 Preface of the Chemical History of a Candle This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Ava'i in March 2011. A course of six lectures on the Chemical History of a Candle, to which is added a lecture on Platinum by Michael Faraday, DCL, FRS, Fallarian Professor of Chemistry, Royal Institution, Foreign Associate of the Academy of Sciences, etc. Delivered before a juvenile auditory at the Royal Institution of Great Britain during the Christmas holidays of 1860 to 1861. Edited by William Crookes, FCS, with numerous illustrations. Preface. From the primitive pine torch to the paraffin candle, how wide an interval, between them how vast contrast. The means adopted by man to illuminate his home at night, stamp at once his position in the scale of civilization. The fluid bitumen of the far east, blazing in rude vessels of baked earth. The Etruscan lamp, exquisite in form, yet ill-adapted to its office. The whale, seal, or bare-fed, filling the hut of the Eskimo or lap with odor rather than light. The huge wax candle on the glittering altar, the range of gas lamps in our streets, all have their stories to tell. All, if they could speak, and after their own manner they can, might warm our hearts in telling how they have ministered to man's comfort, love of home, toil and devotion. Surely among the millions of fire-worshippers and fire-users who have passed away in earlier ages, some have pondered over the mystery of fire. Perhaps some clear minds have guessed truly near the truth. Think of the time man has lived in hopeless ignorance. Think that only during a period which might be spent by the life of one man has the truth been known. Atom by atom, link by link, has the reasoning chain been forged. Some links too quickly and too slightly made have given way and been replaced by better work, but now the great phenomena are known. The outline is correctly and firmly drawn. Cunning artists are filling in the rest, and the child who masters these lectures knows more of fire than Aristotle. The candle itself is now made to light up the dark places of nature.