properties as the gas which we obtained from the combustion of the candle in theatmosphere. And no matter how different the two methods by which we prepare thiscarbonic acid, you will see, when we get to the end of our subject, that it is all exactly
the same, whether prepared in the one way or in the other.
We will now proceed to the next experiment with regard to this gas. What is its
nature? Here is one of the vessels full, and we will try it, as we have done so many othergases, by combustion. You see it is not combustible, nor does it support combustion.
Neither, as we know, does it dissolve much in water, because we collect it over water
very easily. Then, you know that it has an effect, and becomes white in contact withlime-water; and when it does become white in that way, it becomes one of theconstituents to make carbonate of lime or limestone.
The next thing I must shew you is, that it really does dissolve a little in water,
and therefore that it is unlike oxygen and hydrogen in that respect I have here anapparatus by which we can produce this solution. In the lower part of this apparatus ismarble and acid, and in the upper part cold water. The valves are so arranged that thegas can get from one to the other. I will set it in action now, and you can see the gas
bubbling up through the water, as it has been doing all night long, and by this time weshall find that we have this substance dissolved in the water. If I take a glass and draw
off some of the water, I find that it tastes a little acid to the mouth: it is impregnatedwith carbonic acid; and if I now apply a little lime-water to it, that will give us a test of
its presence. This water will make the lime-water turbid and white, which is proof of thepresence of carbonic acid.
17 Marble is a compound of carbonic acid and lime. The muriatic acid being the stronger of the two,takes the place of the carbonic acid, which escapes as a gas, the residue forming muriate of limeor chloride of calcium.

Then it is a very weighty gas--it is heavier than the atmosphere. I have put theirrespective weights at the lower part of this table, along with, for comparison, theweights of the other gases we have been examining:-Hydrogen, . .
Oxygen,. .
Nitrogen, . .
Air,. . . .
Carbonic acid,

.
.
.
.
.

.
.
.
.
.

Pint.
Cubic Foot.
3/4 grains. 1/12 ounce.
11-9/10 "1-1/2 "
10-1/10 "1-1/4 "
10-7/16 "1-3/8 "
16-1/3 "1-9/10 "A pint of it weighs 16-1/3 grains, and a cubic foot weighs 19/10 ounce, almost two ounces. You can see by many
experiments that this is a heavy gas. Suppose I take a glass
containing nothing else but air, and from this vessel containing
the carbonic acid I attempt to pour a little of this gas into thatglass; I wonder whether any has gone in or not. I cannot tellby the appearance, but I can in this way [introducing thetaper]. Yes, there it is, you see; and if I were to examine it bylime-water, I should find it by that test also. I will take thislittle bucket, and put it down into the well of carbonic acid-indeed, we too often have real wells of carbonic acid--and
now, if there is any carbonic acid, I must have got to it by thistime, and it will be in this bucket, which we will examine witha taper. There it is, you see; it is full of carbonic acid (FIG. 84).
There is another experiment by which I will shew you its weight. I have here ajar suspended at one end of a balance--it is now equipoised; but when I pour thiscarbonic acid into the jar on the one side which now contains air, you will see it sinkdown at once, because of the carbonic acid that I pour into it. And now, if I examine thisjar with the lighted taper, I shall find that the carbonic acid has fallen into it, and it nolonger has any power of supporting the combustion. If I blow a soap-bubble, which ofcourse will be filled with air, and let it fall into this jar of carbonic acid, it will float.

But I shall first of all take one of these little balloons filled with air. I am notquite sure where the carbonic acid is; we will just try the depth, and see whereabouts is
its level (FIG. 85). There, you see, we have this bladder floating on the carbonic acid;and if I evolve some more of the carbonic acid, the bladder will be lifted up higher.

There it goes--the jar is nearly full; and now I will see whether I can blow a soap-bubble
on that, and float it in the same way. [The Lecturer here blew a soap-bubble, andallowed it to fall into the jar of carbonic acid, when it floated in it midway.] It is
floating, as the balloon floated, by virtue of the greater weight of the carbonic acid thanof the air. And now, having so far given you the history of the carbonic acid--as to its
sources in the candle, as to its physical properties and weight--when we next meet I
shall shew you of what it is composed, and where it gets its elements from.

LECTURE VI.
CARBON OR CHARCOAL--COAL GAS--RESPIRATION AND ITS ANALOGY TO
THE BURNING OF A CANDLE--CONCLUSION.

