Lecture One: The Chemical History of a Candle - The Sources of its Flame (2/6)

Bill Hammack presents Lecture One of Michael Faraday’s lectures on The Chemical History of a Candle. A free companion book helps modern viewers understand each lecture - details at www.engineerguy.com - as does a commentary track and closed captions for each lecture.
►Free Companion book to this video series
www.engineerguy.com/faraday
Text of Every Lecture | Essential Background | Guides to Every Lecture | Teaching Guide & Student Activities
In these lectures Michael Faraday’s careful examination of a burning candle reveals the fundamental concepts of chemistry, while at the same time superbly demonstrating the scientific method. In this lecture Faraday focuses on the physical changes occurring in the candle, for example, how the wax moves from the candle into the flame.
LINKS TO OTHER VIDEOS IN THIS SERIES
► Lectures
(1/6) Introduction to Michael Faraday’s Chemical History of a Candle
• Introduction: The Chem...
(2/6) Lecture One: A Candle: Sources of its Flame
• Lecture One: The Chemi...
(3/6) Lecture Two: Brightness of the Flame
• Lecture Two: The Chemi...
(4/6) Lecture Three: Products of Combustion
• Lecture Three: The Che...
(5/6) Lecture Four: The Nature of the Atmosphere
• Lecture Four: The Chem...
(6/6) Lecture Five: Respiration & its Analogy to the Burning of a Candle
• Lecture Five: The Chem...
► Bonus Videos: Lectures with Commentary
Lecture One: A Candle: Sources of its Flame (Commentary version)
• Commentary Lecture One...
Lecture Two: Brightness of the Flame (Commentary version)
• Commentary Lecture Two...
Lecture Three: Products of Combustion (Commentary version)
• Commentary Lecture Thr...
Lecture Four: The Nature of the Atmosphere (Commentary version)
• Commentary Lecture Fou...
Lecture Five: Respiration & its Analogy to the Burning of a Candle (Commentary version)
• Commentary Lecture Fiv...
►Subscribe now! kzbin.info_...
►Become an advanced viewer of Engineer Guy videos - help evaluate early drafts
www.engineerguy.com/preview
COMPANION BOOK DETAILS
The companion book is available as an ebook, in paperback and hardcover - and for free as a PDF. Details on all versions are at www.engineerguy.com/faraday
Michael Faraday’s The Chemical History of a Candle
with Guides to the Lectures, Teaching Guides & Student Activities
Bill Hammack & Don DeCoste
190 pages | 5 x 8 | 14 illustrations
Hardcover (Casebound) | ISBN 978-0-9838661-8-0 | $24.95
Paper| ISBN 978-1-945441-00-4| $11.99
eBook | ISBN 978-0-9839661-9-7 | $3.99
Audience: 01 - General Trade
Subjects
SCI013000 SCIENCE / Chemistry / General
SCI028000 SCIENCE / Experiments & Projects
SCI000000 SCIENCE / General
EDU029030 EDUCATION / Teaching Methods & Materials / Science & Technology
This book introduces modern readers to Michael Faraday’s great nineteenth-century lectures on The Chemical History of a Candle. This companion to the KZbin series contains supplemental material to help readers appreciate Faraday’s key insight that “there is no more open door by which you can enter into the study of science than by considering the physical phenomena of a candle.” Through a careful examination of a burning candle, Faraday’s lectures introduce readers to the concepts of mass, density, heat conduction, capillary action, and convection currents. They demonstrate the difference between chemical and physical processes, such as melting, vaporization, incandescence, and all types of combustion. And the lectures reveal the properties of hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon dioxide, including their relative masses and the makeup of the atmosphere. The lectures wrap up with a grand, and startling, analogy: by understanding the chemical behavior of a candle the reader can grasp the basics of respiration. To help readers understand Faraday’s key points this book has an “Essential Background” section that explains in modern terms how a candle works, introductory guides for each lecture written in contemporary language, and seven student activities with teaching guides.
Author Bios
Bill Hammack is a Professor of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Illinois-Urbana, where he focuses on educating the public about engineering and science. He is the creator and host of the popular KZbin channel engineerguyvideo.
Don DeCoste is a Specialist in Education in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Illinois-Urbana, where he teaches freshmen and pre-service high school chemistry teachers. He is the co-author of four chemistry textbooks.

