386 American Water- Burner. 
pipe, and is there fired. The flame, although the combustible 
substances issue from so small an orifice, is as large as that of a 
common smith’s forge, and is accompanied with smoke: when 
this fame is directed against the bricks in the back of a fire- 
place, they soon become heated to redness : if iron or steel filings 
he thrown into the flame, they burn with a sparkling brilliancy, 
similar to iron wire in oxygen gas. 
A few experiments have been made to ascertain the effect of 
steam on burning bodies, and to learn whether it probably suf- 
fered decomposition when issuing, mixed with tar, from the jet 
-of the water-burner. 
If a jet of steam, issuing from a small aperture, be thrown 
upon burning coal, its brightness is increased, if it be held at 
the distance of four or five inches from the pipe through which 
the steam passes; but if it be held nearer, the coal is extin- 
guished, a circular black spot first appearing where the steam is 
thrown upon it. The steam does not appear to be decomposed 
in this experiment: the increased brightness of the coal is pro- 
bably occasioned by a current of atmospheric air produced by the 
steam. 
If the wick of a common oil lamp be raised so as to give off 
large columns of smoke, and a jet of steam be thrown into the 
flame, its brightness is a little increased, and no smoke is 
thrown off 
If spirits of turpentine be made to burn on a wick, the light 
produced is dull and reddish, and a large quantity of thick smoke 
is given off; but, if a jet of steam be thrown into the flame, its 
brightness is much increased; and if the experiment be care- 
fully conducted, the smoke entirely disappears. 
If vapour of spirits of turpentine be made to issue from a 
small orifice, and inflamed, it burns, giving off large quantities of 
smoke; but if a jet of steam be made to unite with the vapour, 
the smoke entirely disappears. The same effect takes place if 
the vapour of spirits of turpentine and of water be made to issue 
together from the same orifice: hence the disappearing of the 
smoke cannot be supposed to depend on a current of atmospheric 
air. : 
If the flame of a spirit-lamp be brought in contact with a jet 
of steam, it disappears, and is extinguished at the points of con- 
tact, precisely as when exposed to strong blasts of air. 
Masses of iron of various sizes, and heated to various degrees 
from redness to bright whiteness, were exposed to a jet of steam : 
no flame appeared, as was expected, but the iron was more ra- 
pidly oxidated where the steam came in contact with it than in 
other parts. It is probable, if the water suffered decomposition 
in 
