Who is the Bunsen burner named after?
A
Bunsen burner is a gas burner used in chemical laboratories to heat substances
for various experiments and in microbiology laboratories to sterilize pieces of
equipment and for heating and boiling.
Basically,
it is a small gas burner with an adjustable flame, manipulated at the base by
controlling the amount of gas and air admitted.
It
is named after German chemist Robert Wilhelm Bunsen (1811–1899), who developed
the present device by modifying the designs of burners invented by his
contemporaries- Michael Faraday and R Weisner.
The
Bunsen burner consists of a metal tube fixed over a stand and connected to the
gas supply by a rubber tube.
There
are two adjustable openings at the base to control the flow of air and gas.
The
gas (which can be methane or LPG) mixes with air at the bottom of the tube and
then rises to the top of the burner, where it can be lit with a match or lighter.
When
the air hole is open, a hot blue roaring flame, with a blue cone in the middle,
is produced.
The
hottest point is just above this cone.