[@Minzkraut]

These videos feel like something you'd purchase for $50. They are so well made and carefully crafted with all the detail and extras like commentarys or edits, yet offered for free without cutting any content. And all I can do is buy the books/become an advanced viewer and say thank you for putting so much effort into this. Seriously, thank you.

[@jaredhared]

Well he IS and engineer

[@joebspixel5a941]

I love his videos

[@andrewhooper7603]

A book/dvd/candle gift set would be choice.

[@dandrewno2453]

I have no interest whatsoever in candles. I am watching all of these videos at 2am and cannot stop.

[@fhhfhdfdhhdhhdfhdf138]

it's 2:14am here, incredible

[@davidcooper2589]

BURNING CANDLES AT 3 AM *COPS CALLED* *ALMOST DIED* *NOT CLICKBAIT*

[@4.0.4]

I'm not a native speaker, and I must say, the language here is lovely! This is the English everyone should still be using, it shines with passion as well as intellect! It was also more than just understandable, it communicated things on a deeper level, reminded me of how Feynman was good with words.

[@4.0.4]

(I know this was Faraday, what I meant is him and Feynman seem to have both been just as good in didactics)

[@fmlAllthetime]

The vast majority of people never spoke like this and never will. There is still amazing speakers out there, they're just rare, hence the respect they're given.

[@4.0.4]

+fmlAllthetime I know, but even educational material, speeches, youtubers, and more (people who usually did write down some script) speak in not just simplistic, but conversational English, to the point where finding something like this is rare. It seems to have been more common up to some point in the last century, maybe the youth of baby boomers?

[@RobertMoser]

It takes a powerful mind to condense truth into the fluid path of speech. And I agree with you; the words of Faraday have a mellifluous tone of rare and special quality. We can but aspire.

[@ryedj707]

It’s definitely smart and compelling speech. I feel sometimes though, faraday really repeats words a little too much in certain instances, and thus goes overboard.

[@carlospitcher4335]

It is a shame there is only a like button... I would press love it if possible. Great lecture, thank you very much, i{ll buy the e-book for sure

[@engineerguyvideo]

Thx very kind of you ...

[@egg19]

"I love you" "Thanks"

[@PhysicsOfParkour]

Thankyou for making something so Special and admirable from something seemingly simple and basic.

[@wirito]

Why buy the book when you can download it for free? To support, that's why. Let's all buy the book :)

[@abulfazal6500]

Share please, these videos need far more attention.

[@NiallOwenMcCusker]

Your scripts are like poetry to science. Excellent English and narrative in addition to the science!

[@DrLoverLover]

Faradays...

[@natalieobman5018]

Small complaint, but the original chemical history of a candle has an examination of 19th century candle making. I suppose it makes sense to remove it since few can claim to be friends with the town chandler, but some important connecting factors are also removed. For example, establishing or most likely re-establishing that the candle wick is cloth helped bring home the universality of physics during the towel demonstration. The capillary action of a candle is the same as the action of a towel, which is the same as when water moves up the skin when handwashing. This is part of why these lectures are so amazing. "Gravity holds worlds together and the fluid in a candle horizontal" is a good complete example. It shows the audience all things operate under the same set of laws, and subtly encourages listeners from then on to see the world differently. Still, these videos are absolutely amazing.

[@laurienicholas]

This series is an absolute work of art. Thank you for bringing this wonderful lecture to the a generation of people that would have otherwise had no idea of it's existence..

[@fzigunov]

That trick with the fuel vapor at 6:50 is amazing!!! Great lecture, Bill, loving it so far!

[@MCRmechanic]

"It is not the best looking thing, but the best acting thing". function over form was never so eloquently put.

[@ciphernemo]

Wow. There is beauty in the exhaustive depth at which physics and other sciences can be observed, theorized, tested, and demonstrated. Bill Hammack, thank you for such an amazing series of videos on an otherwise mundane topic that we typically take for granted.

