Comparative studies of the slow combustion of methane, methyl alcohol, formaldehyde, and formic acid

Abstract

Although the occurrence of a well-defined “induction period” in the slow combustion of gaseous hydrocarbons is now well-established, and something is known about the variation of its duration with such factors as temperature, pressure, mixture-composition, and surface/volume ratio, we are still much in the dark as to its real significance in relation to the mechanism of hydrocarbon-combustion. It has been found that sometimes the induction period may be lengthened by increasing the surface/volume ratio of the reaction vessel, that it may be shortened by raising the temperature or increasing the pressure of the reacting medium, and that for any particular hydrocarbon its duration at a given temperature and pressure depends on the hydrocarbon-oxygen ratio, being always shortest with a 2: 1, i. e ., the alcohol-forming, ratio as was shown in Table III of the Bakerian Lecture of 1932 ( q. v .).