A lady, who honours me by her presence at these Lectures, has conferred a still
further obligation by sending me these two candles, which are from Japan, and, I
presume, are made of that substance to which I referred in a former lecture. You see thatthey are even far more highly ornamented than the French candles; and, I suppose, arecandles of luxury, judging from their appearance. They have a remarkable peculiarity
about them--namely, a hollow wick,--that beautiful peculiarity which Argand introduced
into the lamp, and made so valuable. To those who receive such presents from the East,
I may just say that this and such like materials gradually undergo a change which gives
them on the surface a dull and dead appearance; but they may easily be restored to their
original beauty, if the surface be rubbed with a clean cloth or silk handkerchief, so as topolish the little rugosity or roughness: this will restore the beauty of the colours. I haveso rubbed one of these candles, and you see the difference between it and the otherwhich has not been polished, but which may be restored by the same process. Observe,also, that these moulded candles from Japan are made more conical than the moulded
candles in this part of the world.
I told you, when we last met, a good deal about carbonic acid. We found, by thelime-water test, that when the vapour from the top of the candle or lamp was received
into bottles, and tested by this solution of lime-water (the composition of which I
explained to you, and which you can make for yourselves), we had that white opacity
which was in fact calcareous matter, like shells and corals, and many of the rocks andminerals in the earth. But I have not yet told you fully and clearly the chemical historyof this substance--carbonic acid--as we have it from the candle, and I must now resume
that subject. We have seen the products, and the nature of them, as they issue from thecandle. We have traced the water to its elements, and now we have to see where are theelements of the carbonic acid supplied by the candle. A few experiments will shew this.
You remember that when a candle burns badly, it produces smoke; but if it is burning
well, there is no smoke. And you know that the brightness of the candle is due to thissmoke, which becomes ignited. Here is an experiment to prove this: so long as thesmoke remains in the flame of the candle and becomes ignited, it gives a beautiful light,
and never appears to us in the form of black particles. I will light some fuel, which is
extravagant in its burning. This will serve our purpose--a little turpentine on a sponge.
You see the smoke rising from it, and floating into the air in large quantities; and,remember now, the carbonic acid that we have from the candle is from such smoke as
that. To make that evident to you, I will introduce this turpentine burning on the sponge
into a flask where I have plenty of oxygen, the rich part of the atmosphere, and you now
see that the smoke is all consumed. This is the first part of our experiment; and now,
what follows? The carbon which you saw flying off from the turpentine flame in the air
is now entirely burned in this oxygen, and we shall find that it will, by this rough andtemporary experiment, give us exactly the same conclusion and result as we had fromthe combustion of the candle. The reason why I make the experiment in this manner issolely that I may cause the steps of our demonstration to be so simple that you can neverfor a moment lose the train of reasoning, if you only pay attention. All the carbon which
is burned in oxygen, or air, comes out as carbonic acid, whilst those particles which are
not so burned shew you the second substance in the carbonic acid--namely, the carbon-that body which made the flame so bright whilst there was plenty of air, but which wasthrown off in excess when there was not oxygen enough to burn it.
I have also to shew you a little more distinctly the history of carbon and oxygen,in their union to make carbonic acid. You are now better able to understand this than
before, and I have prepared three or four experiments by way of illustration. This jar isfilled with oxygen, and here is some carbon which has been placed in a crucible, for the
purpose of being made red-hot. I keep my jar dry, and venture to give you a result
imperfect in some degree, in order that I may make the experiment brighter. I am about
to put the oxygen and the carbon together. That this is carbon (common charcoal
pulverised), you will see by the way in which it burns in the air [letting some of the redhot charcoal fall out of the crucible]. I am now about to burn it in oxygen gas, and lookat the difference. It may appear to you at a distance as if it were burning with a flame;but it is not so. Every little piece of charcoal is burning as a spark, and whilst it so burns
it is producing carbonic acid. I specially want these two or three experiments to pointout what I shall dwell upon more distinctly by-and-by--that carbon burns in this way,
and not as a flame.
Instead of taking many particles of carbon to burn, I will take a rather large
piece, which will enable you to see the form and size; and to trace the effects very
decidedly. Here is the jar of oxygen, and here is the piece of charcoal, to which I havefastened a little piece of wood, which I can set fire to, and so commence the
combustion, which I could not conveniently do without. You now see the charcoal
burning, but not as a flame (or if there be a flame, it is the smallest possible one, which I
know the cause of--namely, the formation of a little carbonic oxide close upon thesurface of the carbon). It goes on burning, you see, slowly producing carbonic acid by
the union of this carbon or charcoal (they are equivalent terms) with the oxygen. I havehere another piece of charcoal, a piece of bark, which has the quality of being blown topieces--exploding as it burns. By the effect of the heat, we shall reduce the lump ofcarbon into particles that will fly off; still every particle, equally with the whole mass,
burns in this peculiar way: it burns as a coal, and not like a flame. You observe a
multitude of little combustions going on, but no flame. I do not know a finer experimentthan this, to shew that carbon burns with a spark.
Here, then, is carbonic acid formed from its elements. It is produced at once; andif we examined it by lime-water, you will see that we have the same substance which I
have previously described to you. By putting together 6 parts of carbon by weight(whether it comes from the flame of a candle or from powdered charcoal) and 16 partsof oxygen by weight, we have 22 parts of carbonic acid; and, as we saw last time, the 22parts of carbonic acid, combined with 28 parts of lime, produced common carbonate oflime. If you were to examine an oyster-shell, and weigh the component parts, you
would find that every 50 parts would give 6 of carbon and 16 of oxygen, combined with
28 of lime. However, I do not want to trouble you with these minutiŸ--it is only thegeneral philosophy of the matter that we can now go into. See how finely the carbon is
dissolving away [pointing to the lump of charcoal burning quietly in the jar of oxygen].
You may say that the charcoal is actually dissolving in the air round about; and if thatwere perfectly pure charcoal, which we can easily prepare, there would be no residue
whatever. When we have a perfectly cleansed and purified piece of carbon, there is noash left. The carbon burns as a solid dense body, that heat alone cannot change as to its
solidity, and yet it passes away into vapour that never condenses into solid or liquid
under ordinary circumstances; and what is more curious still, is the fact that the oxygen