[@jamesmiller2250]

Not just a new Engineerguy video, but a whole series. There goes my morning :)

[@DylanODonnell]

I think the language is a bit fast, but indeed charming and agree with it's preservation! This is the best thing to hit my youtube feed in ages, thank you.

[@engineerguyvideo]

It is Faraday's 19th century language: we thought of changing it, but then you use some of the "charm" or "essence" for faraday. So, instead we added subtitle, did a commentary version, and wrote a book to have viewers ....

[@DylanODonnell]

Agree completely .. it's a really compelling prose around the scientific exegesis and I think it works perfectly. Great job Bill!

[@Maltanx]

I have really no words to express how much i love this video, it just makes me want to know a lot more. Who could ever immagine that what seems to be an insignificant object such a candle could hide so much beauty? I'm really thankful for your great work, video like this just show how beautiful is the world. Thank you again, your work is very remarkable, i will never thank you enough for the passion and love you put in your videos

[@AdnanCucak]

I never thought a candle was so interesting, Im NEVER going to look at one the same again... Thanks Bill, your channel might not have a lot of videos for one thats been around so long but the content is Quality.

[@hogcia66]

Thank you so much for what you do here on KZbin. This is GOLD!

[@talonfortytwo2719]

It certainly must have been ignorance that compelled the few people to dislike this video. You do such great work on this channel. Now I have to go and watch all of the other lectures. I love this channel.

[@AdoringAdmirer]

"these good looking candles are bad burning ones." *proceeds to show the most ugly candles I have ever seen*

[@jlapham]

These lectures are originally from the 1800's. They updated the terminology, but kept as close to them as they could, while still being comprehensible to most people of today. The 'good looking candles' part was a tongue-in-cheek joke.

[@medimagery.]

Yes. But the flame is most of the beauty anyway. So you cannot take away from that.

[@kurtjohnson6464]

I have watched many of your videos and if you take the kind of passion you show in your videos into the classroom.... WOW ! I want to be a student ! I can see why you love Faraday's lecture and I think that you brought it to modern terms just enough to understand but not so much as to loose the the feel of Faraday. Mastering the compromise nicely! Excellent!!!

[@bosapiutsa3829]

To me 2:21 "It is not the best looking thing, but the best acting thing, which is the most advantageous to us" was enlightening!

[@EyeLean5280]

This is so beautifully written, like poetry! I'm always sad when I hear people say they don't like 19th century writing, that they find the language too hard. I even heard this once from a librarian! Strange how middle schoolers were once able to follow such prose but we assume we're too far removed from it and don't take the (actually rather small) effort to follow along with it.

[@jacobhempel1855]

Lots of hard work put into this magnificent video. I really love that they stuck with the poetic language from Faraday’s actual lecture, even if it makes content a bit more cryptic. It felt like I was transferred back in time to watch a lecture given by one of my favorite scientists. Thanks for this experience!

[@MrMrannoying]

I found a version of these lectures in my library and really like it so far. I had no idea faraday was a chemist as well. The lectures really are an example of his love for science and need to spread this information

[@l.gagnon3846]

Thank you for presenting all of these topics in such a fascinating way! You make the world even more beautiful.❤️

[@0Tanker0]

I love how so many fundamental aspects of physics on how the universe works can be explained through what most people would consider such simple objects that garner little attention.

[@ocediis]

My gosh! I'm fully amazed at just how fascinating a candle can be. You and you're producers really scored a win with this series. And I'm off to lecture 2!

[@larrybrown1824]

From back in time when professors actually knew how to write. Thank you engineerguy...I never dreamed a physics lecture could also be beautiful.

[@larrybrown1824]

Physical science lecture...not physics...

[@thyreen1]

Science and poetry. I love it! Thanks for all the effort you have put into this.

[@rarbiart]

I really admire this style of language. It's so beautiful hence dense, precise and exact.

[@reynalindstrom2496]

I really like this! Bill Hammack is so pedagogical and exciting to listen to! Thanks and love from Sweden!

