In five videos I share with you Michael Faraday’s
great nineteenth lecture series “The Chemical
History of a Candle.” Faraday said of a
candle: “There is no more open door by which
you can enter into the study of science than
by considering the physical phenomena of a
candle.” Even now, 150 years after Faraday
delivered his lectures, one would be hard
pressed to find an object of study that would
equal a candle. Through a careful examination
of a burning candle, Faraday reveals the concepts
of mass, density, heat conduction, capillary
action, and convection currents. He demonstrates
the difference between chemical and physical
processes. He reveals the properties of hydrogen,
oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon dioxide. And,
in a stunning final lecture, he uses a candle
to explain human respiration. In creating
these video we used Faraday’s original language
because his poetic turns of phrases charmed
us. We changed his words only when necessary.
We updated terminology, especially chemical
terms and we replaced some demonstrations
with modern or safer ones. Even with these
changes the lectures can be a challenge for
the modern viewer and so to help today’s
viewers appreciate the lectures my co-creators
and I have done three things. First, we created
an alternate version of each lecture that
has a commentary track. In the commentary
my co-creator, Don DeCoste, and I guide viewers
through the lectures highlighting the concepts
underlying Faraday’s demonstrations. And,
second, we added captions to all the videos,
including the commentary versions. And third,
we wrote a companion book for this video series
that is available as a PDF for free. The book
contains the complete transcript of each lecture
as delivered in the video series. To help
you grasp Faraday’s key points it has an
“Essential Background” section that explains
in modern terms how a candle works. And, each
lecture is preceded by a short guide written
in contemporary language. These guides mirror
the lectures chronologically so you can follow
while watching the lectures. In addition the
book has a detailed teaching guide. Faraday
aimed his lectures toward those new to science,
especially young people. His lectures remain
today an excellent introduction to the scientific
method and serve well as an entry point to
the chemical sciences. The teaching guide
contains a section called "The Big Ideas of
Chemistry,” which uses simple analogies
to introduce younger students to the particulate
nature of matter. Following this, the guide
contains six activities and one set of demonstrations
that teachers can use to help students investigate
for themselves “the chemical history of
a candle.” Each activity has a student worksheet
followed by a teacher’s guide. Teachers
can use these guides and student worksheets
for free. We give you the complete book free
as a PDF — you can download the book at
engineerguy.com/faraday — or you can buy
it as an ebook, in paperback or hardcover.
So, I hope you enjoy the lectures. For me
and my co-creators, Don DeCoste and Alex Black
they were a labor of love. I’m Bill Hammack,
the engineer guy.