does not change in its bulk by the solution of the carbon in it. Just as the bulk is at first,
so it is at last, only it has become carbonic acid.
There is another experiment which I must give you before you are fullyacquainted with the general nature of carbonic acid. Being a compound body, consistingof carbon and oxygen, carbonic acid is a body that we ought to be able to take asunder.
And so we can. As we did with water, so we can with carbonic acid--take the two parts
asunder. The simplest and quickest way is to act upon the carbonic acid by a substancethat can attract the oxygen from it, and leave the carbon behind. You recollect that I took
potassium and put it upon water or ice, and you saw that it could take the oxygen fromthe hydrogen. Now, suppose we do something of the same kind here with this carbonicacid. You know carbonic acid to be a heavy gas. I will not test it with lime-water, as thatwill interfere with our subsequent experiments; but I think the heaviness of the gas andthe power of extinguishing flame will be sufficient for our purpose. I introduce a flame
into the gas, and you will see whether it will be put out. You see the light is
extinguished. Indeed, the gas may, perhaps, put out phosphorus, which, you know, has apretty strong combustion. Here is a piece of phosphorus heated to a high degree. I
introduce it into gas, and you observe the light is put out; but it will take fire again in
the air, because there it re-enters into combustion. Now, let me take a piece ofpotassium, a substance which, even at common temperatures, can act upon carbonicacid, though not sufficiently for our present purpose, because it soon gets covered with aprotecting coat; but if we warm it up to the burning point in air, as we have a fair rightto do, and as we have done with phosphorus, you will see that it can burn in carbonicacid; and if it burns, it will burn by taking oxygen, so that you will see what is left
behind. I am going, then, to burn this potassium in the carbonic acid, as a proof of theexistence of oxygen in the carbonic acid. [In the preliminary process of heating, thepotassium exploded.] Sometimes we get an awkward piece of potassium that explodes,
or something like it, when it burns. I will take another piece; and now that it is heated, I
introduce it into the jar, and you perceive that it burns in the carbonic acid--not so wellas in the air, because the carbonic acid contains the oxygen combined; but it does burn,and takes away the oxygen. If I now put this potassium into water, I find that, besides
the potash formed (which you need not trouble about), there is a quantity of carbon
produced. I have here made the experiment in a very rough way; but I assure you that if
I were to make it carefully, devoting a day to it, instead of five minutes, we should get
all the proper amount of charcoal left in the spoon, or in the place where the potassium
was burned, so that there could be no doubt as to the result. Here, then, is the carbon
obtained from the carbonic acid, as a common black substance; so that you have theentire proof of the nature of carbonic acid as consisting of carbon and oxygen. And now,
I may tell you, that whenever carbon burns under common circumstances, it producescarbonic acid.
Suppose I take this piece of wood, and put it into a bottle with lime-water. I
might shake that lime-water up with wood and the atmosphere as long as I pleased, itwould still remain clear as you see it; but suppose I burn the piece of wood in the air ofthat bottle. You, of course, know I get water. Do I get carbonic acid? [The experiment
was performed.] There it is, you see--that is to say, the carbonate lime, which resultsfrom carbonic acid, and that carbonic acid must be formed from the carbon whichcomes from the wood, from the candle, or any other thing. Indeed, you have yourselves
frequently tried a very pretty experiment, by which you may see the carbon in wood. If
you take a piece of wood, and partly burn it, and then blow it out, you have carbon left.
There are things that do not shew carbon in this way. A candle does not shew it, but it
contains carbon. Here also is a jar of coal-gas, which produces carbonic acidabundantly. You do not see the carbon, but we can soon shew it to you. I will light it,
and as long as there is any gas in this cylinder it will go on burning. You see no carbon,
but you see a flame; and because that is bright, it will lead you to guess that there iscarbon in the flame. But I will shew it to you by another process. I have some of thesame gas in another vessel, mixed with a body that will burn the hydrogen of the gas,
but will not burn the carbon. I will light them with a burning taper, and you perceive thehydrogen is consumed, but not the carbon, which is left behind as a dense black smoke.
I hope that by these three or four experiments you will learn to see when carbon ispresent, and understand what are the products of combustion, when gas or other bodies
are thoroughly burned in the air.
Before we leave the subject of carbon, let us make a few experiments andremarks upon its wonderful condition as respects ordinary combustion. I have shewn
you that the carbon in burning burns only as a solid body, and yet you perceive that,after it is burned, it ceases to be a solid. There are very few fuels that act like this. It is,
in fact, only that great source of fuel, the carbonaceous series, the coals, charcoals, andwoods, that can do it. I do not know that there is any other elementary substance besides
carbon that burns with these conditions; and if it had not been so, what would happen to
us? Suppose all fuel had been like iron, which, when it burns, burns into a solid
substance. We could not then have such a combustion as you have in this fire-place.
Here also is another kind of fuel which burns very well--as well as, if not better, thancarbon--so well, indeed, as to take fire of itself when it is in the air, as you see [breaking
a tube full of lead pyrophorus]. This substance is lead, and you see how wonderfully
combustible it is. It is very much divided, and is like a heap of coals in the fireplace; theair can get to its surface and inside, and so it burns. But why does it not burn in that way
now, when it is lying in a mass? [emptying the contents of the tube in a heap on to aplate of iron]. Simply because the air cannot get to it. Though it can produce a great
heat, the great heat which we want in our furnaces and under our boilers, still that which
is produced cannot get away from the portion which remains unburned underneath, andthat portion, therefore, is prevented from coming in contact with the atmosphere, andcannot be consumed. How different is that from carbon. Carbon burns just in the same
way as this lead does, and so gives an intense fire in the furnace, or wherever you
choose to burn it; but then the body produced by its combustion passes away, and theremaining carbon is left clear. I shewed you how carbon went on dissolving in theoxygen, leaving no ash; whereas here [pointing to the heap of pyrophorus] we haveactually more ash than fuel, for it is heavier by the amount of the oxygen which has
united with it. Thus you see the difference between carbon and lead or iron: if wechoose iron, which gives so wonderful a result in our application of this fuel, either aslight or heat. If, when the carbon burnt, the product went off as a solid body, you would
have had the room filled with an opaque substance, as in the case of the phosphorus; butwhen carbon burns, everything passes up into the atmosphere. It is in a fixed, almost
unchangeable condition before the combustion; but afterwards it is in the form of gas,
which it is very difficult (though we have succeeded) to produce in a solid or a liquidstate.

