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LESSON 14 The chemistry of a candle(I)
第十四课 蜡烛的化学组成(一)
"And now, uncle," asked Harry, who was a favourite with the old gentleman, "can you tell me what you do when you put a candle out?"
“现在,叔叔,”哈利问,这个深受老绅士喜爱的男孩子,“你能告诉我当时你在做什么吗当你把蜡烛扑灭时?
"Put an extinguisher on it, you young rogue, to be sure."
“把一个灭火器扑在上面,你年轻时调皮捣蛋,肯定也这样。”
"Oh, but I mean, you cut off its supply of oxygen," said Master Harry.
“哦,但我的意思是,你切断了它的氧气供应,”精通的哈利说。
"Cut off its what?"
“切断它的什么?
"He means something he heard at the Royal Institution," observed Mrs. Wilkinson. "He reads a great deal about chemistry, and he attended Professor Faraday's lectures there on the chemical history of a candle, and has been full of it ever since."
“他的意思是他在皇家机构听到的一些事情,“威尔金森太太评述说。“他读了很多关于化学的内容,他参加了法拉第教授关于蜡烛的化学史的讲座,从此之后脑中尽是它了。”
"Now, you, sir," said Uncle Bagges, "come you here to me, and tell me what you have to say about this chemical. eh?—or comical, which?—this—comical chemical history of a candle."
“现在，你，先生，”叔叔Bagges说,“你到我这里来,告诉我你关于这种化学物质你想说的话。好吗?——或者是好笑的,?——这个——蜡烛好玩的化学历史。”
"Harry, don't be troublesome to your uncle," said Mr Wilkinson.
“哈利,别麻烦你叔叔,”威尔金森先生说。
"Troublesome? Oh, not at all. I like to hear him."
“麻烦?噢,一点也不。我喜欢听他说。”
"Let us get a wax candle then, uncle. There's one on the mantle-shelf. Let me light it."
“让我们拿一个蜡烛,叔叔。被盖着的架子上有一个。让我点亮它。”
"Take care you don't burn your fingers, or set anything on fire," said Mrs Wilkinson.
“小心不要烧到你的手,或让任何东西着火,”威尔金森太太说。
"Now, uncle," commenced Harry, having drawn his chair to the side of Mr. Bagges, "we have got our candle burning. Look down on the top of it, around the wick. See, it is a little cup full of melted wax. The heat of the flame has melted the wax just round the wick. The cold air keeps the outside of it hard, so as to make the rim of it. The melted wax in the little cup goes up through the wick to be burned, just as oil does in the wick of a lamp. What do you think makes it go up, uncle?"
“现在,叔叔,”哈利正式开始,将他的椅子的拖到Bagges先生的身边,“我们让我们的蜡烛燃烧。向下看着它的顶部，大约是灯芯。看,这是一个小杯熔化的蜡。火焰的高温融化的蜡仅仅在灯芯周围。外面的冷空气让外面的部分仍旧坚硬,为了形成它的边缘。这小杯熔化的蜡通过燃烧灯芯上升,就像在一盏灯的灯芯中的油。你认为什么使它上升的,叔叔?”
"Why—why, the flame draws it up, doesn't it?"
“为什么——为什么，火焰让它下来的,不是吗?”
"Not exactly, uncle. It goes up through little tiny passages in the cotton wick, because very, very small channels, or pipes, or pores, have the power in themselves of sucking up liquids. What they do it by is called capillary attraction;—just as a sponge sucks up water, or a bit of lump-sugar the little drop of tea or coffee left in the bottom of a cup.
“不完全是,叔叔。它升起是通过小段的棉芯,因为非常,非常小的通道,或管道,或气孔,本身有能力吸收液体。它们这样做叫做微吸收;——就像海绵吸水,或一小块糖放到茶或咖啡里时会掉到杯子的底部。
"Now, I'll blow the candle out; not to be in the dark, but to find out what it is.—Look at the smoke rising from the wick. I'll hold a bit of lighted paper in the smoke so as not to touch the wick. But see, for all that, the candle lights again! So this shows that the melted wax sucked up through the wick is turned into vapour, and the vapour burns. The heat of the burning vapour keeps on melting more wax, and that is sucked up too within the flame, and turned into vapour and burned; and so on till the wax is all used up and the candle is gone. So the flame, uncle, you see, is the last of the candle; and the candle seems to go through the flame into nothing, although it doesn't, but goes into several things;—and isn't it curious, as Professor Faraday said, that the candle should look so splendid and glorious in going away?
“现在,我要吹蜡烛了,不是在黑暗中,但去发现那是什么——看从灯芯上升起的烟。我将一小张点燃纸放在烟的上面,以免碰到灯芯。但你看,尽管如此,蜡烛复燃了!这表明,熔化的蜡通过灯芯的吸收变成蒸汽,并且蒸汽燃烧了。燃烧的热蒸汽继续融化着蜡,这是因为吸收了太多的热量,就变成蒸汽并燃起来了,所以直到蜡都用尽，蜡烛才是消失了。所以这火焰,叔叔,你看,是蜡烛最后留下来的,蜡烛似乎经过火焰燃烧什么都没了,其实没有,它至少变成了几件事;——这不是稀奇的,法拉第教授说,蜡烛看起来应该如此灿烂和辉煌的消失?
