Bunsen Burner

Premixed gas burner giving a hot, clean flame — the workhorse heat source that enabled flame spectroscopy.

Core Principles & Analysis

• Designed in 1855 by Robert Bunsen with his technician Peter Desaga at Heidelberg.
• Premixing air with gas yields a nearly sootless blue flame reaching about 1,500 °C.
• Its clean flame made spectroscopy practical: Bunsen and Kirchhoff used it to discover caesium and rubidium.