Now, I must take you to a very interesting part of our subject--to the relation
between the combustion of a candle and that living kind of combustion which goes on
within us. In every one of us there is a living process of combustion going on very
similar to that of a candle; and I must try to make that plain to you. For it is not merely
true in a poetical sense--the relation of the life of man to a taper; and if you will follow,
I think I can make this clear. In order to make the relation very plain, I have devised alittle apparatus which we can soon build up before you. Here is a board and a groove cut
in it, and I can close the groove at the top part by a little cover. I can then continue thegroove as a channel by a glass tube at each end, there being a free passage through thewhole. Suppose I take a taper or candle (we can now be liberal in our use of the word“candle,” since we understand what it means), and place it in one of the tubes; it will goon, you see, burning very well. You observe that the air which feeds the flame passes
down the tube at one end, then goes along the horizontal tube, and ascends the tube at
the other end in which the taper is placed.

If I stop the aperture through which the air enters, I stop combustion, as you
perceive. I stop the supply of air, and consequently the candle goes out. But, now, what
will you think of this fact? In a former experiment I shewed you the air going from one
burning candle to a second candle (FIG. 86). If I took the air proceeding from anothercandle, and sent it down by a complicated arrangement into this tube, I should put thisburning candle out. But what will you say when I tell you that my breath will put out
that candle? I do not mean by blowing at all, but simply that the nature of my breath issuch that a candle cannot burn in it. I will now hold my mouth over the aperture, andwithout blowing the flame in any way, let no air enter the tube but what comes from mymouth. You see the result. I did not blow the candle out. I merely let
the air which I expired pass into the aperture, and the result was thatthe light went out for want of oxygen, and for no other reason.
Something or other--namely, my lungs--had taken away the oxygenfrom the air, and there was no more to supply the combustion of thecandle. It is, I think, very pretty to see the time it takes before the bad
air which I throw into this part of the apparatus has reached thecandle. The candle at first goes on burning, but so soon as the air has
had time to reach it, it goes out. And, now, I will shew you anotherexperiment, because this is an important part of our philosophy. Hereis a jar which contains fresh air, as you can see by the circumstance ofa candle or gas-light burning it. I make it close for a little time, and bymeans of a pipe I get my mouth over it so that I can inhale the air. By

