CHEMICAL HISTORY OP A CANDLE 99 



let me show you a very pretty but very commonplace experi- 

 ment. If you blow a candle out cleverly, you will see the 

 vapor rise from it. You have, I know, often smelt the vapor 

 of a blown-out candle, and a very bad smell it is ; but if you 

 blow it out cleverly you will be able to see pretty well the 

 vapor into which this solid matter is transformed. I will 

 blow out one of these candles in such a way as not to disturb 

 the air around it by the continuing action of my breath; and 

 now, if I hold a lighted taper two or three inches from the 

 wick, you will observe a train of fire going through the air 

 till it reaches the candle. I am obliged to be quick and ready, 

 because if I allow the vapor time to cool, it becomes con- 

 densed into a liquid or solid, or the stream of combustible 

 matter gets disturbed. 



Now as to the shape or form of the flame. It concerns us 

 much to know about the condition which the matter of the 

 candle finally assumes at the top of the wick, where you have 

 such beauty and brightness as nothing but combustion or 

 flame can produce. You have the glittering beauty of gold 

 and silver, and the still higher lustre of jewels like the ruby 

 and diamond ; but none of these rival the brilliancy 

 and beauty of flame. What diamond can shine 

 like flame? It owes its lustre at night-time to 

 the very flame shining upon it. The flame shines 

 in darkness, but the light which the diamond has 

 is as nothing until the flame shines upon it, when 

 it is brilliant again. The candle alone shines by 

 itself and for itself, or for those who have ar- 

 ranged the materials. Now let us look a little at 

 the form of the flame as you see it under the 

 glass shade. It is steady and equal, and its gen- 

 eral form is that which is represented in the 

 diagram, varying with atmospheric disturbances, 

 and also varying according to the size of the 

 candle. It is a bright oblong, brighter at the top 

 than toward the bottom, with the wick in the mid- 

 dle, and, besides the wick in the middle, certain darker parts 

 towards the bottom, where the ignition is not so perfect as in 

 the part above* I have a drawing here, sketched many years 

 ago by Hooker, when he made his investigations. It is the draw- 



