140 INCANDESCENCE. 



rangement of its particles. Thus sugar, which is white in 

 the lump, when dissolved in water and diffused through it, 

 loses its whiteness entirely and has no color at all. 



The particles of carbon which, combined with the hydro- 

 gen, form the oil, have only the color of the oil while in 

 this combination. When they come up to the flame, the 

 action of the heat, in some mysterious way not at all un- 

 derstood, has the effect of developing in them a strong ten- 

 dency to separate from each other, and to enter severally 

 into combination with the oxygen of the air which is near. 

 In combining with the oxygen, we should see them seize 

 it with great avidity and violence, and the force which 

 they thus expend we should see taking the form of heat, 

 which would act upon the next portion of oil which came 

 up, and produce the same effect upon the carbon and hy- 

 drogen in that ; and thus the process would go on. 



The hydrogen which was thus separated from the oil, 

 we should see, would seize upon the oxygen with the great- 

 est avidity, and procure the largest share, or, at least, the 

 earliest. The carbon particles would have to wait, it would 

 seem, for their supply until the hydrogen was satisfied. 

 The consequence of this is, as we should see, that while the 

 hydrogen combines at once with the portion which it re- 

 quires, thus becoming transformed into the vapor oftoater, 

 the carbon particles, or, at least, a very large portion of 

 them, pass up through the flame intensely heated, and, by 

 the superior power of a solid to radiate light, become the 

 source of nearly all the light which the flame affords. 



All this we should see if we had senses acute enough to 

 perceive what really takes place in the burning of a lamp 

 or candle. 



The particles of carbon which pass up thus through the 

 flame, though while so hot they emit the yellow color of 

 the flame, in other words, are themselves of a yellow color, 



