The candle: where the oxygen comes from
You are typing on the on-screen keyboard. Tap the text to open it and begin.
Caps Lock is on. Every letter comes out capital, so the test counts it as a mistake.
Or simply start typing.
- Time so far
- 0
- Words per minute
- 0
- Accuracy
- 100%
Done. The text and your result
0 % of characters hit
Where you slip most often
Darker keys collected more mistakes in this run.
What slowed you down
The characters your finger missed most often.
Your recent results
Words per minute across your recent runs in this language.
What to type next
Speeches and historyFaraday: the open door of natural philosophyMichael Faraday, published 1861Faraday tells his young audience why a candle is the best way into natural philosophy.easy460 characters
ScienceOn the Origin of Species, the slowest breederCharles Darwin, published 1859Darwin works out how many elephants would be alive after five centuries of slow breeding.easy456 characters
ProseLittle Women, the gray dawn of ChristmasLouisa May Alcott, published 1868Jo wakes early on Christmas morning and finds the gift her mother promised.easy363 characters
By this point in the lectures Faraday has separated the water made by the candle into hydrogen and oxygen. Here he turns to the air, the source of the oxygen that keeps the flame going. He had just split water with a battery in front of the class. His own work on electricity in the 1830s stands behind that demonstration.
Where this text comes fromThe passage turns a corner in the lectures. Having pulled water apart in front of the class, Faraday now has to explain where the other half of the reaction comes from, and he signals the turn by addressing the audience directly rather than by announcing a new topic. That habit of speaking to people rather than at them is why these lectures have stayed in print for over a century and a half while most Victorian science writing has not.
What you might not noticeThe word shown is printed as shewn, the older spelling still in ordinary use in 1861, and it appears here in the middle of a sentence addressed to an audience of children. Source
What it trainsTwo sentences in 253 characters, one of them ending in a question mark aimed at the listener. Five commas, one semicolon. The word to watch is shewn, five letters in an order your fingers have never typed and which every instinct wants to correct to shown. The longest word is immediately, at eleven letters, but it gives no trouble at all next to that one. Two capitals, neither inside a sentence. Because the passage is short and conversational, it is a good place to check whether an unfamiliar spelling actually breaks your rhythm or only feels as though it does.
From our blogHow to Learn Touch Typing Without Bad Habits
Public domain status: published in 1861, more than 125 years ago. public domain, Project Gutenberg
More texts in this category
ScienceOn the Origin of Species, the slowest breederCharles Darwin, published 1859Darwin works out how many elephants would be alive after five centuries of slow breeding.easy456 characters
ScienceA candle lecture, fifteen pounds to the inchMichael Faraday, published 1861Faraday explains how much the air presses on every square inch of a vessel.easy257 characters
ScienceThe candle: the shadow of the flameMichael Faraday, published 1861Faraday shows that the darkest part of the shadow answers to the brightest part of the flame.easy460 characters
ScienceThe candle: why the wick does not burn awayMichael Faraday, published 1861Faraday explains that melted fuel running down the wick puts the flame out.easy451 characters