Excerpt from The Emporium of Arts and Sciences, Vol. 2: December, 1813 When a candle or a lamp burns in the common me thod, they smoke. That is, the fuel instead of being burnt or consumed, is in part distilled away by the heat: for as there can be no combustion but by means of the oxygen of the atmospheric air, and as the outside only of the wick is in contact with the air, the fuel with which the outside is impregnated, only can be burnt: the oil or tallow of the inside, is distilled away and forms the smoke. Part of this is caught and inflamed as it escapes into the air; hence the flame of a candle extends beyond the point of the wick; but the whole of it is not burnt. What is not burnt is smoke. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.