Generally, the burner is placed underneath a laboratory tripod, which supports a beaker or other container. The burner will often be placed on a suitable heatproof mat to protect the laboratory bench surface.

Key Terms

• Bunsen burner: lab equipment that creates flame for various uses.
• Barrel: the space above the fuel for the burner’s flame.
• Collar: the area at the bottom of the burner.
• Air holes: aid in controlling the flow of oxygen into the barrel.
• Gas intake: the area that connects burner to the fuel.

Using a Bunsen Burner When the air vent of a Bunsen burner is closed, air for the combustion reaction is only coming from the area near the top of the burner. As a result, incomplete combustion occurs and elemental carbon is produced. The temperature of the flame is lower and it is a bright yellow, candle-like flame.

base

While blue represents cooler colors to most, it is the opposite in fires, meaning they are the hottest flames. When all flame colors combine, the color is white-blue which is the hottest. Most fires are the result of a chemical reaction between a fuel and oxygen called combustion.

The hotter the flame, the lighter the color. White or light gray smoke is usually associated with paper, straw, leaves, or wood. It is formed of pyrolysis products (gasses, liquids, and tars) that condense to form a fog of tiny droplets that bypass the flame.

Brown smoke is usually a sign that untreated wood is burning, meaning the fire has grown from being a room and contents type event to a structural event where the rafters and building itself are burning, Dodson said.

Different chemicals react with fire to produce different colored flames because the electrons moving around the nucleus have different energy levels in each element. Each element has different amounts of extra energy, producing different colors.

The red-orange smoke plume was one of the first clues that ammonium nitrate was involved in the explosion in Beirut. Many chemists on Twitter identified that color as being a signature of NO2 gas, possibly produced from the incomplete decomposition of ammonium nitrate.

Thick, black smoke indicates heavy fuels that are not being fully consumed. At times, black smoke can be an indicator that a manmade material is burning such as tires, vehicles or a structure. As a general rule, the darker the smoke, the more volatile the fire is.

The color of the smoke depends on the material that is burning. Natural materials such as unfinished wood will change to tan or brown colored smoke, whereas plastics and painted surfaces appear to be grey in color. However, black smoke can appear grey when it is mixed with moisture from other heated materials.

If unpleasant things are said about someone or something, there is probably a good reason for it: She says the accusations are not true, but there’s no smoke without fire.

used for saying that if something bad is being said about someone, or if something seems bad, then there is probably a good reason for it. Look, he’s a nice guy, but there’s no smoke without fire. Synonyms and related words. Expressions used when repeating your own or someone else ‘s words. I hear/I’ve heard.

—used to say that if people are saying that someone has done something wrong there is usually a good reason for what they are saying.

If someone says there’s no smoke without fire or where there’s smoke there’s fire, they mean that there are rumours or signs that something is true so it must be at least partly true.