Page:On the various forces of nature and their relations to each other.djvu/116

112 tube was broken at the end, and the lead poured out on to a piece of paper, whereupon it immediately took fire.] Look, look at the lead burning; why, it has set fire to the paper! Now, that is nothing more than the common affinity always existing between very clean lead and the atmospheric oxygen; and the reason why this iron does not burn until it is made red-hot is, because it has got a coating of oxide about it, which stops the action of the oxygen—putting a varnish, as it were, upon its surface, as we varnish a picture, absolutely forming a substance which prevents the natural chemical affinity between the bodies from acting.

I must now take you a little further in this kind of illustration—or consideration, I would rather call it—of chemical affinity. This attraction between different particles exists also most curiously in cases where they are previously combined with other substances. Here is a little chlorate of potash, containing the oxygen which we found yesterday could be procured from it. It contains the oxygen there combined and held down by its chemical affinity with other things; but still it can combine with