A SHORT HISTORY OF ENGLAND BY G. K. CHESTERTON

Flame, glowing body of mixed gases undergoing the process of combustion. Flames generally consist of a mixture of oxygen (or air) and another gas, usually such combustible substances as hydrogen, carbon monoxide, or hydrocarbon.

A typical flame is that of a burning candle. When the candle is lighted, the heat of the match melts the wax, which is carried up the wick and then vaporized by the heat. The vaporized wax is then broken down by the heat and, finally, combines with the oxygen of the surrounding air, producing a flame and generating heat and light. The candle flame consists of three zones that are easily distinguished. The innermost zone, a nonluminous cone, is composed of a gas-air mixture at a comparatively low temperature. In the second, or luminous, cone, hydrogen and carbon monoxide are produced by decomposition and begin to react with oxygen to form water and carbon dioxide, respectively. In this cone the temperature of the flame—about 590° to 680° C (about 1090° to 1250° F)—is great enough to dissociate the gases in the flame and produce free particles of carbon, which are heated to incandescence and then consumed. The incandescent carbon produces the characteristic yellow light of this portion of the flame. Outside the luminous cone is a third, invisible cone in which the remaining carbon monoxide and hydrogen are finally consumed.

If a cold object is introduced into the outer portions of a flame, the temperature of that part of the flame will be lowered below the point of combustion, and unburned carbon and carbon monoxide will be given off. Thus, if a porcelain dish is passed through a candle flame, it will receive a deposit of carbon in the form of soot. Operation of any kind of flame-producing stove in a room that is unventilated is dangerous because of the production of carbon monoxide, which is poisonous.

All combustible substances require a definite proportion of oxygen for complete burning. (A flame can be sustained in an atmosphere of pure chlorine, although combustion is not complete.) In the burning of a candle, or of solids such as wood or coal, this oxygen is supplied by the surrounding atmosphere. In blowpipes and various types of gas burners, air or pure oxygen is mixed with the gas at the base of the burner so that the carbon is consumed almost instantaneously at the mouth of the burner. For this reason such flames are nonluminous. They also occupy a smaller volume and are proportionately hotter than a simple candle flame. The hottest portion of the flame of a Bunsen burner has a temperature of about 1600° C (about 2910° F). The hottest portion of the oxygen-acetylene flames used for welding metals reaches 3500° C (6330° F); such flames have a bluish-green cone in place of the luminous cone. If the oxygen supply is reduced, such flames have four cones: nonluminous, bluish-green, luminous, and invisible.

The blue-green cone of any flame is often called the reducing cone, because it is insufficiently supplied with oxygen and will take up oxygen from substances placed within it. Similarly, the outermost cone, which has an excess of oxygen, is called the oxidizing cone. Intensive studies of the molecular processes taking place in various regions of flames are now possible through the techniques of laser spectroscopy.

A SHORT HISTORY OF ENGLAND BY G. K. CHESTERTON

Date: 2015-01-02; view: 857