Abnormality of Flame Gases

Abstract

IT is becoming increasingly recognized that flame gases (that is, the gases left behind after flame has travelled through an inflammable mixture) hold a latent energy (which may amount to as much as 20 percent of the heat of combustion or even more), and in virtue of this an abnormal amount of dissociation obtains in them¹. In the absence of surface, the latent energy has an exceedingly long life. It has been observed to exist in sensibly undiminished amount for at least 0.5 sec. Luminosity experiments indicate that it still persists even after 14 sec. (and probably much longer) ; and it survives the cooling of the flame gases by adiabatic expansion, for subsequent recompression restores the luminosity². It seems clear that it resides in the newly formed tri-atomic molecules as an excess of intra-molecular energy held in some manner or other in very stable fashion. It was suggested that a proportion of these molecules are meta-stable molecules probably of abnormal structure²—a proportion which varies with the conditions obtaining during combustion, for the amount of latent energy varies with these conditions³.