326 GREAT MEN OF SCIENCE 



was never satisfied with what was unclear or half done, and 

 at the same time he had a limitless inventive power for crea- 

 ting new means of satisfying his need for thorough investi- 

 gation, and was quite tireless in following ways, no matter 

 how difficult, which led to a clearly seen goal. His investi- 

 gations of coloured flames therefore led to a great deal more 

 than merely to chemical analysis by means of flame coloura- 

 tions, and not least because they were happily combined 

 with Kirchhoff 's insight into everything that had been ascer- 

 tained from the time of Newton and Fraunhofer to Clausius. 



For clean experiments with flame, the first necessity was a 

 cleanly burning flame; the alcohol flame with its wick, which 

 caused all kinds of disturbance, was not a flame of this kind. 

 Also for many other laboratory purposes, a flame was 

 already much needed, the properties of which could be regu- 

 lated by hand in a trustworthy manner. Illuminating gas, 

 which had already been used for some fifty years in England, 

 appeared much more suitable from the start than alcohol or 

 other liquid fuel; but Bunsen nevertheless was not in the 

 least satisfied with the English gas burners made for labora- 

 tory purposes. When, in 1855, gas lighting was introduced 

 in Heidelberg, Bunsen immediately set to work to invent a 

 suitable burner; the Bunsen burner at once became quite 

 indispensable, and has remained so till to-day, when it is 

 known to everyone. 



But the result was not only the sole source of heat suitable 

 for the laboratory, and a fundamental constituent of all 

 technical heating arrangements, but above all a flame of 

 hitherto unheard of steadiness, and at the same time versa- 

 tile in its properties. But none but Bunsen himself under- 

 stood how to make full use of it for his remarkable flame 

 reactions - a new chemical test for all kinds of substances, 

 which could otherwise only be investigated by the use of wet 

 reagents, or at least by the blowpipe - and by making use of 

 the cleanliness of the experimental conditions, which this 