[@MsCocohaha]

This is phenomenal. The content, both auditory and visual, is fantastic, informational, and wildly interesting. I'm so excited about candles.

[@polychronisrempoulakis3588]

Truly inspirational!! Watching this gave me for a moment the feeling that I was part of the audience of Faraday himself!! Thank you for the quality of education your channel provides.

[@bougies-encens-et-rituels]

I collect candles, old and new, and i wanted to buy this book. But your videos are better than reading the book. It's like attending a Physics class. Thanks!

[@supermanadamio]

This made me smile the whole way through. The beauty of the everyday revealed as the true complexity and elegance of the universe. And the prose is simply beautiful too.

[@eqlzr2]

I always knew Michael Faraday was a genyamus. ;-) I had to stop the vid while I typed this because it's quality and content requires a person's full attention. Waste not, want not.

[@natphinney6163]

Some have commented on the wording contained in this video as "difficult to follow" but I disagree. I could not, even for a second, turn away from the video not because it was to confusing or difficult, but because it was so poetic and beautiful! I could listen to you ALL DAY!

[@JackPassmore]

Bill, judging by the presentation you give here... you're an outstanding public speaker. I have a picture of you preparing for this video shoot by rehearsing Faraday's lectures around your house in your underpants! Were it not for for you (and your cohort of pedagogues) ... I would never, could never... have access to this wonderful material! Thank You Dude!

[@ironchef3500]

I assume/hope you are a teacher. You are so good at explaining things.

[@engineerguyvideo]

I am. I teach at the University of Illinois.

[@ironchef3500]

Awesome.

[@rabiaaslam3186]

And you are eloquent like a poet ...

[@Rodviet]

Fascinating. Never thought candles were so complex! Thank you for all the examples

[@phooesnax]

Great stuff. A very lasting and viewed for many years upload. Glad to have seen it.

[@leroyreynolds7366]

There are some truly remarkable people and fascinating times throughout history. Thank you for this, it was fascinating to watch and listen to, you did a wonderful job!

[@JAMWITCH]

Michael Faraday made the greatest scientific lecture of all time, I see why you presented this material with such attention to detail, as a classical violinist might approach Bach, with such respect and awe

[@osamaao]

Brilliant inspiring lecture and amazing teacher! all respect!

[@jiyeongkim3760]

1:26 before I watched this video, I did not know why the edge of candle much cooler than the part within, but through this video I realized that as the air comes moves upwards by the force of current which the heat of the candle produces, and it so cools all the sides of the wax, as to keep the edge much cooler than the part within. I learned a lot about candles through your video, thank you for make this video!

[@rickmalone9122]

Thoughtfully presented with language formed as art. If you struggle with this description, imagine if you had the vocabulary to understand each word. You would find it an amazing story that you could picture with your eyes closed. Thanks Bill.

[@evilferris]

Good lord, this is poetry! Turn on captions and follow along @ 8:02... Both sides of my brain engaged at once. Brilliant!

[@MarvinStroud3]

In 1952 L.T. (Pete) Ferguson taught physics at Ray High School in Corpus Christi, Texas. He was by far the best teacher I ever had. He used this method of lecture plus demonstration. Thank you for this learning experience and memorial. Rest In Peace, Pete.

[@jjohnson137]

Great video, love the language! I believe Faraday would love this version of his lecture.

[@MM-cz8zt]

You have produced a marvelous lecture! I particularly like the depth of the simple experiments. :)

[@luclaviolette6612]

Amazing! Hours I spent as a kid soaking a burnt match in the hot wax, blowing out the candle and re-lighting it with the wax laden match over the hot fumes, lighting the candle and repeating the process.

[@feelingzhakkaas]

Excellent lecture series. Wish we had teachers like you in our days. My grandchild could grasp and understand the scientific points very easily. Thanks a lot Sir. You are really Blessed.

[@vabels54]

Thank you!!! It is fantastic to show the big things in the "small" things!

[@flyingl1393]

My older sister did this course years ago and now I am super excited to start :D

[@HeineBrgesen]

Thank you for this! It is beautiful!

