Flammability

“ Always have a large blanket at hand to smother flames in burning clothing—also a bucket of water and a quantity of sand. A siphon of carbonic water is an excellent fire extinguisher.
The gas of gasoline is heavier than air, so a container should never be held ABOVE a flame. Keep kerosene and gasoline containers well corked and at a distance from fire.
Never inhale breath while performing with fire. FLAME DRAWN INTO THE LUNGS IS FATAL TO LIFE.
So much for the entertaining side of the art. ”

“ And concerning this flame I was not overmuch astonished in my Reason; for it had seemed to me as I drew anigh, that the fire and the sound should be made by the roaring and whistling of a burning gas that did issue forth among the rocks. ”

“ Rising into the air with showers of sparks, and rolling one above the other, were sheets of flame, lighting the atmosphere for miles round, and driving clouds of smoke in the direction where he stood. The shouts grew louder as new voices swelled the rear, and he could hear the cry of Fire mingled with the ringing of an alarm-bell, the fall of heavy bodies, and the crackling of flames as they twined round some new obstacle, and shot aloft as though refreshed by food. ”

“ To bring about the combustion of the candle it is necessary to apply heat to the wick, but afterwards the heat which is liberated is more than sufficient to sustain the action.
We have now arrived at a tolerably clear conception of Flame; it is merely volatile combustible matter heated to whiteness. Fire is simply a convenient word which we make use of to denote the extrication of light and heat during combustion, and the ancient notion that it is one of the primordial constituents of the material world is no longer tenable. ”

“ The flame is hollow. The bright flame we see is something no thicker than a thin peel, or skin; and it doesn’t touch the wick. Inside of it is the vapor I told you of just now. If you put one end of a bent pipe into the middle of the flame, and let the other end of the pipe dip into a bottle, the vapor or gas from the candle will mix with the air there; and if you set fire to the mixture of gas from the candle and air in the bottle, it would go off with a bang. ”

“ There is no strict scientific definition of flame, but for the purpose of this article it will be regarded as a name for gas which is temporarily luminous in consequence of chemical action. It is well known that the luminosity of gases can be induced by the electrical discharge, and with rapidly alternating high-tension discharges in air an oxygen-nitrogen flame is produced which is long and flickering, can be blown out, yields nitrogen peroxide, and is in fact indistinguishable from an ordinary flame except by its electrical mode of maintenance. ”

“ We get another proof of this fact if we look at the edges of the Sun, where we see great red flames shooting up to enormous heights. Perhaps we ought not to call them flames, because in our earthly fire-grates a flame means that something is being burnt, generally the gas from the coal which is being burnt up in the air. The solar flames do not represent anything burning; they glow like the filament of an electric lamp, but we have no better word to describe them than "flames." ”

“ Just let me say a few words about the grand result—the consummated work of the tinder-box. A flame is a very remarkable thing. It looks solid, but it is not solid. You will find that the inside of a flame consists of unburnt gas—gas, that is to say, not in a state of combustion at all. The only spot where true combustion takes place is the outer covering of the flame. ”

“ 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 always 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. ”

“ Light and Heat of Flame.—Which of the two flames is hotter, the one with the air-holes open, or that with them closed? Evidently the former; for air is drawn in and mixes with the gas as it rises in the tube, and, on reaching the flame at the top, the two are well mingled, and the gaseous compounds of C and H burn at so high a temperature that solid C is not freed; hence there is little light. On closing the air-holes, no O can reach the flame except from the outside, and the heat is much less intense. ”

“ We know that flame is simply intensely heated gas rising in a denser atmosphere; but it was perfectly natural that the ancients should regard such a startling effect as a manifestation of a fourth condition of matter still lighter and more subtile than air, and the conception of fire as a fundamental principle of nature once formed, the phenomena of combustion appeared to them as direct evidences of the escape of this principle of fire from the burning bodies. ”

“ Flames are of different degrees of brilliancy, according to whether solid incandescent particles occur in the combustible gas or vapour, or not. Incandescent gases and vapours emit but little light by themselves, and therefore give a paler flame. [43] If a flame does not contain solid particles it is transparent, [178] pale, and emits but little light. [44] The flames of burning alcohol, sulphur, and hydrogen are of this kind. A pale flame may be rendered luminous by placing fine particles of solid matter in it. ”

“ The combustible matter which reaches the ground, or takes fire near it, never fails to strike. But sometimes it is not strong enough to approach us, and like an ill-charged cannon, it disperses in the atmosphere and does no harm. When, on the contrary, the fiery exhalations reach the ground, they sometimes make terrible havoc.
We may judge of the prodigious force of the lightning by the wonderful effects it produces. The heat of the flame is such, that it burns and consumes every thing that is combustible. ”

“ Unless it has fresh air, it cannot burn. There is something—a gas—in the air that makes the flame burn, and when it has used up all this gas inside the glass, and can’t get any more, it stops burning. ”

“ If the gas be copious, the flame elongates into a sharp spire, as well as the top. It is in general reckoned dangerous when the tip changes from the bluish-gray to a fine blue colour, accompanied with minute luminous points, which pass rapidly upwards through the flame and top. When the symptoms are manifestly dangerous, a sudden movement of the hands or body is liable to produce ignition by agitation of the fire-damp. ”

“ In the non-luminous flame, owing to the air being admitted and mixed with the gas, the increased supply of oxygen renders combustion more complete, greatly increases the heat of the flame, but renders it incapable of giving light. ”

