On the Supposed Influence of Light on Combustion

Abstract

BEFORE Dr. Ingleby referred to my experiments as “inconclusive,” his reference should at least have been accurate. He says that I “actually used a dark cubbard into which there was no free influx of atmospheric air.” So far from this being the case, the “dark closet,” as I call it in my paper, was the photometer-room of Price's Candle Company, an enclosure 121/2 feet long, 31/2 feet wide, and 61/2 feet high, with arrangements for constant ventilation both at the bottom and at the top. So far from candles “naturally burning there with inferior combustion,” as Dr. Ingleby supposes, it is in constant use for testing the burning of candles, and any deficiency in the supply of air would be shown quickly by the production of smoke, and yet after being so used for many hours there is not a trace of smoke in the air.