4/3/2023 0 Comments 4 elements of nature combineIf we set fire to a small fragment of phosphorus and cover it with a dry tumbler, dense white fumes will arise, which will condense on the sides of the glass in snow-like flakes. Fire is simply a convenient word which we make use of to denote the extrication of light and heat during combustion, and the ancient notion that it is one of the primordial constituents of the material world is no longer tenable.įire is often spoken of as the destroying element, but we must bear in mind that combustion only alters the state of bodies there is no actual destruction or loss of weight when a body is burned, though the products of combustion may be invisible. We have now arrived at a tolerably clear conception of Flame it is merely volatile combustible matter heated to whiteness. To bring about the combustion of the candle it is necessary to apply heat to the wick, but afterwards the heat which is liberated is more than sufficient to sustain the action. This vapour combines rapidly with the oxygen of the surrounding atmosphere, and the heat evolved is such as to render the vapour luminous. The tallow is melted and sucked up to the top of the wick, where it is boiled and converted into vapour. The phenomena presented by a burning candle may now be easily understood. The air contains a wonderful gas called oxygen, which combines with the vaporized tallow, just as water combines with quicklime, and their union is attended by a development of heat. This is the true interpretation of the phenomenon. The flame seems to rob the confined air of a certain virtue which is essential to its continued existence. If we cover a lighted candle with a glass shade, the flame will soon begin to languish, and in a few minutes it will expire. The intense heat emitted by the flame of a candle may be traced to chemical action. Everybody is familiar with the fact, that a considerable amount of heat is evolved when water is poured upon quicklime, a fact which illustrates the great chemical law, that no union of two bodies can take place without a change in their temperature. Now as no solid can become aëriform without the agency of heat, the question naturally arises-whence comes the heat that vaporizes the tallow? To reconcile this statement with the gradual disappearance of the burning candle, we are forced to conclude that the tallow is changed into an invisible gas or vapour, and escapes into the air. The chemist tells us that nothing can be absolutely destroyed, and that what we call destruction is merely the conversion of a visible body into an invisible one. The flame of a candle is a white hot cone of volatile matter, which we vaguely term Fire-if we can discover the real nature of this cone we shall be able to define Fire with some degree of accuracy. These two great forces are intimately connected thus, whenever we raise a solid object to a high temperature it becomes luminous first it emits a dull red light, which changes as the temperature increases to orange, then to yellow, and finally to full white. Fire, after all, may be nothing but a name for certain phenomena of heat and light. We cannot weigh it, measure it, or put it in a bottle nor can we imagine it existing apart from a burning substance. Wherever we perceive light and heat emanating simultaneously from a combustible body, we say-there is fire-but we can bring forward no proof of the material existence of this so-called element. Before we can accept this explanation we must be quite satisfied that Fire is a substance. According to the Greek philosophers, tallow contains an ethereal substance called Fire, which being set free, takes the form of flame the gradual decrease of the candle is therefore accounted for by the dissipation of its chief constituent. Let us examine the imaginary elements of the ancients, and see whether they will help us to arrive at the true solution of the problem-what is the world made of?Ī candle in burning seems to disappear completely, and when the combustion is over, an insignificant trace of ash from the wick is all that remains to the eye. The true elementary bodies may be compared to the letters of the alphabet, and the diversified compounds which compose the material world to the words which form a language. By the term element, we understand any kind of matter which up to the present time has never been decomposed into constituents, and which consequently appears to have a simple nature. Modern science has satisfactorily demonstrated the compound nature of fire, air, earth, and water, and they can no longer be regarded as elements. Such is the old doctrine of the Four Elements, simple and concise enough, but unfortunately false. Man himself seems to be built up of the four elements, and according to the first theoretical system of medicine, health indicates their perfect balance, and disease, the preponderance of one of them.
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