The chemical history of a candle, a course of lectures delivered before a juvenile audience at the Royal Institution

About this book

Written for young listeners, Faraday’s Royal Institution lectures use a candle to explain chemistry through experiments performed before the audience. A bent glass tube draws wax vapour from inside the flame, and Faraday clarifies the difference between vapour and gas by showing that the former can condense. On paper, a battery leaves colored marks as he demonstrates electrical decomposition. When he returns to burning, smoke from turpentine helps explain how carbon from a candle becomes carbonic acid.