Bunsen Burner In Chemistry Lab

Bunsen Burner In Chemistry Lab Bunsen Burner In Chemistry Lab Bunsen burner, device for combining a flammable gas with controlled amounts of air before ignition; it produces a hotter flame than would be possible using the ambient air and gas alone. Named for Robert Bunsen, the German chemist who introduced it in 1855 (from a design by Peter Desdega, who likely modified an earlier design by Michael Faraday), the Bunsen burner was the forerunner of the gas-stove burner and the gas furnace. The Bunsen burner consists of a metal tube on a base with a gas inlet at the lower end of the tube, which may have an adjusting valve; openings in the sides of the tube can be regulated by a collar to admit as much air as desired. The mixture of air and gas (optimally about 1 part gas to 3 parts air) is forced by gas pressure to the top of the tube, where it is ignited with a match. It burns with a pale blue flame, the primary flame, seen as a small inner cone, and a secondary, almost colourless flame, seen as a larger, outer cone, which results when the remaining gas is completely oxidized by the surrounding air. Bunsen burner.Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.