putting it over water, in the way that you see, I am able to draw up this air (supposing
the cork to be quite tight), take it into my lungs, and throw it back into the jar.
We can then examine it, and see the result. You observe, I
first take up the air, and then throw it back, as is evident from theascent and descent of the water; and now, by putting a taper into theair, you will see the state in which it is, by the light being
extinguished. Even one inspiration, you see, has completely spoiled
this air, so that it is no use my trying to breathe it a second time.
Now, you understand the ground of the impropriety of many of thearrangements among the houses of the poorer classes, by which the
air is breathed over and over again, for the want of a supply, bymeans of proper ventilation, sufficient to produce a good result(FIG. 87). You see how bad the air becomes by a single breathing;so that you can easily understand how essential fresh air is to us.
To pursue this a little further, let us see what will happen with lime-water. Hereis a globe which contains a little lime-water, and it is so arranged as regards the pipes, as
to give access to the air within, so that we can ascertain the effect of respired orunrespired air upon it (FIG. 88). Of course, I can either draw in air (through A), and somake the air that feeds my lungs go through the lime-water, or I can force the air out of
my lungs through the tube (B), which goes to the bottom, and so shew its effect upon
the lime-water.
You will observe that, however long I draw the external air into the lime-water,
and then through it to my lungs, I shall produce no effect upon the water--it will notmake the lime-water turbid; but if I throw the air from my lungs through the lime-water,
several times in succession, you see how white and milky the water is getting, shewing
the effect which expired air has had upon it; and now you begin to know that theatmosphere which we have spoiled by respiration is spoiled by carbonic acid, for you
see it here in contact with the lime-water.
I have here two bottles, one containing lime-waterand the other common water, and tubes which pass into thebottles and connect them. The apparatus is very rough, but
it is useful notwithstanding.
If I take these two bottles, inhaling here andexhaling there, the arrangement of the tubes will preventthe air going backwards. The air coming in will go to mymouth and lungs, and in going out, will pass through thelime-water, so that I can go on breathing and making anexperiment, very refined in its nature, and very good in its
results (FIG. 89). You will observe that the good air has
done nothing to the lime-water; in the other case nothing
has come to the lime-water but my respiration, and you see
the difference in the two cases.
Let us now go a little further. What is all this process going on within us which
we cannot do without, either day or night, which is so provided for by the Author of allthings that He has arranged that it shall be independent of all will? If we restrain our
respiration, as we can to a certain extent, we should destroy ourselves. When we areasleep, the organs of respiration, and the parts that are associated with them, still go on
with their action--so necessary is this process of respiration to us, this contact of the air

