Torchlight procession

“ Strange as it may seem, the brass tip of the torch does not melt in this heat because the pressure behind the gases forces them out with such velocity that the flame is far enough removed from the tip to do it no injury, just so long as the operator does not put the tip square against the metal and drive the flame back against it. ”

“ The torch is a thick tube, perhaps a foot and a half long, with a bull's-eye of glass at one end. By pressing a spring the electric rays project like the illumination of an engine's headlight. A release of the spring causes instant darkness. I have found this invention useful in that it concentrates the light on any particular spot desired, leaving all the surroundings in gloom, so that the mind is not distracted, even unconsciously, by the eye beholding more than is necessary at the moment. One pours a white light over any particular substance as water is poured from the nozzle of a hose. ”

“ So, with a little electric torch in one hand and the other held out blindly before me, I crept into the darkness that was, presumably, Vining’s entrance hall.
After a moment I heard the front door close softly behind me, and then I ventured to use the torch.
Have you ever gone into a strange house and tried to make out the lay of the land with a pocket torch? The torch shows up only one tiny spot at a time, and when you have swept it all over one article of furniture and made out its general dimensions, you have forgotten everything else! ”

“ After a little while in the intense silence of the forest she ventured to touch the switch of her torch, very cautiously.
In the faint, pale lustre she saw a tiny rivulet flowing westward from a spring, and, beside it, in the mud, imprints of a man's feet.
The tracks were small, narrow, slimmer than imprints made by any man she could think of. Under the glimmer of her torch they seemed quite fresh; contours were still sharp, some ready to crumble, and water stood in the heels. ”

“ The cutting torch is the same as the welding torch with the exception of an additional pipe from which flows a jet of pure oxygen to give the flame the necessary cutting property. The greater the supply of oxygen the greater the combustion, and the more penetrating the flame. ”

“ Lighting two of the largest torches she fixed them slantingwise in crevices of the rock, so that their flame shone over the mouth of the shaft, down which she threw, first, a bundle of unlit torches, and, lastly, one on fire. This torch did not go out, as she half expected that it would, for presently, looking down the pit, she saw a spark of light shining a hundred and fifty feet or more beneath her. ”

“ And certainly the most likely is, the effect of those hot and dry vapors which ascend out of the earth, and are condensed by the ambient cold, as appears by their converting into crystalline drops on the top, while at the bottom it is so excessively hot, that a torch being extinguished near it, and lifted a little distance, was suddenly re-lighted. ”

“ As night draws on, the single figures melt into the dusk, until only an obscure stir and coming and going of black clusters is visible upon the loch. A little longer, and the first torch is kindled and begins to flit rapidly across the ice in a ring of yellow reflection, and this is followed by another and another, until the whole field is full of skimming lights. ”

“ Let us then collect those rays, of which we are not yet deprived, and its obscurity will decrease; and though the road may not in every part be equally filled with light, we yet shall have a torch that will prevent us from going astray. ”

“ Not only does the torch stay lighted, but it retains much of its efficiency as a cutting tool, and some instances have been recorded where cutting has been accomplished at a depth of thirty feet under the sea. It is true that the water conducts a large part of the heat away very rapidly, but to facilitate such operations, an air line is brought down which ejects air under the torch and clears the water away to some extent, but this is not necessary. ”

“ The battle of confetti waxes hot. Merry faces fill all balconies and windows. Many a beauty drops her mask for an instant like ourselves to peer more eagerly at the wonderful procession, but at her peril. ”

“ The torch-bearers! The long race of those who have borne, and still carry the torches, passing them on from hand to hand, runs before us. A little ship puts out from Seleucia, bearing a man who had caught the fire in a blinding blaze of light on the road to Damascus. Paul crosses the sea and then threads his way through the cities of Cyprus and Asia Minor, passes over the blue Ægean to answer the call from Macedonia. We see the light quicken, flicker and glow to a steady blaze in centre after centre of life, till at last the torch-bearer reaches his goal in Rome. ”

“ Against that thick blanket of mist the penetrating power of the torch's gleam was so effectually blunted that it could do nothing more than throw a pale, weak circle of light a few feet into the depths of a crowding vapour, leaving all beyond and upon either side doubly dark in contrast. ”

“ To my considerable satisfaction I discovered that the air remained as pure as above, and there was no sign of the ropes yielding or parting; but the light from my electric torch showed nothing in the wall in the way of steps or break. It was as nature had left it, smooth and unbroken. ”

“ A spirit torch should be used, and the gas should not be turned full on at once or the mantles will soon be destroyed. It will be found advisable to hold a tray or something of the kind under the spirit torch when lighting up, to prevent any of the hot spirit falling on the cloth. ”

“ The hollowness also, and various reflections and breakings of the clouds, may be great causes thereof, besides the great coldness of the middle region of the air, by which these fiery exhalations, when they ascend there, are suddenly driven back with great force. Daily experience teaches us, by the whizzing of a burning torch, what a noise fire occasions in the air, and much more so when it strives and is inclosed with air, as seen in guns ”

“ The Gasoline Torch.—The plumbers’ gasoline torch is often used by experienced metal workers for heating coppers. In inexperienced hands, this torch is rather a dangerous affair. Only one copper may be heated at a time and it is difficult not to overheat the copper in the fierce roaring flame. ”

“ Man's battle with darkness really began with the torch, which was lighted at the fire in the cave or in the wigwam and kept burning for purposes of illumination. A burning stick was the first lamp (Fig. 2) . The first improvement in the torch was made when slivers or splinters of resinous or oily wood were tied together and burned. We may regard this as a lamp which is all [30] wick. This invention resulted in a fuller and clearer light, and one that would burn longer than the single stick. A further improvement came when a long piece of wax or fatty substance was wrapped about with leaves. ”

