What is cold flame. In some exhibitions i have seen flames which doesnt burn. How is it formed? What is the principle?

 

Thanks

a cold flame? my unenlightened mind can barely process the idea. i wouldn't think you could have a cold flame! then again, flame is in itself a chemical reaction to heat... so if you had the right chemicals (ones with a low burning point) you could have a cold flame...

I believe carbon tetrachloride could burn at a low enough temperature that it wouldn't "harm" your hand, per se (i.e. won't be hot enough to burn your hand).

 

Of course, you'd have to contend with the toxicity of carbon tetrachloride instead...

a brandy flame doesn't do much scorching.

the thing that's important is the amount of heat the liquid soaks up as it evaporates.

brandy evaporates fast enough to make a layer of cold alchohol vapour between the flame and the substance. the object soaked in brandy stays cold while the flame can boil water.

if the liquid thats 'burning'(its actualy the vapour just above the liquid) has a boiling point around room temperature or even around 60*C like methanol then it won't burn you. it wil be warm or hot but not intolerably so.

I believe carbon tetrachloride could burn at a low enough temperature that it wouldn't "harm" your hand, per se (i.e. won't be hot enough to burn your hand).

 

Of course, you'd have to contend with the toxicity of carbon tetrachloride instead...

 

Carbon Tetrachloride was once widely used in fire EXTINGUISHERS to put out fires, before it's toxicity was considered excessive. How then, could it "burn" in the ordinary sense of that word? imp

Carbon Tetrachloride was once widely used in fire EXTINGUISHERS to put out fires, before it's toxicity was considered excessive. How then, could it "burn" in the ordinary sense of that word? imp

 

As I said, I was not sure what the chemical was. Unfortunately, my memory fails me at this time, and indeed, it does not seem as if CCl₄ is the correct chemical.

Smithell's cold flame?

 

http://www.lateralscience.co.uk/phos/index.html

 

And here's your daily dose of Cthulhu mythos:

"But what frightened me most was that flaming column; spouting volcanically from depths profound and inconceivable, casting no shadows as healthy flame should, and coating the nitrous stone with a nasty, venomous verdigris. For in all that seething combustion no warmth lay, but only the clamminess of death and corruption." (The Festival, H.P. Lovecraft)

Nice link Gilded, I enjoyed reading that myself, Thanks

thanks to all

 

Murulidhara