The Sun.
London, England, 1870-12-30 00:00:00

BURNING AND UINBURNING.

Yegterciay (Thursday) afternoon Dr. William Odling,
F.R.S., delivered his second lecture on this subject, to an
overflowing audience, at the Royal Institution. The
lecturer called attention to the nature and properties of
flame, illustrating his remarks with a great many simple
and well-executed experiments. When speaking about
paraffin oil, he said that this liquid, in its original state,
consists Of a number of hydro-carbons, some of
which are volatile, and dangerous to use for. house-
hold purpoSes. After the most volatile of these compounds
—namely, paraffine spirit—has been distilled off
the paraffine oil which remains may be sately used, and
it will oven put out a lighted match which is dipped into
it. When paraffine is bad, from its containing too much
paraffine spirit, it will catch fire when its surface is
touched with a lighted match. When good paraffine oil
is warmed, it too will give off inflammable vapour, which
may be lighted ; for instance, in the ordinary paraffine
lamp, the oil rises in the wick, the heat transforms
it into vapour or gas, and the combustion of this gas
is the cause of the visible flame. The flame of
the candle is also in reality a gas flame ; the grease is
melted by the heat, rises in the wick, then is heated into
gas, which gas in burning causes the flame ; thus the
candle makes its own gas as fast as it is wanted. Dr.
Odling then performed a few experiments to show that
flames are hollow, the luminous portion being only a shell.
To do this he took a large ball of sponge,• soaked it in
spirits of wine, fixed it upon the top of a pointed piece of
thick iron wire, and set fire to it. In this wayhe obtained
a large pointed flame with a broad base. He then pushed
a lucifer match very quickly through the outside of the
flame, so that the portion of the match tipped with phos-
phorous was in the centre of the flame, and there it
remained for some considerable time without the phos-
phorus catching fire. He next explained that the com-
bustion takes place where the inflammable gas and the
air come in contact with each other ; it does not matter
which of the gases is outermost, the flame being pro-
duced in either case. To illustrate this he permitted a
jet of air to enter an atmosphere of coal gas contained
in a large glass vessel, and then set fire to the air, which
was at once seen burning inside the gas. In one of the
more remarkable of his experiments, lie lighted a piece of
Paper fixed on the end of an iron wire, and pushed the
lighted taper into the hollow centre of a large flame, where
it was at once extinguished, being cut off from contact
with the oxygen of the air. The listeners testified their
appreciation of the merits of the lecture by frequent
bursts of applause.

THE RUMOURED PEACE NEGOTIATIONS.—The
special correspondent of the Standard at Bordeaux,
writing December 25, says :—Some of the papers state
that England intends to propose terms of peace, the terms
to be the fortresses of Alsace and Lorraine to be razed,
the payment of fifty millions sterling by France, and the
cession of a portion of Alsace. If Lord Granville
really has such an idea he may save himself the
trouble of broaching it. France will only look
upon the offer as adding another to the list of
insults offered to her by British Ministers since the
conunencement of the war. She has not the smallest idea
of buying peace by the cession of territory, nor does the
military situation offer the slightest ground for France
submitting to such terms as those mentioned. Paris 1131ds
its own against the besiegers, and possesses an army fully
the double of their own. Prince Frederick Charles is
altogether outmatched by the forces of Chanzy and
Bourbaki. In the East the Prussians barely hold
their own, and it is certain that ere long the French will
take the offensive. The army of Manteuffel is certainly
greatly inferior iu numbers to the army of Faidherbe and
the troops in the northern and western fortresses. At
the present moment, in fact, the struggle of the parties
is nearly, if not quite, equal; and the strength of
France increases every day, whereas Germany has
nearly made her last effort. I confess that I am
unable to see anything in the situation which would at
the present moment justify the Germans in demanding
the war indemnity, without saying anything as to other
terms. Moreover, it is quite upon the cards that ere a
month has passed the aspect of affairs will have so com-
pletely changed that it will be for France to grant not to
ask for terms,

lIIR CO !TDIPORARHS---Th43 Morning