Mechanism
The mantle is a roughly pear-shaped ramie-based artificial silk or rayon fabric bag made from silk or fabric impregnated with rare-earth metallic salts that will convert to solid oxides after being heated in a flame. A mantle will glow brightly in the visible spectrum while emitting little infrared radiation. The rare earth oxides (cerium) and actinide (thorium) in the mantle have a low emissivity in the infrared (in comparison with an ideal black body), but have high emissivity in the visible spectrum. This property is known as candoluminescence. Hence, when heated by a kerosene or liquified petroleum gas flame, the mantle emits radiation that is mostly visible light, with relatively little energy in the unwanted infrared, increasing the luminous efficiency.
The mantle aids the combustion process by keeping the flame small and contained inside itself at higher fuel flow rates than in a simple lamp. This concentration of combustion inside the mantle improves the transfer of heat from the flame to the mantle.
The mantle shrinks after all the fabric material has burnt away and becomes very fragile after this first use.
Read more about this topic: Gas Mantle
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