George Biddell Airy to Faraday   3 December 1860

1860 December 3

My dear Sir

Can you assist me in the following matter of lamp-lighting.

I want to use the optical image of a common gas-burner, not an Argand (which the mobility and inclinations and other circumstances do not permit) but the common fish-tail, by whatever name known. Now a large portion of this flame is black, thus which gives me a most inconveniently shaped image. Now can you contrive to make vivid combustion go on there? I suppose that the air is there combining with the gas, and not yet sufficiently combined. Can you supply the air before the gas emerges into expanse, so that it will be ready to blaze at once? Or can any thing else be done?

I am, my dear Sir, | Yours most truly | G.B. Airy

Professor Faraday