CHEMICAL HISTORY OF A CANDLE 



125 



carefully the action of bodies one upon another, we often 

 have to refer to the action of heat. You are aware, I be- 

 lieve, that iron filings burn beautifully in the air; but I am 

 about to show you an experiment of this kind, because it 

 will impress upon you what I am going to say about iron 

 in its action on water. If I take a flame and make it hol- 

 low you know why, because I want to get air to it and 

 into it, and therefore I make it hollow and then take a few 

 iron filings and drop them into the flame, you see how well 

 they burn. That combustion results from the chemical 



FIG. 68 



action which is going on when we ignite those particles. 

 And so we proceed to consider these different effects, and 

 ascertain what iron will do when it meets with water. It 

 will tell us the story so beautifully, so gradually and regu- 

 larly, that I think it will please you very much. 



I have here a furnace with a pipe going through it like 

 an iron gun-barrel, and I have stuffed that barrel full of 

 bright iron turnings, and placed it across the fire to be 

 made red-hot. We can either send air through the barrel to 

 come in contact with the iron, or we can send steam from 

 this little boiler at the end of the barrel. Here is a stop- 

 cock which shuts off the steam from the barrel until we 

 wish to admit it. There is some water in these glass jars, 

 which I have colored blue, so that you may see what hap- 

 pens. Now you know very well that any steam I might send 



