And you know that the brightness of the
candle is due to this smoke, which becomes ignited. Here is an experiment
to prove this: so long as the smoke remains in the flame of the candle and
becomes ignited, it gives a beautiful light, and never appears to us in
the form of black particles. I will light some fuel, which is extravagant
in its burning. This will serve our purpose--a little turpentine on a
sponge. You see the smoke rising from it, and floating into the air in
large quantities; and, remember now, the carbonic acid that we have from
the candle is from such smoke as that. To make that evident to you, I will
introduce this turpentine burning on the sponge into a flask where I have
plenty of oxygen, the rich part of the atmosphere, and you now see that
the smoke is all consumed. This is the first part of our experiment; and
now, what follows? The carbon which you saw flying off from the turpentine
flame in the air is now entirely burned in this oxygen, and we shall find
that it will, by this rough and temporary experiment, give us exactly the
same conclusion and result as we had from the combustion of the candle.
The reason why I make the experiment in this manner is solely that I may
cause the steps of our demonstration to be so simple that you can never
for a moment lose the train of reasoning, if you only pay attention.
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