I specially want these two or three
experiments to point out what I shall dwell upon more distinctly
by-and-by--that carbon burns in this way, and not as a flame.
Instead of taking many particles of carbon to burn, I will take a rather
large piece, which will enable you to see the form and size; and to trace
the effects very decidedly. Here is the jar of oxygen, and here is the
piece of charcoal, to which I have fastened a little piece of wood, which
I can set fire to, and so commence the combustion, which I could not
conveniently do without. You now see the charcoal burning, but not as a
flame (or if there be a flame, it is the smallest possible one, which I
know the cause of--namely, the formation of a little carbonic oxide close
upon the surface of the carbon). It goes on burning, you see, slowly
producing carbonic acid by the union of this carbon or charcoal (they are
equivalent terms) with the oxygen. I have here another piece of charcoal,
a piece of bark, which has the quality of being blown to pieces--exploding
as it burns. By the effect of the heat, we shall reduce the lump of carbon
into particles that will fly off; still every particle, equally with the
whole mass, burns in this peculiar way: it burns as a coal, and not like a
flame.
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