Happy Sesquicentennial: The Chemical History of a Candle

I propose to bring before you, in the course of these lectures, the Chemical History of a Candle. There is no better, there is no more open door by which you can enter into the study of natural philosophy than by considering the physical phenomena of a candle.--Michael Faraday, introduction to lecture 1

This is my all time favorite DIY science book. 150 years ago, the great Faraday (and I do mean great; I don't believe there has been an experimental scientist of his ability since) gave a series of lectures for school children at London's Royal Institution. In six lectures he explained many mysteries of chemistry and physics using a wax candle and some very simple props. The text for all six lectures are available for free online. I am still looking for an online edition that contains the drawings, which are pretty important.

• [guszkowska]

  his greatness dims in comparison to to daniel faraday.

• [Camp Freddie]

  This is great. And to think they replaced Faraday on the £20 GBP note with Edward Elgar.

• [cellocgw]

  In fact you can get a pdf or epub of the entire original edition (scanned) from google book search.

• [Anonymous]

  It’s digitized through HathiTrust and available for free

  http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015023996153

• [Neill S Mitchell Esq.]

  And so Mr.F’s idea of lectures for children continue, I look forward to them each year.

  http://www.rigb.org/contentControl?id=00000001882&action=displayContent

• [Kurt]

  Have you tried Google Books? You can even download a PDF.

• [efergus3]

  And Mr. Pepples (he didn’t like doctor) at CBHS promised us that at the end of his physics course, we would understand what ‘light’ was. Heady stuff.

• [Shazbot]

  Reading the text is like reading a Charles Dickens remix of Bill Nye.

• [Simeon]

  I pass a statue of Faraday almost every day and always give him a tip of the hat.