with the lungs. I must tell you, in the briefest possible manner, what this process is. We
consume food: the food goes through that strange set of vessels and organs within us,
and is brought into various parts of the system, into the digestive parts especially; andalternately the portion which is so changed is carried through our lungs by one set ofvessels, while the air that we inhale and exhale is drawn into and thrown out of thelungs by another set of vessels, so that the air and the food come close together,
separated only by an exceedingly thin surface: the air can thus act upon the blood by
this process, producing precisely the same results in kind as we have seen in the case of
the candle. The candle combines with parts of the air, forming carbonic acid, andevolves heat; so in the lungs there is this curious, wonderful change taking place. The
air entering, combines with the carbon (not carbon in a free state, but, as in this case,placed ready for action at the moment), and makes carbonic acid, and is so thrown out
into the atmosphere, and thus this singular result takes place: we may thus look upon thefood as fuel. Let me take that piece of sugar, which will serve my purpose. It is acompound of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, similar to a candle, as containing the sameelements, though not in the same proportion--the proportions being as shewn in thistable:-SUGAR.
Carbon, . . . . 72_
Hydrogen, . . . 11 || 99
Oxygen, . . . . 88_|
This is, indeed, a very curious thing, which you can well remember, for the oxygen andhydrogen are in exactly the proportions which form water, so that sugar may be said tobe compounded of 72 parts of carbon and 99 parts of water; and it is the carbon in thesugar that combines with the oxygen carried in by the air in the process of respiration-so making us like candles--producing these actions, warmth, and far more wonderfulresults besides, for the sustenance of the system, by a most beautiful and simple process.
To make this still more striking, I will take a little sugar; or, to hasten the experiment, I
will use some syrup, which contains about three-fourths of sugar and a little water. If I
put a little oil of vitriol on it, it takes away the water, and leaves the carbon in a blackmass. [The Lecturer mixed the two together.] You see how the carbon is coming out,
and before long we shall have a solid mass of charcoal, all of which has come out ofsugar. Sugar, as you know, is food, and here we have absolutely a solid lump of carbon
where you would not have expected it. And if I make arrangements so as to oxidize thecarbon of sugar, we shall have a much more striking result Here is sugar, and I havehere an oxidizer--a quicker one than the atmosphere; and so we shall oxidize this fuel by
a process different from respiration in its form, though not different in its kind. It is the
combustion of the carbon by the contact of oxygen which the body has supplied to it. If
I set this into action at once, you will see combustion produced. Just what occurs in mylungs--taking in oxygen from another source, namely, the atmosphere--takes place hereby a more rapid process.
You will be astonished when I tell you what this curious play of carbon amounts
to. A candle will burn some four, five, six, or seven hours. What, then, must be the dailyamount of carbon going up into the air in the way of carbonic acid! What a quantity ofcarbon must go from each of us in respiration! What a wonderful change of carbon musttake place under these circumstances of combustion or respiration! A man in twentyfour hours converts as much as seven ounces of carbon into carbonic acid; a milch cow
will convert seventy ounces, and a horse seventy-nine ounces, solely by the act of
respiration. That is, the horse in twenty-four hours burns seventy-nine ounces ofcharcoal, or carbon, in his organs of respiration, to supply his natural warmth in thattime. All the warm-blooded animals get their warmth in this way, by the conversion ofcarbon, not in a free state, but in a state of combination. And what an extraordinary
notion this gives us of the alterations going on in our atmosphere. As much as 5,000,000
pounds, or 548 tons, of carbonic acid is formed by respiration in London alone intwenty-four hours. And where does all this go? Up into the air. If the carbon had been
like the lead which I shewed you, or the iron which, in burning, produces a solid
substance, what would happen? Combustion could not go on. As charcoal burns, it
becomes a vapour and passes off into the atmosphere, which is the great vehicle, thegreat carrier for conveying it away to other places. Then, what becomes of it?
Wonderful is it to find that the change produced by respiration, which seems soinjurious to us (for we cannot breathe air twice over), is the very life and support ofplants and vegetables that grow upon the surface of the earth. It is the same also under
the surface, in the great bodies of water; for fishes and other animals respire upon thesame principle, though not exactly by contact with the open air.
Such fish as I have here [pointing to a globe of gold-fish] respire by the oxygen
which is dissolved from the air by the water, and form carbonic acid; and they all move
about to produce the one great work of making the animal and vegetable kingdoms
subservient to each other. And all the plants growing upon the surface of the earth, likethat which I have brought here to serve as an illustration, absorb carbon. These leaves
are taking up their carbon from the atmosphere, to which we have given it in the form ofcarbonic acid, and they are growing and prospering. Give them a pure air like ours, andthey could not live in it; give them carbon with other matters, and they live and rejoice.
This piece of wood gets all its carbon, as the trees and plants get theirs, from theatmosphere, which, as we have seen, carries away what is bad for us and at the sametime good for them,--what is disease to the one being health to the other. So are we
made dependent, not merely upon our fellow-creatures, but upon our fellow-existers, all
Nature being tied together by the laws that make one part conduce to the good of
another.
There is another little point which I must mention before we draw to a close--apoint which concerns the whole of these operations, and most curious and beautiful it is
to see it clustering upon and associated with the bodies that concern us--oxygen,hydrogen, and carbon, in different states of their existence. I shewed you just now somepowdered lead, which I set burning18; and you saw that the moment the fuel was brought
to the air, it acted, even before it got out of the bottle--the moment the air crept in, it
acted. Now, there is a case of chemical affinity by which all our operations proceed.
When we breathe, the same operation is going on within us. When we burn a candle, theattraction of the different parts one to the other is going on. Here it is going on in this18 Lead pyrophorus is made by heating dry tartrate of lead in a glass tube (closed at one end, anddrawn out to a fine point at the other) until no more vapours are evolved. The open end of the
tube is then to be sealed before the blowpipe. When the tube is broken and the contents shaken
out into the air, they burn with a red flash.

