The Chemical History of a Candle | Page 3

kind friend has sent me, and which forms
a new material for the manufacture of candles.
And how are these candles made? I have told you about dips, and I will
shew you how moulds are made. Let us imagine any of these candles to
be made of materials which can be cast. "Cast!" you say. "Why, a
candle is a thing that melts; and surely if you can melt it, you can cast
it." Not so. It is wonderful, in the progress of manufacture, and in the
consideration of the means best fitted to produce the required result,
how things turn up which one would not expect beforehand. Candles
cannot always be cast. A wax candle can never be cast. It is made by a
particular process, which I can illustrate in a minute or two: but I must
not spend much time on it. Wax is a thing which, burning so well, and
melting so easily in a candle, cannot be cast. However, let us take a
material that can be cast. Here is a frame, with a number of moulds
fastened in it. The first thing to be done is to put a wick through them.
Here is one--a plaited wick, which does not require
snuffing[3]--supported by a little wire. It goes to the bottom, where it is
pegged in--the little peg holding the cotton tight, and stopping the
aperture, so that nothing fluid shall run out. At the upper part there is a
little bar placed across, which stretches the cotton and holds it in the
mould. The tallow is then melted, and the moulds are filled. After a
certain time, when the moulds are cool, the excess of tallow is poured
off at one corner, and then cleaned off altogether, and the ends of the
wick cut away. The candles alone then remain in the mould, and you
have only to upset them, as I am doing, when out they tumble, for the
candles are made in the form of cones, being narrower at the top than at
the bottom; so that what with their form and their own shrinking, they
only need a little shaking, and out they fall. In the same way are made
these candles of stearin and of paraffin. It is a curious thing to see how
wax candles are made. A lot of cottons are hung upon frames, as you
see here, and covered with metal tags at the ends to keep the wax from
covering the cotton in those places. These are carried to a heater, where
the wax is melted. As you see, the frames can turn round; and as they

turn, a man takes a vessel of wax and pours it first down one, and then
the next and the next, and so on. When he has gone once round, if it is
sufficiently cool, he gives the first a second coat, and so on until they
are all of the required thickness. When they have been thus clothed, or
fed, or made up to that thickness, they are taken off, and placed
elsewhere. I have here, by the kindness of Mr. Field, several specimens
of these candles. Here is one only half-finished. They are then taken
down, and well rolled upon a fine stone slab, and the conical top is
moulded by properly shaped tubes, and the bottoms cut off and
trimmed. This is done so beautifully that they can make candles in this
way weighing exactly four, or six, to the pound, or any number they
please.
We must not, however, take up more time about the mere manufacture,
but go a little further into the matter. I have not yet referred you to
luxuries in candles (for there is such a thing as luxury in candles). See
how beautifully these are coloured: you see here mauve, magenta, and
all the chemical colours recently introduced, applied to candles. You
observe, also, different forms employed. Here is a fluted pillar most
beautifully shaped; and I have also here some candles sent me by Mr.
Pearsall, which are ornamented with designs upon them, so that as they
burn you have as it were a glowing sun above, and a bouquet of flowers
beneath. All, however, that is fine and beautiful is not useful. These
fluted candles, pretty as they are, are bad candles; they are bad because
of their external shape. Nevertheless, I shew you these specimens sent
to me from kind friends on all sides, that you may see what is done, and
what may be done in this or that direction; although, as I have said,
when we come to these refinements, we are obliged to sacrifice a little
in utility.
Now, as to the light of the candle. We will light one or two, and