14 Somé new Researches on Flame. 
Whatever be the cause of the different cooling powers of the 
different elastic fluids in preventing inflammation, very simple 
experiments show that they operate uniformly with respect to 
the different species of combustion, and that those explosive mix- 
tures, or inflammable bodies, which require least heat for their 
combustion, require larger quantities of the different gases to 
prevent the effect, and vice versa; thus one of chlorine and one 
of hydrogen still inflame when mixed with eigliteen times their 
bulk of oxygen, whereas a mixture of carburetted hydrogen and 
oxygen in the proper proportions for combinations, one and two, 
have their inflammation prevented by less than three times their 
volume of oxygen. 
A wax taper was instantly extinguished in air mixed with 1-10th 
of silicated fluoric acid gas, and in air mixed with }-6th of mu- 
riatic acid gas; but the flame of hydrogen burned readily in 
those mixtures, and in mixtures in which the flame of hydrogen 
was extinguished, the flame of sulphur burned. 
There is a very simple experiment which demonstrates in an 
elegant manner this general principle. Into a long bottle with 
a narrow neck introduce a lighted taper, and let it burn till it is 
extinguished ; carefully stop the bottle, and introduce another 
lighted taper, it will be extinguished before it reaches the bottoms 
of the neck: then introduce a small tube containing zinc and 
diluted sulphuric acid, and at the aperture of which the hydro- 
gen is inflamed ; the hydrogen will be found to burn in whatever 
part of the bottle the tube is placed: after the hydrogen is ex- 
tinguished, introduce lighted sulphur; this will burn for some 
time, and after its extinction, phosphorus will be as luminous as 
in the air, and, if heated in the bottle, will produce a pale yel- 
low flame of considerable density. 
In eases when the heat required for chemical union is very 
small, as in the instance of hydrogen and chlorine, a mixture 
which prevents inflammation will not prevent combination, 2. e. 
the gases will combine without any flash. This I witnessed in 
mixing two volumes of carburetted hydrogen with one of chlorine 
and hydrogen ; muriatic acid was formed throughout the mix- 
ture, and heat produced, as was evident from the expansion when 
the spark passed, and the rapid contraction afterwards, but the 
heat was so quickly carried off by the quantity of carburetted 
hydrogen that no flash was visible. 
In the case of phosphorus, which is combustible at the lowest 
temperature of the atmosphere, no known admixture of elastie 
fluid prevents the luminous appearance; but this seems to de- 
pend upon the light being limited to the solid particles of phos- 
phoric acid formed; whereas to.produce flame, a certain mass 
of elastic fluid must be luminous ; and there is every reason to 
believe, 
