﻿110 CanmUan Record of Science. 



in a llat-Haine burner, tlie temperature rises as high as 

 1,3G0 Cent." 



It is not an advantage, but a disadvantage, that the 

 fishtail acetylene Hame should be cool. Its temperature 

 is lowered l)y the excessive contact with air required for 

 •coni]ilete comlnistion, and, if the tlame could be made 

 liotter, more light could be obtained for the same quantity 

 of heat. It is scarcely necessary to add that the temper- 

 •ature of a Hanie has nothing to do with the heat of 

 combustion. rhos})horus or sodium can be burnt at the 

 •ordinary temperature, or at a red heat, and tlie lieat of 

 •combustion is the same at either temperature, provided 

 .the products of combustion are the same. 



Lechatelier,^ one of the best authorities upon such a 

 •subject, does not appear to have measured the tempera- 

 •ture of the acetylene Hame with his pyrometer, and, in 

 fact, such measurements are very difficult ; but he has 

 calculated that acetylene, burned with air, may reach a 

 temperature of 2,100'' to 2,400° Centigrade, and, burned 

 with oxygen, 4,000°. 



It is easy to melt platinum in a conmion air blowpipe 

 ilame fed with acetylene, but the platinum appears to first 

 .form a carljide. 



Acetylene, notwithstanding its high cost, may find a 

 restricted use in the laboratory in air or oxygen blast 

 furnaces ; it will undoutedly give a higher temperature 

 (than gas or hydrogen. 



The preceding description has continually held in view 

 the utilitarian side of the (piestion, and it has been thought 

 simpler to enumerate the items in favour of the economical 

 use of acetylene as compared with gas and not to extend 

 ithe comparison to other forms of illumination, but the 

 following table mostly taken from the most recent book^ 

 •on the subject gives the means of comparing other modes 



• CoiiijiU'S Hendus, December 30, ISOo. 



2 Julius Swoboda : Petroleum Industrie. Tubingen, 1895. 