[@mikeall7012]

thank you for this channel. it is amazingly entertaining

[@DutchKid121]

This is some very good inspiration before my thermodynamics class. Thank you!

[@dcmurphy5157]

I've been watching this Engineer Guy's videos for enternainment and facination of technology. I was very happy when the Chemistry teacher had us watch these lectures for school.

[@3dmonkeybizz]

Proof that if you are going to do something then do it right! Thanks so much for this series!

[@MagicGate814]

this is so informative. I've always wanted to know how the candles work.

[@Flornmonk]

You are a wonderful teacher, Bill!

[@p07a]

Thank you so much for producing this!

[@blabby102]

I can't wait to see all of these!

[@danieldonkersloot3565]

I'm personally very grateful to be able to step back in time and hear Faraday himself. While the language is of course not exactly what we are used to, it isn't pretentious or needlessly fluffy. It flows like poetry, all while describing the various phenomenon with a kind of contagious enthusiasm through his carefully chosen words.

[@engineerguyvideo]

We came to a similar conclusion after working with the text for a while .... that's why I hope people give these time.

[@Gameplayer529]

This sounds like poetry almost. Much love Mr. Hammack!

[@likheshsharma]

In the spirit of your work I have borrowed the words of my fellow commentators and edited them so that they express my views but in their words- I have really no words to express how much i love this video, it just makes me want to know a lot more. Who could ever imagine that what seems to be an insignificant object such a candle could hide so much beauty? I'm really thankful for your great work, video like this just show how beautiful is the world. They are so well made and carefully crafted with all the detail and extras like commentary , yet offered for free without cutting any content. And all I can do is buy the books/become an advanced viewer and say thank you for putting so much effort into this. It is a shame there is only a like button... I would press love it if possible. Great lecture, thank you very much, i will buy the e-book for sure

[@mythbusterman8541]

Superb i love Faradays original Language I have always admired the eloquence with which distinguished men of his time expressed themselves before modern slang adulterated the English language

[@DevinHeaps]

Beautiful and brilliant. Thank you.

[@hanbeepark]

6:54 This experiment was very interesting because I didn't know about it before. And you explained how it works, so it was easier to understand the experiment that the fire goes through the air to the candle.

[@Pants4096]

One part poetry, one part science, one part history... ALL PARTS WONDERFUL!

[@scambroselauntrellus3681]

Informative, and the prose is beautiful.

[@redbarond1]

His speech pattern is amazing. It is so soothing to hear him talk in such a manner.

[@KeldWolf]

This is a pleasure to listen to. Should all science lectures and videos be so eloquently spoken.

[@engineerguyvideo]

Those are, of course, the words of Michael Faraday ... we modified them very little.

[@KeldWolf]

@@engineerguyvideo well and true enough and well written words they are, but I stand by my comment of them being well spoken. I appreciate the clarification regardless. Enjoy all your work, keep it up.

[@jlrinc1420]

Great narration. Really gives a sense of what the originals must have been like. This was when you could do science without a billion dollar collider.

[@danielpowell9891]

Elegant eloquent subtle poetry like the radiance of the candle.

[@yifanl]

It's been a long time since your last upload. Please keep making these amazing videos

[@jmh1425]

Enjoyed that very much.

[@somethingelse7431]

I think I've seen just about every one of your videos, can't believe I didn't stumble upon the candle series. I love it! You need a patreon account. I feel guilty about liking your videos so much because I don't want to buy the book. But I would like to help fund more of them.

[@davidg3874]

Beautifully done!

[@SilverWrinkly]

Wonderful. Magic. Thank you.

[@karinasharpe4754]

6:52 I acctually never knew how it could work like that and I was always confused seeing people do it, but the explanation made it so much clearer for me to understand. It's like an invisible candle wix that connects to the acctual wix. And I also never knew there would be such a relationship between airflow and the way a candle lights. I always thought the puddle of melted wax was there because that's where the flame was, not because of the air flow.

[@nickyyyyy]

Amazing work, thank u.

