Bunsen Burner

The Bunsen or Tirrell burner is commonly used in laboratory heating operations. While the details of construction vary among burners, each has a gas inlet located in the base, a vertical tube or barrel in which the gas is mixed with air, and an adjustable opening or ports in the base of the barrel to introduce air into the gas stream. The burner may have an adjustable needle valve to regulate the supply of gas, or adjusting the valve on the supply line may regulate the gas supply simply. The burner is always turned off at the gas valve, never at the needle valve. Take your burner apart and examine it. Compare the parts with the drawing in Fig. 1-1.

Put the parts together again and note particularly how you can control the amount of air admitted near the base of the burner. In lighting the burner, partially close the ports at the base of the barrel, turn the gas full on, and hold the lighted match about 5 cm above the top of the burner. If you are using a torch lighter place the torch lighter next to and slightly above the burner, apply a downward pressure of the flint towards the plate and strike the lighter. The gas may then be regulated until the flame has the desired height. If a very low flame is needed, the ports should be kept partly closed when the gas pressure is reduced. Otherwise the flame may "strike back" and burn inside the base of the barrel. If this happens, turn off the gas, decrease the amount of air admitted, and re-light.

Oxidizing and reducing flames

The oxidizing flame is the flame produced with an excessive amount of oxygen. When the amount of oxygen increases, the flame shortens, its color darkens, and it hisses and roars. The oxidizing region is the tip and

outer-edge of the flame (it loses electrons).

The reducing flame is the flame with low oxygen. It has a yellow or yellowish color due to carbon or hydrocarbons which bind with (or reduce) the oxygen contained in the materials processed with the flame. The reducing flame is also called the carburizing flame, since it tends to introduce carbon into the molten metal. The reducing region is the small,

grayish cone at the base of the flame (it gains electrons).

Inoculation Loop
An inoculation loop, also called a smear loop, inoculation wand or microstreaker, is a simple tool used mainly by microbiologists to retrieve an inoculum from a culture of microorganisms. The loop is used in the cultivation of microbes on plates by transferring inoculum for streaking. The wire forms a small loop with a diameter of about 5 mm. The loop of wire at the tip may be made of platinum or nichrome, the latter being inferior but less expensive