ANNALS 
OF 
PHILOSOPHY. 
MAY, 1817. 
Articte I, 
Observations on the Flame of a Candie. By Mr. Porrett. 
(To Dr. Thomson.) 
DEAR SIR, ‘ , 
MUCH valuable information has recently been given to the public 
relating to flame. Sir H. Davy, in his Notice of Experiments, and 
new views respecting it, dated July 21 last, and published in the 
third number of the Journal of Science and: the Arts, has. stated, 
that when a flame emits a brilliant light, it)is,always owing to. the. 
production and ignition of solid matter, ang that in. the particular 
instance of the combustion of a stream of''coal gas in the atmos- 
phere, the solid matter produced is charcoal, originating in ‘‘ the 
decomposition of a part of the gas towards the interior of the flame 
where the air is in smallest quantity,"and which, first by its ignition, 
and afterwards by its combustion, increases in a high degree the in- 
tensity of the light.’ By intercepting the flame of a stream of 
burning coal gas with a piece of wire-gauze, and observing in what 
situations it became blackened, this distinguished chemist has shown 
that neither the summit of the flame, nor the lower part of it, 
where the gas burns blue, are the portions in which the charcoal is 
separated; but that in the intervening parts it is given off in consi- 
derable quantities. 
The next important paper on flame is that by George Oswald 
Sym, M.A. which appeared in the number of the Annals of Phi- 
losophy for November last, This gentleman, by means of some 
ingenious dissections of the flame of a candle with a piece of wire- 
gauze, has shown that the flame is merely superficial, forming an 
elliptical bubble filled with volatile matter not arrived at the inflamed 
Vor. IX, N° V, x 
