A Bunsen burner, named after Robert Bunsen, is a common piece of laboratory equipment that produces a single open gas flame, which is used for heating, sterilization, and combustion.

The gas can be natural gas (which is mainly methane) or a liquefied petroleum gas, such as propane, butane, or a mixture of both.

History

In 1852 the University of Heidelberg hired Bunsen and promised him a new laboratory building. The city of Heidelberg had begun to install coal-gas street lighting, and so the university laid gas lines to the new laboratory.

The designers of the building intended to use the gas not just for illumination, but also in burners for laboratory operations. For any burner lamp, it was desirable to maximize the temperature and minimize luminosity. However, existing laboratory burner lamps left much to be desired not just in terms of the heat of the flame, but also regarding economy and simplicity.

While the building was still under construction in late 1854 Bunsen suggested certain design principles to the university's mechanic, Peter Desaga, and asked him to construct a prototype. (Similar principles had been used in an earlier burner design by Michael Faraday as well as in a device patented in 1856 by the gas engineer R. W. Elsner) The Bunsen/Desaga design succeeded in generating a hot, sootless, non-luminous flame by mixing the gas with air in a controlled fashion before combustion. Desaga created adjustable slits for air at the bottom of the cylindrical burner, with the flame igniting at the top. By the time the building opened early in 1855 Desaga had made fifty of the burners for Bunsen's students. Two years later Bunsen published a description, and many of his colleagues soon adopted the design. Bunsen burners are now used in laboratories all around the world.