“ ISABELLA’S CHRONICLE. CHAPTER VII.
THE TORCH. I did not know what had happened. I did not see the walls fall down. It was very dark, and some one held my arm. Then I saw the flare of a torch.
I could hear no voice in the commotion, but it was upon Roy Lee’s face that the light of the torch fell. I saw his steel blue eyes in quick search for the cave look swiftly around.
Above our heads the tunnel walls were roofed with trees laid crosswise. These were coated with ice; long icicles depended like white swords, gleaming above our heads.
When the torch expired we should die in darkness! ”

“ The idea of this torch is to have the light above the heads of the campers. The trouble with a fire upon the ground is that while the flames give light they also hide part of the crowd, and the smoke is always in someone's face. This elevated torch is a brand new idea for this purpose. ”

“ On presenting a lighted candle or torch within 18 inches of the hole, it flames up in a column of 18 inches diameter, and four or five feet height, which sometimes burns out within 20 minutes, and at other times has been known to continue three days, and then has been still left burning. The flame is unsteady, of the density of that of burning spirits, and smells like burning pit-coal. Water sometimes collects in the bason, which is remarkably cold, and is kept in ebulition by the vapor issuing through it. ”

“ Nor in the cupping-glass can heat or fire attract by feeding on air: in the cupping-glass air, having been exhausted into flame, when it condenses again and is forced into a narrow space, makes the skin and flesh rise in avoiding a vacuum. In the open air warm things cannot attract, not metals even or stones, if they should * be strongly incandescent by fire. For a rod of glowing iron, or a flame, or a candle, or a blazing torch, or a live coal, when they are brought near to straws, or to a versorium, do not attract ”

“ The high-pressure torch, which has largely taken the place of the low-pressure one in France, and which we also see most frequently in this country, has a different method of mixing the gases, due to the fact that they both are under pressure. According to many authorities the tip where the gases are mixed is by far the most important factor in the success or failure of the tool. ”

“ Large jobs of brazing may be handled with a charcoal fire built in the forge, as this fuel produces a very satisfactory and clean fire. The only objection is in the difficulty of confining the heat to the desired parts of the work.
The most satisfactory fire is that from a fuel gas torch built for this work. These torches are simply forms of Bunsen burners, mixing the proper quantity of air with the gas to bring about a perfect combustion. Hose lines lead to the mixing tube of the gas torch, one line carrying the gas and the other air under a moderate pressure. ”

“ Not so many generations ago 'natural philosophers' thought that inflammable gases, exhaled from the earth, took fire spontaneously in the air, and that this was lightning. The idea also prevailed—and it is not yet quite extinct—that a stroke of lightning involved the hurling down from the sky of a mass of rock, called a 'thunderbolt.' In the eighteenth century people became quite familiar with the process of generating, by friction, a mysterious something called 'electricity,' which, when it passed from one body to another through a small layer of intervening air, produced sparks. ”

“ When gas is not available, recourse may be had to the gasoline torch made for brazing. This torch is built in the same way as the small portable gasoline torches for soldering operations, with the exception that two regulating needle valves are incorporated in place of only one.
The torches are carried on a framework, which also supports the work being handled. Fuel is forced to the torch from a large tank of gasoline into which air pressure is pumped by hand. ”

“ Even the apparently quiet cloud is always in motion within itself. Rising currents of moist air, chilled by its own expansion, cause condensation of the vapor into cloud matter. The coalescence of cloud matter into mist and droplets results in their fall to a lower level, where they are again vaporized; and the vapor, in turn, rises in the updraught. All this is constantly changing and disturbing the electric potential. When, however, the updraught is strong enough to shatter the drops into mist, the potential becomes so high that the violent discharges constitute the thunder-storm. ”

“ My friend shortened the harangue, by taking the man's torch from him; and we proceeded alone.
The passage, which at first scarcely admitted us, quickly grew narrower and lower; we were almost bent double; yet still we persisted in making our way through it. At length we entered a wider space, and the low roof heightened; but, as we congratulated ourselves on this change, our torch was extinguished by a current of air, and we were left in utter darkness. The guides bring with them materials for renewing the light, but we had none—our only resource was to return as we came. ”

“ The torch must be passed down the line by the thumbless hands of an illustrious line of prognathous ancestors unacquainted with fire. For the torch has neither light nor heat—is, in truth, fireproof. It radiates darkness and all shadows fall toward it. The magazine story must relate nothing: like Dr. ”

“ A spinning solar tornado, incomparably greater in scale than the devastating whirlwinds that so often cut narrow paths of destruction through town and country in the Middle West, gradually gives rise to a sun-spot. The expansion produced by the centrifugal force at the centre of the storm cools the intensely hot gases of the solar atmosphere to a point where chemical union can occur. Titanium and oxygen, too hot to combine in most regions of the sun, join to form the vapor of titanium oxide, characterized in the sunspot spectrum by fluted bands, made up of hundreds of regularly spaced lines. ”

“ We have four torches left. Only when we hear the sound of rapids dare we light one of them."
He emphasized his words by putting out the torch that was burning, and instantly they were plunged in total darkness.
This marked the commencement of a period in which all trace of time was lost. Huddled together on the few remaining rugs, they drifted on and on with the current, alternately asleep and awake.
At certain intervals a torch was lit for a few moments while they ate the pitiful scraps of food that Guy distributed with rigorous impartiality. ”

“ Travers began to walk toward the featureless black mass of the stockade. When after a few steps she looked back over her shoulder, the lagoon, the beach, the canoe, the men she had just left had become already invisible. She was alone bearing up a blazing torch on an earth that was a dumb shadow shifting under her feet. At last she reached firmer ground and the dark length of the palisade untouched as yet by the light of the torch seemed to her immense, intimidating. ”