“ The flame of burning bodies consists of such inflammable matter in the act of combustion as is capable of existing in a gazeous state. When all circumstances are favorable to the complete combustion of the products, the flame is perfect ”

“ But there are other circumstances connected with the combustion of candles and lamps, which I cannot explain to you till you are acquainted with carbon, which is one of their constituent parts. In general, however, whenever you see flame, you may infer that it is owing to the formation and burning of hydrogen gas*; for flame is the peculiar mode of burning hydrogen gas, which, with only one or two apparent exceptions, does not belong to any other combustible. ”

“ The fire is best. It is near you, and you drop your burning spill into it with a minimum waste of energy. The proper fire for pipes is one in a cheerful blaze. If your spill is carelessly constructed the flame runs up into your fingers before you know what you are doing, so that it is as well to marry and get your wife to make spills for you. Before you begin to smoke, scatter these about the fireplace. Then you will be able to reach them without rising. The irritating fire is the one that has burned low—when the coals are more than half cinders, and cling to each other in fear of death. ”

“ Soot therefore always indicates an imperfect combustion. Hence [9] flame is produced from those inflammable substances only, which are either totally volatile when heat is applied to them, so as not to alter their chemical habitudes—or which contain a quantity of combustible matter that is readily volatilized into vapour by heat, or the elements necessary for producing such vapour or gazeous products, when the chemical constitution of the body is altered by an increase of temperature. ”

“ So in a modern city if all the gas were turned off simultaneously at all the burners but one, the flame would no doubt blaze at that one burner with a fierceness such as no single burner could shew when all are burning at the same time. The analogy may help us to understand the process of reasoning which leads the peasantry to insist on the extinction of all common fires when the need-fire is about to be kindled. ”

“ The very best way not to have fires is not to set them. If you stop to think of it, there are not so very many different things that will start fires. Matches, kerosene, gas, gasoline, hot sparks, burning tobacco, fires in stoves, furnaces, and fire-places, hot ashes, lightning, and fires [Pg 118] which start themselves by "spontaneous combustion," are the common causes of our losses ”

“ When laid on a fire they burn away with a feeble lambent flame, indeed some varieties give no flame at all, but burn merely with a red glow, somewhat like charcoal, and at length become consumed without caking. ”

“ But so long as there is continuous combustion in the same fireplace or pile of fuel, we speak of the same fire although neither the flame nor the fuel remains the same. When combustion ceases, the fire goes out in popular language. ”

“ As the smoke and vapour which ascend from burning fuel rise in consequence of their being rarefied by heat, and made lighter than the air of the surrounding atmosphere; and as the degree of their rarefaction, and consequently their tendency to rise, is in proportion to the intensity of their heat; and further, as they are hotter near the fire than at a greater distance from it, it is clear that the nearer the throat of a Chimney is to the fire, the stronger will be, what is commonly called, its DRAUGHT, and the less danger there will be of its smoking. ”

“ When air is applied in too great quantity, and especially if some of the tubes convey oxygen gas, then a violent combustion and flame is excited, which will, in all probability, consume or burn out the furnace or grate, or if it do not, it will burn out the fuel, and thus exhaust itself. ”

“ We look at a gas flame, and we see in the flame itself those particles of gas which have come through the pipe to be agitated violently in the higher temperature of the flame as they are oxidized or burnt. ”

“ Flame is gas or vapour heated to incandescence during862 the process of combustion. A flame containing no solid particles emits but a feeble light, even if its temperature is the highest possible. Pure hydrogen, for instance, burns with a pale, smokeless flame, though with the production of considerable heat. On the other hand, wax, paraffin, coal-gas, &c., while undergoing combustion, give out considerable light, because their flames contain innumerable solid particles of carbon, which act as radiant points. ”

“ Well, uncle, the flame of the candle is a little shining case, with gas in the inside of it, and air on the outside, so that the case of flame is between the air and the gas. The gas keeps going into the flame to burn, and when the candle burns properly, none of it ever passes out through the flame; and none of the air ever gets in through the flame to the gas. ”

“ A proper amount of air must be supplied to the fuel to produce a hot fire. A smoky or yellow flame indicates a lack of sufficient air to produce complete combustion of the fuel. Smoke is unburnt fuel. A smoky fire does not produce as much heat as one which burns with a blue or almost colorless flame. It is usually not the fault of the fuel, but the way it is being used that causes a smoky fire.
2. The Grate. Cooking stoves may be constructed for burning either wood or coal. In both cases, the operation is similar, except that more air should be passing thru the stove while wood is being burnt. ”

“ A man, bearing [Pg 706] one of these easily-carried machines, enters his blazing domicil, all a-glow with a bright flame, which is curling its forked tongues around every thing which resists its progress, and touching a spring, a cloud of smoke-like vapor issues forth, before which the flame flickers, grows pale, and at once fades entirely out, and the conflagration is stopped. ”

“ Everyone knows that the fire from a little spark will increase and blaze ever higher as long as it finds wood to burn; yet without being quenched by water, but merely by finding no more fuel to feed on, it consumes itself, dies down, and is no longer a flame. ”

“ It merits observation, that in modern-built Houses taste or accident has effected sufficient security against fires without any special preventives. Flame is only ungovernable when in its ascent it meets with combustible materials. Heat, as the principle of expansion, rarefies and volatilizes all bodies; and then, as the heavier give place to the lighter, so bodies subject to its action ascend, and carry up with them the principle, matter, or action of heat. ”