[@pyromen321]

Seriously, though, amazing video! (As always!) I was going to go to sleep, but now I luckily have this series to watch

[@redbarond1]

You will never be able to sleep if you start watching his videos. They are so great, you always have to watch "just one more."

[@vivek4521able]

Amazing lecture so far, brings back memories of doing these experiments in high school!

[@engineerguyvideo]

My co-creator, Don DeCoste, and I were astonished to see how many of the demonstrations used in high school and freshman chemistry came from these lectures -- Don teaches intro chemistry here at Illinois.

[@jpstenino]

SO... HERE WE HAVE THE SHAKESPEARE OF SCIENCE. Absolutely magnificent and grand thank you

[@BoboDoboRobo]

When you're trying to meet your essay word count

[@guest_informant]

There's something to that, of course. But I wonder if there's a deeper point. Perhaps, in the modern era science has become baldly utilitarian, functional. I wonder if these lectures are more in the spirit of the Feynman quote about understanding _adding_ to the beauty of a flower. Perhaps that is how knowledge and understanding were viewed at the time: as something to be celebrated.

[@SiddharthSharma15]

Read the quick overview in the book. Much better.

[@vincentleone4959]

There is definitely beauty in the details.

[@scur-ow]

He explains the complicated interactions so poetically, I love it

[@MikePulcinellaVideo]

The way intelligent people used to write when attention spans weren’t so short as they are now. Not everything can be explained in a 30 second sound bite.

[@user-xj9re7gv5g]

*That is brilliant! Thank you so much!*

[@Farenheit_]

awesome!! I though I had to wait! you're just awesome

[@jacquedreyer5479]

Absolutely love it!

[@derchesten]

wow this bunch o videos seem like have been there sitting on an archive collecting dust waiting to be picked up again for a long time, this is the original haircut for the first video series... wow! glad you picked them up again!

[@engineerguyvideo]

Indeed the series has been in production for quite a while.

[@derchesten]

you really did a wonderful thing picking it up again, the lectures really fascinated me, and the soothness of your voice plus the patience of the explaining really immersed me into the subject. what a beautiful experience

[@wheatgrowssweet]

Beautiful. Thanks for keeping the original language.

[@engineerguyvideo]

Thx. We worried greatly about that ... to remove it seemed to diminish the lectures.

[@wheatgrowssweet]

By retaining it you have given us not only a lecture on science but on history, which is the essence of the engineerguy channel.

[@nikoligogle3153]

You proved that there are still good people out there.

[@BigJohn4516]

The use of the English language of the late 18th and early 19th century, Faraday’s time, was so much more poetic and lyrical than how it is used today.

[@jenniferlawrence8516]

Thank you for this!!

[@bmbirdsong]

This was awesome!

[@shashiranjan71]

Really it's Beautiful Thank you sir

[@Skans-Gustav]

Wonderful eloquence and that from engineer. Thanks for the interesting lecture, describing a candle in a way that is approaching poetry. Your lectures are a thing of beauty. Please keep it up.

[@engineerguyvideo]

Those are, of course, Micheal Faradays words ....

[@MaD1ck]

Love your poetic speech

[@feelingzhakkaas]

Can I show these lecture series to school students in villages... who does not have privileges to access Computers ?

[@engineerguyvideo]

+Prakash Kamath of course

[@angelawalker9002]

Very interesting and well taught 🤓

[@shodanxx]

Relighting the extinguished flame deserves a proper high speed shot. Ask Justin from Smarter Everyday ! Really excellent videos !

[@engineerguyvideo]

+shodanxx indeed it did need one ...

[@onkarmohite7560]

sorry but he's destin sandlin.

[@gizmo2445]

this channel is one of those rare Magic Channels, existing perfectly between under produced and over produced as well as perfectly professional but without pompousness. I'am so sad the last upload was 8 months ago :C

[@engineerguyvideo]

my second son was born about eight months ago ... was back in the studio a bit last week, hope to get back in their more soon.

[@thisisbullshit20]

yo yo yo , Michael Faraday was the bomb , dawg !