Show what a candle T teaches e a c he s by Fra frederick derick Brel breithut HOUPS of facts are usually uninteresting the human mind prefers to leave cold reality and to soar into the high regions of imagination agi nation and desire but facts are the only true basis of real s knowledge there is no getting away annay from them if they are neglected no matter how beautifully we build on another dounda tion our structure Is doomed to collapse considering this does it not seem rather surprising that facts are so frequently neglected abts egaas you can get 4 a man to read a dish water novel or a piece of sentimental poetry with the greatest ease but put a scientific boob book in his hands bands a boob book which contains truth and real instruction and if you can get your man to read more than the first page you are lucky even though this is the case I 1 want to ask you to consider a little problem with me with a 4 lew few to getting some fichs the problem of a bu burning riling candle A burning candle Is a small gas factory Is no matter in what state any material Is whether it is a solid like wax or a liquid like kerosene it must first be converted into a gas as before we can have a flame the only difference between a c indle candle and a gas factory is that the gases of the candle are not made at a distance and convey coAve yel el by means of pipes to distant burners but they are manufactured on tl e spot ai ri d consumed as fast as they ai aie e made our ordinary indle cindle c is made of tallow a solid which consists mainly of two substances one of which is called carbon the other hydrogen the burning of the wick melts the tallow near it this molten tallow Is absorbed by the wick and carried to the flame it is here that the liquid is changed into gases the decomposition of the molten tallow yields acetylene gas n arsh gas and ole flent gas and these burn A ith a flame by burning wa w irean that the f carbon and hydrogen of these gases unite with nith the oxygen of the air with sufficient elent heat to mal e a flame flames may be luminous as the ord laby 3 yellow ellow gas flame or non lum inous as the bluish alime you get in 5 3 our gas stoe the ordinary ordin iry g gas gis is flame is luminous because particles of carbon set free freen by the burning are made to glow lou can cin proe this statement by b intro ducair g a cold object like a plate or saucer into a candle flame you will see ee a black deposit of soot this soot is the carbon which has come aiom the acetylene gas the great beat heat of the flame makes the finely divided carbon I 1 articles glow in the flame the light of the vi IN elsbach incandescent light Is 19 due to the glowing of the incombustible materials of which mantles are made mide the understanding of so simple a thing as the light of a burning candia takes a little thought it took hundreds of years of blundering theorizing before men really understood why a candle burns you may ahat difference does it make why a candle burns tho thing is that it does burn and we can use ue it to give us light whether we know the cause of the flame or not in the first place there would be sufficient satisfaction in knowing tho th true cause of a phenomenon to warrant years of thorough investigation event though there were no practical result truth Is higher than utility but the understanding of the real cause of flame lias has led to very practical at results new 1 lork orl journal 4 4 h itla t 1 latasa Lu s tAsA A 1 |