"But,"proceeded Harry, "there is more in the candle-flame than the gas that comes out of the candle. You know a candle won't burn without air. There must be always air around the gas, and touching it, as it were, to make it burn. If a candle hasn't got enough of air it goes out, or burns badly, so that some of the vapour inside of the flame comes out through it in the form of smoke; and this is the reason of a candle smoking. So now you know why a great clumsy dip smokes more than a neat wax candle: it is because the thick wick of the dip makes too much fuel in proportion to the air that can get to it.
“但是,”哈利继续说,“相对与蜡烛产生的气体，这里有更多的是在烛焰里的。你知道蜡烛没有空气不会燃烧。必须时常有空气在气体周围,接触它,让它燃烧。如果蜡烛没有足够的空气它会熄灭,或烧的很糟糕,以致一些火焰内部的蒸汽通过烟雾的形式出来,这是蜡烛出烟的原因。所以现在你知道为什么一个浸润的厚芯出的烟超过一个干净整洁的蜡烛:那是因为浸润的厚芯使燃料在可得到的空气中占太大的比例。
"What should you say now," continued Harry, "if I were to tell you that the smoke that comes out of a candle is the very thing that makes a candle burn with a bright light? Yes; a candle shines by consuming its own smoke. The smoke of a candle is a cloud of small dust; and the little grains of dust are bits of charcoal, or carbon, as chemists call it. They are burned the moment they are made; and the place they are made in is the case of flame itself, where the strongest heat is. The great heat separates them from the gas which comes from the melted wax; and as soon as they touch the air on the outside of the thin case of flame they burn."
“现在你该说些什么,”哈利继续说,“如果我告诉你,蜡烛里出来的烟是让蜡烛燃烧着明亮灯光的重要东西?是的,蜡烛明亮是通过利用自己产生的烟。蜡烛的烟是一堆小的粉末尘埃组成,小颗粒的粉尘是少量木炭类,或碳，化学家这样叫它。它们产生的时候就燃烧了,而且他们产生的地方是在火焰本身燃烧的情况下,热量最强的地方。最大的热力将它们和那些从融化的蜡中来的气体分离，一旦接触外面稀薄的空气，他们会燃烧。”
"Can you tell me how it is that the little bits of carbon cause the brightness of the flame?" asked Mr. Wilkinson.
“你能告诉我为何小分子的碳会调节火焰的亮度吗?”威尔金森先生问。
"Because they are pieces of solid matter," answered Harry. "To make a flame shine, there must always be some solid, or at least dense, matter in it."
“因为他们是固体物质,”哈利回答。“让火焰闪光,必须时常有立体的,或者至少密集的,物质在里面。”
"Very good," said Mr. Bagges; "solid stuff necessary to brightness!"
Bagges先生说,“很好,立体的东西是亮度的必需!”
"Some gases and other things," resumed Harry, "that burn with a flame you can hardly see, burn splendidly when something solid is put into them. Hydrogen gas if blown through a pipe, burns with very little light; but if the flame is blown upon a piece of quick-lime, it gets so bright as to be quite dazzling. If you now send some oxygen on to the flame, the flame gets no brighter, but the lime shines like a little sun. Make the smoke of oil of turpentine pass through the same oxygen, and it gives the flame a beautiful brightness directly. Well, carbon, or charcoal, is what causes the brightness of all lamps, and candles, and other common lights; so, of course, there is carbon in what they are all made of."
“气体和其他一些东西“哈利继续,“火焰燃烧你几乎看不到,当某些固体物质加入里面时燃烧会变得耀眼。氢气体如果吹入管道,燃烧的光亮很小;但是,如果火焰吹在一块生石灰,它会变得明亮,很刺眼。如果你现在输一些氧气到火焰中,火焰不会变得更亮,但石灰燃烧得光如同小阳光。让松节油的烟雾通过相同的氧气,它确实会给出一簇漂亮明亮的火焰。好，碳分子,或木炭,是调控所有灯的亮度,还有蜡烛,和其他常见灯的原因;所以,当然,这些所有的都会产生碳。”
"So carbon is smoke, eh? and light is owing to your carbon. Giving light out of smoke, eh? as they say in the classics," observed Mr. Bagges.
“所以碳是烟,是吗?并且亮度是由你的碳调控。发光是用烟,是吗?正如他们在经典里所说的,”Bagges先生评述说。
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