1873.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
1-1-7 
Fit?. 1. 
IBDYS 4 ©OILS 9 (SDILUMHSc 
The DootorS Talks— About a 
Candle. 
We were to inquire this time what became of the can- 
dle after it was burned. Nothing is ever really destroyed. 
You will think that a pretty strong statement, and will 
find it difficult at. first to understand it. You will ask. 
An* not the candle and the wood and coal on the fire burned 
up and destroyed? Burned up, yes ; but destroyed, no. 
As candle and wood and coals they no 
longer exist, but they are somewhere. 
As with all his ingenuity man is not 
able to call even the smallest bit of 
matter into existence, neither is he 
able, do what he may, to put it out of 
existence. We can make things 
change their shape, and this has hap- 
pened with the caudle that we have 
burned. What was the candle has 
taken on another shape, if we can 
properly apply that name to some- 
thing that we can not see. 
You have burned brimstone matches 
and have seen, the pretty blue flame 
with which the brimstone burns. 
The brimstone in burning disappears. 
You can no longer be sure of the 
presence of anything by seeing it. 
Your eyes do not detect the new 
form taken on by the brimstone. But 
bow is it with your nose? If you can 
not see what became of the brim- 
stone, your nose convinces you that it 
is not destroyed, and if yon were to 
hold a red rose over a bit of burning 
brimstone you would see the red leaves 
of the rose gradually turn white. The brimstone is, you 
know, a solid much harder than any candle, and you can 
see by this experiment that in burning it disappears from 
our sight, but our sense of smell and the red rose tell us 
that it is not. destroyed, but exists in another shape, in 
which though invisible it is very powerful. This will 
help us to understand how the candle can burn up and 
yet the material of which it was made is not destroyed. 
If yon hold a fold dry tumbler, goblet, or other glass 
vessel over the flame of a candle, 
you will see (fig. 1) it lose its 
brightness and become dim, and 
in a little while you will see that 
a dew or moisture covers the 
sides. You can see the same 
thing if you hold a cold bright 
spoon or other metal above the 
flame, but not near enough to 
smoke it. The glass vessel or 
spoon soon becomes warm and 
then the moisture disappears, but 
by a proper contrivance to keep 
the article cool, a considerable 
quantity of water could be collect- 
ed from the burning of a candle. 
We are able, then, to show by ex- 
periment that the candle in bnrn- 
ing forms water, or rather the va- 
por of water, which is invisible, 
but can be condensed into liquid. 
"How strange,'" you will perhaps 
say, " that the candle afterburning 
is turned into water 1" It will 
not do to be so fast. That is only 
a part of the truth. When the 
candle is burned some water is 
formed, but nothing like enough 
to account for the whole caudle. 
At all events, we are quite sure 
that there is something in the 
candle which burning turns to 
water. These changes from 
things that we can see to things that are invisible, 
like air, will strike you as strange at first, but as you 
learn more about such matters you will find that there 
are a number of most important things, like air. that we 
never see. Before the tallow or stearine of the candle 
gets qsite burned, it can be made to show that it is largely 
composed of charcoal. Hold a cold plate against the can- 
dle flame and you will get a beautiful black spot. " Lamp- 
black" you will say, and so it i*. and that is only another 
name for charcoal, and carbon is the chemist's name for 
the same substance, whether it is in the form of coal, 
lamp-black, or the diamond. Yes, it is true that the 
beantifnl hard diamond so rare and costly is only another 
form of the common black coal. " Strange!" Yes, to be 
sure, but no more strange than that the beautiful white 
"star " eandle should be largely made up of this same 
Fig. 2. 
Fig. 3. 
black carbon. Take a piece of wire gauze, such as kitchen 
sieves are made of, and hold it over tue point of the can- 
dle-flame. It cools the flame so that it can not pass 
through the gauze, but see what a column of this fine 
lamp-black passes through and rises in the air, as shown 
in figure 2. This must have come from the white ma- 
terial of the candle and set free by the heat. 
When the candle lmrns regnlarly we get no lamp-black, 
and it is only when we cool off the flame that it shows 
itself. Ordinarily it burns np. Now, one 
more experiment, for which you will need a 
glass jar —a fruit-jar is just the thing— a bit 
of eandle, a bit of wire, and two pieces of 
thin board or pasteboard. Fasten the inch of 
candle to the wire as in figure 3. Pass tho 
other end of the wire through a small hole in 
one board or pasteboard, light the candle and* 
put it into the jar, and put the board down 
closely for a cover, as in figure 4. Now watch 
what takeB place. At first, the jar if dry will 
grow dim, but yon know now why that is. 
Soon the flame will appear lees bright, then 
smaller and smaller, and then it will go out. 