case of the lead; and it is a beautiful instance of chemical affinity. If the products of
combustion rose off from the surface, the lead would take fire, and go on burning to theend; but you remember that we have this difference between charcoal and lead--that,while the lead can start into action at once, if there be access of air to it, the carbon willremain days, weeks, months, or years. The manuscripts of Herculaneum were writtenwith carbonaceous ink, and there they have been for 1,800 years or more, not having
been at all changed by the atmosphere, though coming in contact with it under various
circumstances. Now, what is the circumstance which makes the lead and carbon differ inthis respect? It is a striking thing to see that the matter which is appointed to serve thepurpose of fuel waits in its action: it does not start off burning, like the lead and manyother things that I could shew you; but which I have not encumbered the table with; but
it waits for action. This waiting is a curious and wonderful thing. Candles--thoseJapanese candles, for instance--do not start into action at once, like the lead or iron (foriron finely divided does the same thing as lead), but there they wait for years, perhaps
for ages, without undergoing any alteration. I have here a supply of coal-gas. The jet isgiving forth the gas, but you see it does not take fire--it comes out into the air, but it
waits till it is hot enough before it burns. If I make it hot enough, it takes fire. If I blow
it out, the gas that is issuing forth waits till the light is applied to it again. It is curious tosee how different substances wait--how some will wait till the temperature is raised alittle, and others till it is raised a good deal. I have here a little gunpowder and somegun-cotton; even these things differ in the conditions under which they will burn. The
gunpowder is composed of carbon and other substances, making it highly combustible;
and the gun-cotton is another combustible preparation. They are both waiting, but they
will start into activity at different degrees of heat, or under different conditions. By
applying a heated wire to them, we shall see which will start first [touching the guncotton with the hot iron]. You see the gun-cotton has gone off, but not even the hottest
part of the wire is now hot enough to fire the gunpowder. How beautifully that shews
you the difference in the degree in which bodies act in this way! In the one case thesubstance will wait any time until the associated bodies are made active by heat; but inthe other, as in the process of respiration, it waits no time. In the lungs, as soon as the air
enters, it unites with the carbon; even in the lowest temperature which the body can bearshort of being frozen, the action begins at once, producing the carbonic acid of
respiration: and so all things go on fitly and properly. Thus you see the analogy between
respiration and combustion is rendered still more beautiful and striking. Indeed, all I cansay to you at the end of these lectures (for we must come to an end at one time or other)is to express a wish that you may, in your generation, be fit to compare to a candle; thatyou may, like it, shine as lights to those about you; that, in all your actions, you may
justify the beauty of the taper by making your deeds honourable and effectual in the
discharge of your duty to your fellow-men.