FLA 
FLAME. Newton and others have con- 
sidered flame as an ignited vapour, or red- 
hot smoke. This, in a certain sense, may 
be true, but, no doubt, it contains an inac- 
curate comparison. Simple ignition never 
exceeds in intensity of light the body by 
contact of which it was produced. But it 
appears to be well ascertained, that flame 
always consists of volatile inflammable mat- 
ter, in the act of combustion and combina- 
tion, with the oxgyen of the atmosphere. 
Many metallic substances are volatized by 
heat, and burn with a flame by the contact 
of the air in this rare state. Sulphur, phos- 
phorus, and some other bases of acids, exhi- 
bit the same phenomenon. But the flames 
of organized substances are in general pro- 
duced by the extrication and accension of 
hydrogen gas witli more or less of charcoal. 
When the circumstances are not favour- 
able to the perfect combustion of these pro- 
ducts, a portion of the coal passes through 
the luminous current unburned, and forms 
smoke. Soot is the condensed matter of 
smoke. 
As the artificial light of lamps and can- 
dles is afforded by the flame they exhibit, it 
seems a matter of considerable importance 
to society, to ascertain how the most lumi- 
nous flame may be produced with the least 
consumption of combustible matter. There 
does not appear to be any danger of error 
in concluding, that the light emitted will 
be greatest when the matter is completely 
consumed in the shortest time. It is, there- 
fore, necessary, that a stream of volatized 
combustible matter of a proper figure, at a 
very elevated temperature, should pass into 
the atmosphere with a certain determinate 
velocity. If the figure of this stream should 
not be duly proportioned ; that is to say, if 
it be too thick, its internal parts will not be 
completely burned for want of contact with 
the air. If its temperature be below that 
of ignition, it will not burn when it comes 
into the open air. And there is a certain 
velocity at which the quantity of atmosphe- 
rical air which comes in contact with the 
vapour will be neither too great nor too 
small ; for too much air will diminish the 
temperature of the stream of combustible 
matter so much as very considerably to im- 
pede the desired effect, and too little will 
render the combustion languid. 
We have an example of a flame too large 
in the mouths of the chimneys of furnaces, 
where the luminous part is merely superfi- 
cial, or of the thickness of about an inch or 
VOL. III. 
FLA 
two, according to circumstances, and the 
interna! part, though hot, will not set fire, 
to paper passed into it through an iron 
tube ; the same defect of air preventing the 
combustion of the paper, as prevented the 
interior fluid itself from burning. And in 
the lamp of Argand we see the advantage 
of an internal current of air, which renders 
the combustion perfect by the application 
of air on both sides of a thin flame. So 
likewise a small flame is whiter and more 
luminous than a larger ; and a short snuff of 
a candle giving out less combustible matter 
in proportion to the circumambient air, the 
quantity of light becomes increased to eight 
or ten times what a long snufF would have 
afforded. 
FLAMINGO, a bird, otherwise called 
phcenicopterus. See Phcenicopterus. 
FLAMSTEED (John), in biography, an 
eminent English astronomer, being indeed 
the first astronomer royal, for whose use 
the Royal Observatory was built at Green- 
wich, thence called Flamsteed House. He 
was born at Denby, in Derbyshire, the 19tli 
of August, 1646. He was educated at the 
free school of Derby, where his father 
lived* and at fourteen years of age was af- 
flicted with a severe illness, which rendered 
his constitution tender ever after, and pre- 
vented him then from going to the univer- 
sity, for which he was intended. He ne- 
vertheless prosecuted his school education 
with the best effect; and then, in 1662, on 
quitting the grammar-school, he pursued the 
natural bent of his genius, which led him to 
the study of astronomy, and closely perused 
Sacrobosco’sbook“ De Sphaera,” which fell 
in his way, and which laid the ground-work 
of all that mathematical and astronomical 
knowledge, for which he became afterwards 
so justly famous. He next procured other 
more modern books of the same kind, and 
among them, Street’s “ A stronomia Caro- 
lina,” then lately published, from which he 
learned to calculate eclipses and the pla- 
nets’ places. Some of these being shewn 
to a Mr. Halton, a considerable mathemati- 
cian, he lent him Riccioli’s “ Almagestum 
Novum,” and Kepler’s “Tabulae Rudolph! ■ 
naj,” which he profited much by. In 1 669, 
having calculated some remarkable eclipses 
of the moon, he sent them to Lord Brounc- 
ker. President of the Royal Society, which 
were greatly approved by that learned 
body, and procured him a letter of thanks 
from Mr. Oldenburg, their Secretary, and 
another from Mr. John Collins, with whom, 
M 
