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XXIX.—On the Prismatic Spectra of the Flames of Compounds of Carbon and Hydrogen

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 January 2013

William Swan
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Extract

The phenomena presented by the prismatic spectra of flames have occupied the attention of many and excellent investigators. In most instances, however, no attempt has been made to procure accurate measurements of the positions of the bright lines which many of the spectra exhibit; and much in this field of observation, therefore, remains to be accomplished. I purpose, from time to time as I shall have leisure, to make a series of observations, whose object shall be the actual numerical determination of the positions of the bright lines in the spectra of flames; and I have commenced the series with an examination of the spectra of the flames of compounds of carbon and hydrogen. In an investigation into the phenomena of flames, the compounds of carbon and hydrogen claim our first attention, as constituting the most important means of artificial illumination; for it is scarcely necessary to remark, that, with the grand exception of sun-light, the combustion of these substances is the source of nearly all the light and heat from which we derive such extensive benefits in the arts and in domestic economy. It will be found, moreover, that the spectra of carbohydrogen flames possess, in common, remarkable features, which seem as yet to have received little attention, but which promise to be of service in explaining the general phenomena of artificial light.

Type
Research Article
Information
Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of The Royal Society of Edinburgh , Volume 21 , Issue 3 , 1857 , pp. 411 - 429
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1857

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References

page 411 note * For descriptions of lines in the spectrum of an oil lamp flame, see Fraunhofer, , Astronomische Abhandlungen, 1823, p. 16Google Scholar; Herschel, , Edin. Trans., vol. ix., p. 455Google Scholar, and article Light, Encyc. Metrop., art. 522. The spectrum of the blowpipe cone is described by Fraunhofer, , Brewster's Journal of Science, vol. vii., p. 7Google Scholar; and by Draper, , Phil. Mag., vol. xxxii., p. 111Google Scholar.

page 412 note * Works of Sir H. Davy, vol. vi., Lond. 1840. Draper on the Production of Light by Chemical Action, Lond. Phil. Mag., 1848, vol. xxxii., p. 100.

page 412 note † Kane's Chemistry, p. 289.

page 412 note ‡ By Dr Robert Ferguson, whoso interesting account of the lamp will, I believe, appear in the Transactions of the Royal Scottish Society of Arts.

page 413 note * If the air be dusty from any cause, these scintillations become very abundant. Thus, if the floor be swept, or a piece of charcoal be scraped with a knife at a little distance from the lamp, minute particles are carried by the current of air into the tube, and cause a profusion of sparks, which exhibit a very beautiful appearance, while they confirm the opinion that the ordinary sparks are occasioned chiefly by particles of dust carried by the air.

page 414 note * Schumacher's, Astronomische Abhundlungen, 1823, p. 18.Google Scholar

page 414 note † See p. 419.

page 415 note * Or we may adopt Professor Draper's ingenious mode of observing flames through a horizontal slit, Phil. Mag., vol. xxxii. p. 106.

page 416 note * Phil. Mag., vol. xxx., p. 349.

page 420 note * Printed by permission of the Council.

page 421 note * I have described this mode of observation in my paper on the Ordinary Refraction of Iceland Spar, Edin. Trans., vol. xvi.

page 424 note * I have found that the column of heated air rising from the flame of a spirit lamp with a salted wick, is most energetic in communicating yellow light to the exterior envelope of the flame of the Bunsen lamp. This effect is apparently confined to the outer, or oxidizing portion of the flame, where there is no excess of hydrogen, to decompose the chloride of sodium; and the experiment is interesting, as tending to prove that the yellow light may be caused by simple incandescence, without the actual combustion of sodium.

page 425 note * Schumacher's Astronomische Abhandlungen, 1823, p. 29. See also Brewster's Edinburgh Journal of Science, vol. viii., p. 7. M. Foucault has lately verified this result with the double yellow line seen in the spectrum of the voltaic arc, between charcoal electrodes. See De La Rive's Electricity, vol. ii., p. 322.

page 425 note † Report of British Association, 1842, p. 15.

page 426 note * Edinburgh Trans., vol. xii., p. 528.