Lift out the candle, and slip the other board 
on for a cover to keep the jar closed, 
light the candle, and put it into the jar 
again as before. It will go out at once. The jar is 
apparently as full of clear air as before, but a can- 
dle will not burn in it. The burning of the candle pro- 
duces something besides water, an invisible something 
in which a candle will not burn. The jar looks to be 
full of common air, but let us try it. The candle refusing 
to burn in it shows that it is not common air, but let us 
try something else— some lime-water perfectly clear. 
Many people keep it in the house, but you can readily 
make it from a lamp of lime. Pour some water upon a 
lump of lime, and let it stand 
in a bottle or closed vessel until 
all the undissolved lime settles. 
The lime-water will be as clear 
as any other water, but pour 
some of it into the jar in which 
your candle has gone out. You 
will see the liquid turn milky 
at once, showing that the air in 
the jar is not common air, but 
contains something that has 
an effect upon the lime-water. 
The lamp black or carbon of 
the candle has in burning 
formed an invisible gas, car- 
bonic acid, in which, even 
when mixed with air, a candle 
can not burn, and which 
makes the lime-water milky. 
Enough has been told you to show that there are a 
great many curious things about the burning of a candle. 
But we have not told half. Something happens to the 
air as well as the candle, and we have not shown what it 
is in the candle that furms water. But this will lead to 
experiments that I fear most of you can not try. I will 
drop the Bubject for the present, and if I think that your 
parents would like to have more told about these things, 
I may when long evenings return take the matter up 
again. But now that spring has come we must turn our 
attention to out-door things. The Doctor. 
Fig. 4. 
Thaw si doveserl cone orf lal, dohnls eb gnol drincoseed. 
CBOSS-WOUD. 
My first is in parsley but not in thyme. 
My next is in poem but not in rhyme. 
My third is in muskrat but not in mouse. 
My fourth is in window but not in house. 
My fifth Is in novel but not in old. 
My sixth is in graceless but not in bold. 
My whole contains, without a doubt, 
What not a man can live without. 
Clayton Colk 
434. Illustrated Rebus.— It is a long time since we have 
had a Rebus. As Hpring-ttme is approaching, we give you 
one proper for the season. It is a rebustical bouquet. 
NUMERICAL ENIGMA. 
I am composed of ten letters. 
My 2, 3. (i is an instrument of tortnre. 
My G, 3. 4, 7 is a favorite bird. 
My 1. 10. 8 is a powerful instrument. 
My 6, 3, 4. 7, 2 is a city in Rhode Island. 
My 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. fi, 7 te what prudent people do. 
My wiiole is a city In the United States. 
OltREN P. ASHWORTH. 
ALPHABETICAL ARITHMETIC. 
YMA ) 8RFAATS ( PMSRY 
STE 
PSA 
YMA 
MTFA 
MPFA 
Aunt Slices Puzzlo-Box. 
PATCHES, CUTTINGS, AND FRAGMENTS. 
1. Change the head of an Irish boy's nickname twice 
and leave two others. 
2. Change the head of an Irish boy's nickname three 
times and leave three other nicknames. 
3. Change the head of a girl's nickname twice and 
leave two boys' nicknames. 
4. Behead nothing and leave something. 
5. Take two letters from an animal and leave a note 
in music. Adolpe M. Naoel. 
ARITHMOREMS. 
1. 1002001fi0200171100. 4. 2505025058. 
2. 1001509001100. 5. 120009. 
3. 2501000250. 6. 525010. 
WORDS ENIGMATICALLY EXPRESSED, 
1. Benevolent color. 
2. Fnmish a century. 
3. A nnmber of grandees. 
4. A remote article. 
5. Peel a favorite. 
6. Part noun. 
(Example.— "Cntonrhair." "Barbarous " [barber us].) 
CHARADE. 
My first may be your mother. 
And my next a mother, too ; 
My whole is still your mother. 
Though perhaps it may be you. 
YFFT 
MRSY 
EPS 
EPS 
rrzzLB. 
Read history, and you will see 
Where I've been used extensively; 
Behead, I'm what we all shall speak — 
Ay, many times within the week; 
Behead again, transpuse, and lo! 
Full many a lad I've brought to woe; 
Behead, curtail, straightway I am 
What the hoy said when trouble came. 
Mrs. H. J. N. 
SQUARE WORD. 
E. S. B. squares the word "MERIT" seven times, and 
proposes to Star and Crescent that they square the 
word M EXPOSE." 
ANSWERS TO PUZZLES IN TtTS FEBRUART NUMBER. 
Numerical Enigma.— Carpet. 
AniTHMortEMs.— 1. Skate, % Receive. 3. April. 
4. Map 5. Docile, ti. Home. 
Anagrams.— 1. Festoons. 2. Educational. 3. Grass- 
hoppers. 4. Subierrnneous. 5. Mathematicians. 6. Mas- 
querade. 7. Soothsayers. S. Society. 9. Adolescent. 
10. Reinfnrce. 
Cross- Wor»— Lemon. 
