Lampas, or Descriptions of Mechanical Improvements of Lamps and Waterpoises

Now, apply the flame of a lamp or candle—or any other extremely hot substance, such as a glowing piece of iron, copper, or something similar—to this wick, which is now filled with oil. By this means, the parts of the oil in the wick will be heated significantly and expand into vapors in the nearby original: "contiguous" air, forming the streams h h h h h and filling all the surrounding original: "Ambient" airspace H H. These vapors, being highly rarefied thinned out or made less dense and consequently lighter than the surrounding air, are carried upward along the curved lines h i k by the air's greater weight and pressure.

At first, these vapors gush out of the wick at right angles, but they are quickly pushed by the air into a kind of parabolic curve h i k. The motion of the particles within this curve is fastest at k k—that is, at a certain height original: "Altitude". The speed of their ascent increases in a manner somewhat similar to how heavy objects accelerate as they fall. I say "somewhat" because if the rising vapors were consistently lighter than the surrounding air, the math would be identical; however, since their density original: "rarefaction" and nature change depending on the circumstances, the comparison original: "Analogy" is only partially accurate.

To continue with the explanation: I maintain that these rising streams of oil, if heated enough, are "preyed upon" and dissolved or burned by the surrounding air. This dissolution the process of the oil chemically reacting with the air, which we now call combustion has several effects. First, it produces light. Second, it produces enough heat to warm the following streams of vapor rushing out of the wick, preparing them to be dissolved by the air in turn. The heat from that reaction then triggers the same process in a third stream, then a fourth, then a fifth, and so on—continuing as long as there is oil vapor to be dissolved and plenty of fresh, "unsatisfied" original: "unsatiated"; meaning air that has not yet reacted with fuel and is still capable of supporting combustion air to dissolve it.

This chemical reaction also generates enough heat to pull the next portion of oil up into the wick and expand it into vapors, making it ready to be further heated and dissolved. Furthermore, it can be observed in a lamp's flame that those vapors...