The Bakerian lecture. - The combustion of hydrocarbons

Abstract

The question of how a hydrocarbon is attacked by oxygen in combustion has always been of great interest to chemists; and now that the motive power for aircraft and road vehicles is derived from hydrocarbon-air explosions it is being studied also by engineers the world over. The occasion is therefore opportune for its discussion, and as present-day investigators seem none too familiar with the work of former times, in what follows I will endeavour to review the principal discoveries, to illustrate some of them experimentally, and to consider certain theories concerning them. And I would stress the impor­tance of viewing the subject widely, because what is most needed to-day is a balanced judgment embracing the whole range of conditions from those of slow combustion right up through flames and explosions under high pressures to detonation.