A classic discussion of the candle experiment is given in Fowles’s book (Fowles 1960),
a classic book that even today is a great source of demonstrations for the teaching of basic
chemistry. In page 62 (Expt. 64.—A Candle burnt under a Bell-jar) a closed version of the
candle experiment is explained and it is noted that it is better to conduct this experiment in
a closed atmosphere rather than in the typical demonstration setup. It is also mentioned that
the candle experiment appears to show that only a small fraction of the air will support
combustion. Notwithstanding this, several works in the literature during the twentieth
century continued to use non closed systems, thus helping to propagate the wrong
explanation for the candle experiment.