Heart of the Flame

The atoms are represented of one-i ounh their former size. The combining proportions arc preserved.,  

These details have been known for almost 200 years through the application of a kind of flame scalpel called the blowpipe. 

Atkins, Atoms, Electrons and Change, Scientific American Library, Freeman, New York, 1991, pp. 105-109. 

1 thank Professor Joel F. Liebman for calling this to my attention. 

FIGURE 289. Henri Decremps, the author of Diagrammes Chimiques. . . (Paris, 1823), was a famous magician for most of his life. The fascinating diagrams in this book seem to invent imaginary apparatus to conduct conceptual streams of chemicals, their dissection, and subsequent reactions. In this figure, two odorless substances cause the formation of a piquant substance—ammonia. 

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If air is admitted into the heart of the flame in sufficient quantity, the luminosity5 suddenly disappears almost entirely, and a flame resembling that of. pure hydrogen results. Owing to the rapid combustion of the hydrocarbons, no luminous particles are separated, and the flame, being intensely hot, is a convenient one to employ for heating purposes, since it yields no soot when made to impinge upon a cold object. This is the principle of the Bunsen burner, the flame of which consists of two parts only, both of which are non-lummous. The inner... 

Luminosity of the Bunsen Flame.5—Mention has already been made of the fact that the introduction of air into the heart of the flame enables rapid combustion to take place without the separation of luminous particles, so that the Bunsen flame tends to lose the luminosity characteristic of coal gas. This, however, is not the entire cause6 there are several contributory factors. For example, the air introduced into the flame is cold and thus tends to cool the whole. Again, the formation of intermediate luminous bodies is retarded by the nitrogen which serves as a pure diluent and elevates the temperature necessary to effect the partial decomposition of the hydrocarbons. 

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