s a general name for every kind of luminous vapour, provided the light it emits has any considerable degree of intensity. Flame, however, is most generally applied to such as are of a conical figure, like those arising from our common fires; the others are commonly called luminous vapours, or simple lights. See Heat.

Flames are of different colours, according to the substances from which they are produced. Thus, the flame of sulphur and spirit of wine is blue; the flame of nitre and zinc, of a bright white; that of copper, of a greenish blue, and so on. These varieties afford an opportunity of making a number of agreeable representations in fireworks, which could not be accomplished if the flame produced from every different substance was of the same colour. See Pyrotechnics.